Electoral division of Blain

Blain Northern Territory—Legislative Assembly
Location of Blain in the Darwin/Palmerston area
Territory	Northern Territory
Created	1997
MP	Terry Mills
Party	Independent
Namesake	Adair Blain
Electors	5,576 (2016)
Area	18 km^2 (6.9 sq mi)
Demographic	Urban

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 18 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 5,576 people enrolled within the electorate as of August 2016.

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 Australian Labor Party, and the only CLP seat in the Darwin/Palmerston area.

A 2014 Blain by-election was triggered as a result of the resignation of former Chief Minister Terry Mills. Nathan Barrett retained the seat for the CLP 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-present

Election results

Northern Territory general election, 2016: 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. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-06-11/nt-minister-nathan-barrett-resigns-amid-sex-video-allegations/7502236
2. Blain – Electorate summary, Northern Territory Electoral Commission, 9 September 2016

External links

• Blain profile - 2016 NT election: Antony Green ABC
• Division profile from the Northern Territory Electoral Commission