December 2, 2023
The Country Liberal Party has won today’s Northern Territory election. Terry Mills will become Chief Minister, replacing Paul Henderson and the eleven-year-old Labor government.
The CLP appears to have won three seats, and possibly four, from Labor, giving it 15 or 16 seats in the single-chamber 25-seat parliament. Labor will drop from 12 seats to 8 or 9.
The Northern Territory election takes place this Saturday.
The minority Labor government led by Paul Henderson is seeking a fourth term. Some commentators believe Henderson will be re-elected but the Northern Territory News today reports a poll showing a big swing to the Country-Liberal Party. The poll also shows Henderson remains popular in the important northern suburbs of Darwin.
The campaign for the Northern Territory election on August 25 was officially launched today.
The three week campaign sees the 11-year-old Labor government struggling to survive. First elected in August 2001 under Clare Martin’s leadership, the government has been led by Chief Minister Paul Henderson since November 2007.
At the 2008 election, Labor won 13 of the 25 seats in the Legislative Assembly. Since then, resignations and defections have reduced it to minority status, relying now on the support of the independent Gerry Wood.
Paul Henderson is the new Chief Minister of the Northern Territory, following this morning’s resignation by Clare Martin and her deputy, Syd Stirling.
Martin has been in office since August 2001 and was the first Labor leader to win a Northern Territory election.
Henderson has been Minister for Employment, Education and Training, amongst other portfolios.
This is the ministerial team announced by the new ALP Chief Minister of the Northern Territory, Clare Martin.
