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1987 Northern Territory general election

← 1983 7 March 1987 (1987-03-07) 1990 →
All 25 seats of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly 13 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	71.2 ( 10.4 pp)
First party Second party Third party   Leader Stephen Hatton Terry Smith Ian Tuxworth Party Country Liberal Labor Nationals Leader since 14 May 1986 19 August 1986 21 December 1986 Leader's seat Nightcliff Millner Barkly Last election 19 seats 6 seats Did not exist Seats won 16 6 1 Seat change 3 New Popular vote 20,074 18,307 9,058 Percentage 39.4% 36.0% 17.1% Swing 18.8 0.4 New TPP 57.3% 42.7% TPP swing 3.8 3.8
Chief Minister before election Stephen Hatton Country Liberal Elected Chief Minister Stephen Hatton Country Liberal

A general election was held in the Northern Territory, Australia on Saturday 7 March 1987. Although the incumbent Country Liberal Party (CLP) won a majority under new leader Stephen Hatton, the party's vote was down almost 20 percentage points.

At the 1987 election, the CLP faced a challenge from the Northern Territory Nationals, a rebel conservative party led by former CLP Chief Minister Ian Tuxworth that was aligned with then-Queensland Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen, but not affiliated with the federal National Party of Australia. The NT Nationals took 17.79% of the primary vote, mostly from the CLP, but finished with only one member in the assembly. Hatton, despite a loss of three seats, retained a working majority.

Labor's vote remained virtually unchanged. As in 1983, its assembly tally was six.

Two former-CLP independents were re-elected in their seats. Noel Padgham-Purich was re-elected to Koolpinyah, while Denis Collins was re-elected to Sadadeen as an independent. Former Chief Minister Ian Tuxworth was also re-elected as a member of the NT Nationals.

Ian Tuxworth's election to the seat of Barkly was declared void after independent candidate Maggie Hickey challenged the result on the basis that the Labor candidate, Keith Hallet, held British nationality and was not an Australian citizen. Due to the close result (Tuxworth had won by only 19 votes), Justice John Nader voided the election on 30 July 1987, and a by-election was held on 5 September 1987, at which Tuxworth regained the seat.

Results

Summary of the results of the 1987 Northern Territory general election, Legislative Assembly

Party		Votes	%	+/–	Seats	+/–
	Country Liberal	20,074	39.42	18.80	16	3
	Labor	18,307	35.95	0.36	6
	NT Nationals	9,058	17.79	New	1	New
	Independents	3,489	6.85	2.47	2	2
Total		50,928	100.00	–	25	–
Valid votes		50,928	95.86
Invalid/blank votes		2,199	4.14	1.12
Total votes		53,127	100.00	–
Registered voters/turnout		74,633	71.18	10.39
	Country Liberal		57.3
	Labor		42.7
Total

Retiring MPs

Labor

• Bob Collins MLA (Arafura)

Country Liberal

• Roger Steele MLA (Elsey)

Candidates

Sitting members are listed in bold. Successful candidates are highlighted in the relevant colour.

Seats changing hands

Post-election pendulum

The following pendulum is known as the Mackerras pendulum, invented by psephologist Malcolm Mackerras. The pendulum works by lining up all of the seats held in the Legislative Assembly according to the percentage point margin they are held by on a two-party-preferred basis. This is also known as the swing required for the seat to change hands. Given a uniform swing to the opposition or government parties, the number of seats that change hands can be predicted.

References

1. Nelson, Alex (15 November 2017). "Dual citizen rows: Tennant Creek had them first – Alice Springs News". Alice Springs News. Retrieved 13 March 2020.
2. Wade-Marshall, Dean Jaensch, Deborah (1994). Point of order! : the Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory 1974–1994. Darwin: Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory. ISBN 0731520769.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

• Elections in the Northern Territory
• 1987 elections in Australia
• 1980s in the Northern Territory
• March 1987 events in Australia