Electoral division of Blain

Blain is an electoral division of the Legislative Assembly in Australia's Northern Territory. It was first created in 1997 and is named after Adair Blain, the second member for the federal Northern Territory electorate, and the only Australian sitting federal MP to ever become a prisoner of war. Blain is an urban electorate, covering 4 km² and taking in Palmerston suburbs of Bellamack and Woodroffe, and most of the suburb of Rosebery and a small section of the suburb of Moulden. There were 5,695 people enrolled within the electorate as of August 2020.

Blain Northern Territory—Legislative Assembly
Location of Blain in the Darwin/Palmerston area
Territory	Northern Territory
Created	1997
MP	Terry Mills
Party	Territory Alliance
Namesake	Adair Blain
Electors	5,695 (2020)
Area	4 km^2 (1.5 sq mi)
Demographic	Urban

The current member for Blain is Terry Mills, who was elected as an independent at the 2016 election and subsequently created the Territory Alliance in 2019 as a new political party. He previously held the seat from 1999 to 2014 as a member of the Country Liberal Party (CLP).

History

Palmerston has always been a staunchly conservative area, and all the electorates in the city have almost always been held by the Country Liberal Party. Blain has even amongst the Palmerston electorates been in the past a particularly safe seat for the CLP, with successive members having little trouble being re-elected. This was further emphasised at the 2005 election, when Blain was one of only four CLP-held seats retained by the party after a landslide victory by the Labor Party, and the only CLP seat in the Darwin/Palmerston area.

Longtime CLP MP Barry Coulter, who had represented Palmerston-area electorates since 1983 (Berrimah from 1983 to 1987 and Palmerston from 1987 to 1997) held this seat for the final term of his parliamentary career. He was succeeded by Terry Mills, who became a prominent member of the CLP frontbench after the CLP lost power for the first time in 2001. He eventually became CLP leader from 2003 to 2005, returning to the leadership in 2008. After narrowly losing the 2008 Territory election, he led the CLP to victory in 2012 and became Chief Minister.

Mills was deposed in a party-room coup less than a year later, and Nathan Barrett retained the seat for the CLP at the ensuing by-election despite a 10 percent swing.

Barrett was forced out of politics in 2016 after he sent a lewd video to a constituent.[1] At the 2016 election, the CLP was pushed into third place after its primary vote plummeted to 25 percent, losing more than half of its primary vote from 2012. The seat was nearly swept up in the massive Labor wave that swept through the metropolitan area. However, Mills, contesting his old seat as an independent, narrowly defeated former federal MP Damian Hale to return to the legislature.

Members for Blain

Member		Party	Term
	Barry Coulter	Country Liberal	1997–1999
	Terry Mills	Country Liberal	1999–2014
	Nathan Barrett	Country Liberal	2014–2016
		Independent	2016
	Terry Mills	Independent	2016–2019
		Territory Alliance	2019–present

Election results

See also: Electoral results for the division of Blain

2016 Northern Territory general election: Blain[2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labor	Damian Hale	1,597	37.3	+5.3
	Independent	Terry Mills	1,341	31.3	+31.3
	Country Liberal	Marie-Clare Boothby	1,102	25.7	−37.9
	Independent	Gregory Knowles	241	5.6	+5.6
Total formal votes			4,280	97.3	+0.6
Informal votes			121	2.7	−0.6
Turnout			4,402	78.9	+16.4
Two-candidate-preferred result
	Independent	Terry Mills	1,953	51.4	+51.4
	Labor	Damian Hale	1,849	48.6	+13.8
	Independent gain from Country Liberal		Swing	N/A

References

1. "NT Sports Minister resigns amid sex video scandal". ABC News. 11 June 2016. Retrieved 4 August 2020.
2. Blain – Electorate summary, Northern Territory Electoral Commission, 9 September 2016

External links

• Division profile from the Northern Territory Electoral Commission