ALP 8.4%
Incumbent MP
Luke Gosling, since 2016.
Geography
Solomon covers the Darwin metropolitan area, as well as the nearby city of Palmerston.
Redistribution
Solomon gained the Palmerston suburbs of Farra, Johnston, Mitchell, Yarrawonga and Zuccoli, unifying the Darwin-Palmerston area in one seat. This change reduced the Labor margin in Solomon from 9.4% to 8.4%.
History
The Northern Territory first elected a Member of the House of Representatives in 1922, but this person was only given full voting rights in 1968.
The seat was held by the Country Party and then the Country Liberal Party from then until 1983
Labor and then the CLP each held the seat for one term from 1983 to 1987, before Warren Snowdon won the seat for the ALP in 1987.
Snowdon lost the seat for one term in 1996 before being returned for one more term in 1998.
The 2000 redistribution saw the Northern Territory gain a second seat for the first time, and the seats of Solomon, covering Darwin and Palmerston, and Lingiari, covering the rest of the territory, were created.
In 2001, Country Liberal candidate Dave Tollner won the seat by only 88 votes. In 2004, he increased his margin to 2.8%. The 2007 election saw Tollner lose his seat to the ALP’s Damian Hale, by a slim 0.3% margin.
In 2010, Hale lost his seat to Palmerston alderman Natasha Griggs, running for the Country Liberal Party. In 2013, Griggs won a second term, despite a 0.35% swing back to Labor.
Griggs lost in 2016 to Labor candidate Luke Gosling, and has been re-elected twice.
Assessment
The Northern Territory has been represented by two seats for the last two decades. Up until the 2019 election, Labor had always been weaker in Solomon than in Lingiari, but that has now changed. Solomon now looks like a reasonably safe Labor seat, although it may be prone to more volatility.
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing | Redist |
| Luke Gosling | Labor | 21,775 | 39.5 | -0.5 | 38.8 |
| Tina Macfarlane | Country Liberal | 13,771 | 25.0 | -13.1 | 25.7 |
| Aiya Goodrich Carttling | Greens | 8,164 | 14.8 | +3.0 | 14.5 |
| Kylie Bonanni | Liberal Democrats | 5,839 | 10.6 | +10.6 | 10.4 |
| Emily Lohse | One Nation | 2,948 | 5.3 | +5.4 | 5.4 |
| Tayla Elise Selfe | United Australia | 2,628 | 4.8 | +1.9 | 4.8 |
| Others | 0.3 | ||||
| Informal | 2,011 | 3.5 | -0.9 |
2022 two-party-preferred result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing | Redist |
| Luke Gosling | Labor | 32,726 | 59.4 | +6.3 | 58.4 |
| Tina Macfarlane | Country Liberal | 22,399 | 40.6 | -6.3 | 41.6 |
Booths have been divided into three clear parts. The town of Palmerston stands apart from the City of Darwin. Within Darwin, there is a clear divide between the south and the north of Darwin.
Labor won a majority of the two-party-preferred vote in all three areas, ranging from 52.5% in Palmerston to 64.7% in North Darwin. Labor polled 57.5% of the pre-poll vote, which made up a majority of the turnout.
The Greens came third, with almost 18% in North Darwin and South Darwin and 11.7% in Palmerston.
| Voter group | GRN prim | LDP prim | ALP 2PP | Total votes | % of votes |
| North Darwin | 17.8 | 9.2 | 64.7 | 10,136 | 17.3 |
| Palmerston | 11.7 | 9.5 | 52.5 | 5,995 | 10.2 |
| South Darwin | 17.7 | 11.3 | 60.3 | 4,875 | 8.3 |
| Pre-poll | 13.4 | 10.7 | 57.5 | 32,352 | 55.2 |
| Other votes | 15.7 | 10.6 | 57.1 | 5,205 | 8.9 |
Election results in Solomon at the 2022 federal election
Toggle between two-party-preferred votes and primary votes for Labor, the Country Liberal Party, the Greens and the Liberal Democratic Party.
@ SpaceFish
Only issue is there is no Gurantee she will win while the CLP will always win one Senate spot so it is a risk like for Andrew Constance.
Also this seat is very well educated so may not warm to a populist like Jacinta Price
Also this is first time Labor won a fourth term in this seat so since the seats creation in 2001, Labor has now held the seat for the majority of the seat
price wont run here they arent gonna risk her on a marginal seat especailly one thy dont control. the only way she runs for a lower house seat is if they can find her a safe seat too run in which means moving her out of the nt
@john Jacinta for Dickson in 2028
yea a) it would need to a be a safe liberal seat. and b) i doubt the people of dickson would take too kindly to that anyway
inb4 an independent pulls off a David Pocock in the NT and the CLP is wiped out
I wonder is it statistically easier to get a senate spot or a lower house spot in the NT?
@ John
What about Jacinta for Cook it is is the only safe Capital city seat? The only others are regional seats like Barker, regional seats such Durack, Wannon etc
@SpaceFish well as others have said there’s no guarantee she’d win so I don’t know why she’d give up a safe Senate spot for a marginal House one. She also lives in Lingiari I think. As for other seats I highly doubt she’d move outside the Territory.
“I don’t know why she’d give up a safe Senate spot for a marginal House one.”
To become prime minister.
@Nicholas I don’t think that’ll happen, the CLP base is too big in the Territory unlike in the ACT.
@nicolas labor would probably lose their senate spot to an ind before the clp. unlike in the act the clp are actually competitive in the nt. they can realistically win bothlower house seats
Liberal Party stuck wasting their time fighting the last war – Identity Politics.
The game now appears to be Team Politics.
Red team just won, Teal team isn’t going away, Green team still has broad numbers, Liberal needs to pick a colour.
I suggest White team, though I doubt they’ll go there.
For reference, the chariot racing teams of the Roman Empire were Red, White, Blue, and Green, they were also political factions.
By the 6th century in Byzantium only team green [Veneti] and team blue [Prasini] had any influence, so even then the 2 Party system eventually prevailed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nika_riots#:~:text=In%20531%20AD%20some%20members,see%20Riots%20for%20more%20detail).