1980 Northern Territory general election

A general election was held in the Northern Territory on Saturday June 7, 1980. It was the first to be held since self-government was attained two years earlier, and was won by the incumbent Country Liberal Party (CLP) under Chief Minister Paul Everingham.

1980 Northern Territory general election

7 June 1980 (1980-06-07)
All 19 seats of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly 10 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	78.0 ( 2.1 pp)
First party Second party   Leader Paul Everingham Jon Isaacs Party Country Liberal Labor Leader since 13 August 1977 21 September 1977 Leader's seat Jingili Millner Last election 12 seats 6 seats Seats won 11 7 Seat change 1 1 Popular vote 20,065 15,818 Percentage 50.0% 39.4% Swing 9.9 1.2
Chief Minister before election Paul Everingham Country Liberal Elected Chief Minister Paul Everingham Country Liberal

Although the CLP's share of the vote increased by almost 10 percentage points, it lost one seat.

The only independent member of the Legislative Assembly, Dawn Lawrie, retained her seat of Nightcliff.

Results

See also: Results of the Northern Territory general election, 1980

Summary of the results of the 1980 Northern Territory general election. Legislative Assembly

Party		Votes	%	/–	Seats	/–
	Country Liberal	20,065	49.97	9.84	11	1
	Labor	15,818	39.39	1.16	7	1
	Independents	3,251	8.10	3.54	1
	Democrats	352	0.88	0.88	0
	Marijuana	272	0.68	0.68	0
	Progress	210	0.52	9.24	0
	Christian Democrat	188	0.47	New	0
Total		40,156	100.00	–	19	–
Valid votes		40,156	96.80
Invalid/blank votes		1,328	3.20	0.53
Total votes		41,484	100.00	–
Registered voters/turnout		53,218	77.95	18.14

Popular vote Country Liberal   50.0% Labor   39.4% Democrats   0.9% Marijuana   0.7% Progress   0.5% Others   0.5% Independents   8.1%

Seats Country Liberal   57.9% Labor   36.8% Independents   5.3%

Candidates

Sitting members are listed in bold. Successful candidates are highlighted in the relevant colour.

Electorate	Held by	Labor candidate	CLP candidate	Other candidates
Alice Springs	CLP	Ted Hampton	Denis Collins	Rod Oliver (Ind) Dave Pollock (Ind)
Arnhem	Labor	Bob Collins	Gatjil Djerrkura	Mark McAleer (AMP)
Barkly	CLP	William Thomson	Ian Tuxworth	Neville Andrews (PP)
Casuarina	CLP	Dennis Bree	Nick Dondas	Klaus Roth (Dem)
Elsey	CLP	Maged Aboutaleb	Les MacFarlane	Patricia Davies (Ind) James Forscutt (Ind) Lawrence Hughes (Ind) R. T. Reilly (Ind)
Fannie Bay	Labor	Pam O'Neil	Ella Stack
Gillen	CLP	Rosalie McDonald	Jim Robertson
Jingili	CLP	Peter Hansen	Paul Everingham	Peter Read (Dem)
Ludmilla	CLP	Kay Spurr	Roger Steele	Roy Barden (Ind)
Macdonnell	Labor	Neville Perkins	Rosalie Kunoth-Monks
Millner	Labor	Jon Isaacs	John Robinson
Nhulunbuy	CLP	Dan Leo	Milton Ballantyne	Michael O'Reilly (Ind)
Nightcliff	Independent		Anne Amos	Charles Coombs (CDP) Dawn Lawrie (Ind)
Port Darwin	CLP	Jack Haritos	Tom Harris	Len Myles (Dem) Peter Taylor (AMP)
Sanderson	Labor	June D'Rozario	Daryl Manzie	Ron Mann (CDP)
Stuart	CLP	John Thomas	Roger Vale
Stuart Park	CLP	Peter Cavanagh	Marshall Perron	John Duffy (AMP) Terry Wilson (Ind)
Tiwi	CLP	Harry Maschke	Noel Padgham-Purich	Len McAlear (Ind) Jenny Smither (AMP)
Victoria River	Labor	Jack Doolan	John Millhouse	Bronte Douglass (Ind) Jack McCarthy (Ind)

Seats changing hands

Seat	Pre-1980				Swing	Post-1980
	Party		Member	Margin		Margin	Member	Party
Nhulunbuy		Country Liberals	Milton Ballantyne	6.1	N/A	4.4	Dan Leo	Labor

References

• Jaensch, Dean; Wade-Marshall, Deborah (1984). Northern Territory Electoral Atlas 1974–1984. Australian National University/Flinders University. ISBN 0959924698.