Electoral division of Namatjira

Namatjira is an electoral division of the Legislative Assembly in Australia's Northern Territory. It was created in 2012 when the former division of MacDonnell was renamed after the Aboriginal artist Albert Namatjira. Namatjira is an almost entirely rural electorate, covering 198,384 km², and taking in the resort town of Yulara, the remote communities of Hermannsburg, Kintore and Papunya, and part of southern Alice Springs. There were 5,728 electors enrolled in Namatjira as of August 2020.

Namatjira
Northern Territory—Legislative Assembly
Namatjira in the Northern Territory
TerritoryNorthern Territory
Created2012
MPChansey Paech
PartyLabor Party
NamesakeAlbert Namatjira
Electors5,728 (2020)
Area198,384 km2 (76,596.5 sq mi)
DemographicRemote

The seat's first member, Alison Anderson, the former Labor-turned-independent-turned-Country Liberal (CLP) member for MacDonnell, won the seat handily at the 2012 Territory election amid a large swing to the CLP in the remote portions of the Territory. Anderson left the CLP in 2014, and briefly served as Territory leader of the Palmer United Party before serving out the rest of her term as an independent.

Anderson did not contest the 2016 election. Despite her previously fraught relations with Labor, she endorsed the Labor candidate in the seat, Alice Springs councillor Chansey Paech. Although a redistribution seemingly consolidated the CLP majority in the seat by pushing it into Alice Springs, most commentators believed Anderson's endorsement[1], combined with the CLP's lackluster polling numbers, made Namatjira a likely Labor gain. Paech took the seat on a swing of over 29 percent—large albeit not the largest at the election—amid Labor's landslide victory that year.

Members for Namatjira
Member Party Term
  Alison Anderson Country Liberal 2012–2014
  Independent 2014
  Palmer United 2014
  Independent 2014–2016
  Chansey Paech Labor 2016–present

Election results
See also: Electoral results for the division of Namatjira
2016 Northern Territory general election: Namatjira[2]
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Labor Chansey Paech 1,442 46.3 +21.5
Country Liberal Heidi Williams 1,024 32.9 −33.2
Greens Vincent Forrester 484 15.5 +13.8
Independent Alan Keeling 165 5.3 +5.3
Total formal votes 3,115 98.2 +2.7
Informal votes 56 1.8 −2.7
Turnout 3,171 58.3 −4.9
Two-party-preferred result
Labor Chansey Paech 1,742 58.5 +29.2
Country Liberal Heidi Williams 1,236 41.5 −29.2
Labor gain from Country Liberal Swing+29.2

References
  1. https://www.abc.net.au/news/elections/nt-election-2016/guide/preview/
  2. Namatjira – Electorate summary, Northern Territory Electoral Commission, 2 September 2016

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