Electoral division of Namatjira

Australian electorate
Namatjira
Northern Territory—Legislative Assembly
Map
Interactive map of boundaries
TerritoryNorthern Territory
Created2012
MPBill Yan
PartyCountry Liberal
NamesakeAlbert Namatjira
Electors5,728 (2020)
Area198,384 km2 (76,596.5 sq mi)
DemographicRemote
Electorates around Namatjira:
Gwoja Barkly Gregory
(QLD)
Gwoja Namatjira Gregory
(QLD)
Stuart
(SA)
Stuart
(SA)
Stuart
(SA)

Namatjira is an electoral division of the Legislative Assembly in Australia's Northern Territory. It was created in 2012 when the former division of MacDonnell was renamed after the Aboriginal artist Albert Namatjira. Namatjira is an almost entirely rural electorate, covering 198,384 km2, and taking in the resort town of Yulara, the remote communities of Hermannsburg, Kintore and Papunya, and part of southern Alice Springs. There were 5,728 electors enrolled in Namatjira as of August 2020.

The seat's first member, Alison Anderson, the former Labor-turned-independent-turned-Country Liberal (CLP) member for MacDonnell, won the seat handily at the 2012 Territory election amid a large swing to the CLP in the remote portions of the Territory. Anderson left the CLP in 2014, and briefly served as Territory leader of the Palmer United Party before serving out the rest of her term as an independent.

Anderson did not contest the 2016 election. Despite her previously fraught relations with Labor, she endorsed the Labor candidate in the seat, Alice Springs councillor Chansey Paech. Although a redistribution seemingly consolidated the CLP majority in the seat by pushing it into Alice Springs, most commentators believed Anderson's endorsement,[1] combined with the CLP's lackluster polling numbers, made Namatjira a likely Labor gain. Paech took the seat on a swing of over 29 percent—large albeit not the largest at the election—amid Labor's landslide victory that year. However, a redistribution erased Paech's majority and made Namatjira notionally a marginal CLP seat. Paech switched to the neighbouring seat of Gwoja (formerly Stuart) at the 2020 election, and the CLP candidate Bill Yan regained the seat for his party.[2]

Members for Namatjira

Member Party Term
  Alison Anderson Country Liberal 2012–2014
  Independent 2014
  Palmer United 2014
  Independent 2014–2016
  Chansey Paech Labor 2016–2020
  Bill Yan Country Liberal 2020–present

Election results

Results as of 2:30 UTC, 5 September

2024 Northern Territory general election: Namatjira
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Country Liberal Bill Yan 1,892 55.1 +25.6
Labor Sheralee Taylor 870 25.4 −1.7
Greens Blair McFarland 668 19.5 +11.7
Total formal votes 3,430 95.7 +0.5
Informal votes 153 4.3 −0.5
Turnout 3,583 55.0
Two-party-preferred result
Country Liberal Bill Yan 2,110 61.5 +11.2
Labor Sheralee Taylor 1,320 38.5 −11.2
Country Liberal hold Swing +11.8

References

  1. ^ "Election Preview - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)".
  2. ^ "NT election goes down to the wire as final four seats are announced". ABC News. 4 September 2020. Retrieved 4 September 2020.
  • Division profile from the Northern Territory Electoral Commission Archived 20 March 2020 at the Wayback Machine

23°13′S 131°54′E / 23.217°S 131.900°E / -23.217; 131.900