Cause of by-election
Sitting Greens MP Kat McNamara announced her immediate resignation in February 2026 due to health reasons.
Margin – GRN 0.4% vs ALP
Incumbent MP
Kat McNamara, since 2024.
Geography
Northern Darwin. Nightcliff covers the suburbs of Nightcliff and Rapid Creek, and part of Coconut Grove.
History
The electorate of Nightcliff has existed since the first NT assembly election in 1974. Labor held Nightcliff from 2001 until 2024.
Nightcliff was first won by independent Dawn Lawrie, who held the seat until 1983.
The CLP’s Stephen Hatton won Nightcliff in 1983. Hatton served as chief minister from 1986 to 1988, and held Nightcliff until 2001.
Hatton retired in 2001, and Nightcliff was won by Labor’s Jan Aagaard. Aagaard held Nightcliff for three terms. She served as a minister from 2001 to 2003, and as Speaker from 2005 until 2012, when she retired.
Labor’s Natasha Fyles won Nightcliff in 2012, and she has been re-elected twice. Fyles joined the ministry after the 2016 election, and in 2022 was elected Labor leader and Chief Minister. Fyles was forced to resign from the leadership in December 2023.
Fyles lost her seat at the 2024 general election, with Greens candidate Kat McNamara narrowly winning.
Assessment
Nightcliff is a hard seat to pick. The Greens won the seat very narrowly in 2024, coming from third place thanks to strong independent preferences and overcoming a Labor candidate suffering a big swing.
It’s possible in 2026 that Labor has bounced back, in which case they would win this seat. It’s also possible the independent candidate Mililma May could do better with a different Greens candidate, or the Greens presence in the area could build on their 2026 vote.
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing |
| Natasha Fyles | Labor | 1,467 | 32.8 | -20.0 |
| Helen Secretary | Country Liberal | 1,060 | 23.7 | +5.0 |
| Kat McNamara | Greens | 981 | 22.0 | +3.2 |
| Mililma May | Independent | 858 | 19.2 | +19.2 |
| George Mamouzellos | Legalise Cannabis | 102 | 2.3 | +2.3 |
| Informal | 1,175 | 3.4 |
2024 three-candidate-preferred result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing |
| Natasha Fyles | Labor | 1,601 | 35.8 | -19.7 |
| Kat McNamara | Greens | 1,678 | 37.6 | +15.5 |
| Helen Secretary | Country Liberal | 1,189 | 26.6 | +4.2 |
2024 two-candidate-preferred result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing |
| Kat McNamara | Greens | 2,252 | 50.4 | |
| Natasha Fyles | Labor | 2,216 | 49.6 |
There was just one booth in Nightcliff in 2020, also called Nightcliff. The electorate also took votes from three pre-poll booths. Two of them were in northern Darwin and they took a large portion of the total vote.
Labor topped the primary vote in every booth. The CLP polled better than the Greens in the Eaton pre-poll booth, while the Greens outpolled the CLP at Nightcliff and the Casuarina pre-poll booth.
| Voter group | ALP prim | CLP prim | GRN prim | IND prim | Total |
| Eaton pre-poll | 35.6 | 29.8 | 18.1 | 16.4 | 1,430 |
| Nightcliff | 32.0 | 18.0 | 24.7 | 25.2 | 1,099 |
| Casuarina pre-poll | 33.8 | 20.3 | 21.5 | 24.4 | 659 |
| Absent | 27.4 | 24.0 | 24.8 | 23.7 | 650 |
| Darwin pre-poll | 34.0 | 24.6 | 21.7 | 19.7 | 464 |
| Postal | 32.5 | 21.4 | 23.4 | 22.6 | 258 |
| Declaration | 14.3 | 17.1 | 37.1 | 31.4 | 35 |
Election results in Nightcliff at the 2024 Northern Territory general election
Toggle between two-candidate-preferred votes (Greens vs Labor) and primary votes for Labor, Country Liberal, Greens and independent candidate Mililma May.