Namatjira – NT 2016

CLP 20.8%

Incumbent MP
Alison Anderson (independent), since 2012. Previously member for MacDonnell, 2005-2012.

Geography
Southern Outback. Namatjira covers the entire South Australian border, as well as parts of the Queensland and Western Australia border. Namatjira completely surrounds the Alice Springs area, and covers the outskirts of the Alice Springs urban area. The seat covers Yulara, Hermannsburg, Kintore and Papunya.

Redistribution
Namatjira shrunk slightly in areas, while gaining more of the Alice Springs area thanks to the abolition of the Alice Springs-area electorate of Greatorex. Namatjira lost its northwestern corner to Stuart and gained a small area from Barkly on its northeastern boundary. Namatjira gained areas in the Alice Springs outskirts from Araluen and Greatorex.

History
‘Namatjira’ is a new name for the seat of MacDonnell, which was created for the first NT assembly election in 1974, and existed until it was renamed in 2012. MacDonnell usually elected Labor candidates, but had been won by the Country Liberal Party on a number of occasions.

MacDonnell was first won in 1974 by the CLP’s Dave Pollock. Pollock was defeated in 1977 by Labor’s Neville Perkins. Perkins was re-elected in 1980, and resigned in 1981.

Labor’s Neil Bell held MacDonnell from 1981 until 1997, when he was succeeded by the CLP’s John Elferink.

Elferink held MacDonnell for two terms, and served on the opposition frontbench after the CLP lost the 2001 election.

Elferink lost in 2005 to Labor’s Alison Anderson. Elferink later returned as member for Port Darwin from 2008, and currently serves as a minister in the Country Liberal government.

Anderson won re-election in 2008, but in 2009 she resigned from Labor. She ended up joining the Country Liberal Party in 2011, and was re-elected as the member for the renamed seat of Namatjira at the 2012 election.

Anderson ended up leaving the CLP and forming the Northern Territory branch of the Palmer United Party in 2014, along with two other indigenous MPs. The PUP project didn’t last long, and Anderson has served the last two years as an independent.

Candidates
Sitting independent MP Alison Anderson is not running for re-election.

• Vincent Forrester (Greens)
• Heidi Williams (Country Liberal)
• Alan Keeling (Independent)
• Chansey Paech (Labor)

Assessment
Labor would be the favourite to win back Namatjira, which has traditionally leaned Labor.

2012 result

2012 two-party-preferred result

Booth breakdown
There are only two ordinary booths in Namatjira. Pioneer Park, on the outskirts of Alice Springs, was previously split between Araluen and Greatorex but is now clearly in Namatjira. Yulara in the southwestern corner of the Northern Territory is the other seat. The largest proportion of votes in Namatjira were remote mobile votes.

The two-party-preferred vote for the Country Liberal Party in 2012 ranged from 40.4% in Yulara to 77% in Pioneer Park, and she polled 71.5% of the remote mobile vote.