Electoral division of Drysdale

Drysdale
Northern TerritoryLegislative Assembly

Location of Drysdale in the Darwin/Palmerston area
Territory Northern Territory
Created 1997
MP Eva Lawler
Party Australian Labor Party
Namesake Fred Drysdale
Electors 5,460 (2016)
Area 12 km2 (4.6 sq mi)
Demographic Urban

Drysdale is an electoral division of the Legislative Assembly in Australia's Northern Territory. It was first created in 1997, and is named after Fred Drysdale, a former member of the Legislative Council. It covers 12 km², encompassing north-western suburban areas of Palmerston including the CBD and the suburbs of Driver, Gray, Yarrawonga and most of Moulden. There were 5,460 people enrolled within the electorate as of August 2016.

Palmerston has long been considered a conservative stronghold, and for the first eight years of its life, Drysdale was considered to be a safe seat for the Country Liberal Party. CLP candidate Stephen Dunham easily won the seat at the 1997 election and holding it at the 2001 election.

Most commentators predicted that the CLP's dominance in Drysdale would continue at the 2005 election, although the Australian Labor Party were running a high profile candidate, former AFL Northern Territory general manager Chris Natt. However, there was a significant swing to the ALP across the territory on election day, and Dunham was ultimately defeated, along with several other CLP sitting members. The final result took several days to be decided, but ultimately Natt won the seat on a swing of 17.5 percent. Even more surprisingly, he won enough primary votes to take the seat without the need for preferences. However, before the 2008 election, a redistribution erased Natt's majority and made Drysdale a notional CLP seat. Ross Bohlin regained the seat for the CLP on a large swing, but lost his preselection in 2012 and contested the election as an independent candidate. He was defeated by the CLP's endorsed candidate, Lia Finocchiaro.

After a redistribution transferred much of Finocchiaro's base to the new seat of Spillett, Finocchiaro opted to transfer to Spillett even though Drysdale was still a safe CLP seat on paper. However, at the 2016 election, Eva Lawler took the seat for Labor on a large swing amid the CLP's near-total meltdown in Palmerston.

Members for Drysdale

MemberPartyTerm
  Stephen Dunham Country Liberal 1997–2005
  Chris Natt Labor 2005–2008
  Ross Bohlin Country Liberal 2008–2012
  Independent 2012–2012
  Lia Finocchiaro Country Liberal 2012–2016
  Eva Lawler Labor 2016–present

Election results

Northern Territory general election, 2016: Drysdale[1]
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Labor Eva Lawler 1,593 41.0 +9.1
Country Liberal Ben Hosking 1,341 34.5 −20.3
Independent Lyle Mackay 395 10.2 +10.2
Greens Hayden Bray 250 6.4 +6.4
1 Territory David Cartwright 165 4.2 +4.2
Independent Margy Kerle 141 3.6 +3.6
Total formal votes 3,885 97.2 +0.5
Informal votes 111 2.8 −0.5
Turnout 3,996 73.2 +0.9
Two-party-preferred result
Labor Eva Lawler 1,964 55.2 +16.6
Country Liberal Ben Hosking 1,597 44.8 −16.6
Labor gain from Country Liberal Swing +16.6

References

  1. Drysdale – Electorate summary, Northern Territory Electoral Commission, 9 September 2016

External links

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