Electoral division of Namatjira

Namatjira Northern Territory—Legislative Assembly
Namatjira in the Northern Territory
Territory	Northern Territory
Created	2012
MP	Chansey Paech
Party	Australian Labor Party
Namesake	Albert Namatjira
Electors	5,435 (2016)
Area	351,294 km^2 (135,635.4 sq mi)
Demographic	Remote

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 351,294 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 5,435 electors enrolled in Namatjira as of August 2016.

The seat's first member, Alison Anderson, the former Labor-turned-independent-turned-Country Liberal 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, 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—almost unheard of in Australian politics—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

Northern Territory general election, 2016: Namatjira^[1]

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. Namatjira – Electorate summary, Northern Territory Electoral Commission, 2 September 2016

External links

• Division profile from the Northern Territory Electoral Commission