1983 Northern Territory general election

Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use Australian English A general election was held in the Northern Territory, Australia on Saturday 3 December 1983. The result was a landslide victory for the incumbent Country Liberal Party (CLP) under Chief Minister Paul Everingham over the Australian Labor Party (ALP) opposition under Opposition leader Bob Collins.

For this election, the size of the assembly was increased from 19 to 25.

The only independent of the Legislative Assembly, Dawn Lawrie, lost her seat of Nightcliff at this election to the CLP.

Retiring MPs

CLP

• Les MacFarlane MLA (Elsey)

Results

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style="background:Template:Party color; width:76%;" | 19	style="background:Template:Party color; width:24%;" | 6
CLP	Labor

Popular vote Country Liberal   58.22% Labor   35.59% Democrats   1.80% Independents   4.38%

Two-party-preferred vote Country Liberal   61.10% Labor   38.90%

Seats Country Liberal   76.00% Labor   24.00%

Candidates

Sitting members are listed in bold. Successful candidates are highlighted in the relevant colour. Where there is possible confusion, an asterisk is used.

Electorate	Held by	Labor candidate	CLP candidate	Other candidates
		Template:Australian party style|	Template:Australian party style|
Arafura	New	Template:Australian party shading/Labor|Bob Collins	Robert Woodward	Kevin Doolan (Dem)
Araluen	New	Allen Joy	Template:Australian party shading/CLP|Jim Robertson	Goff Letts (Ind)
Arnhem	Labor	Template:Australian party shading/Labor|Wes Lanhupuy	David Amos David Daniels	Klaus Roth (Dem)
Barkly	CLP	Charles Hallett	Template:Australian party shading/CLP|Ian Tuxworth
Berrimah	New	Colin Young	Template:Australian party shading/CLP|Barry Coulter
Braitling	New	Ross Kerridge	Template:Australian party shading/CLP|Roger Vale
Casuarina	CLP	Lionel Crompton	Template:Australian party shading/CLP|Nick Dondas
Elsey	CLP	Trevor Surplice	Template:Australian party shading/CLP|Roger Steele	James Forscutt (Ind)
Fannie Bay	Labor	Pam O'Neil	Template:Australian party shading/CLP|Marshall Perron	Gerald Luck (Ind)
Flynn	New	Peter Hughes	Template:Australian party shading/CLP|Ray Hanrahan	Pamela Gardiner (Ind)
Jingili	CLP	Martin Jacob	Template:Australian party shading/CLP|Paul Everingham
Koolpinyah	New	Robert Wesley-Smith	Template:Australian party shading/CLP|Noel Padgham-Purich	Murray Leeder (Dem) Michael Sanderson (Ind)
Leanyer	New	John Waters	Template:Australian party shading/CLP|Mick Palmer
Ludmilla	CLP	Allan O'Neil	Template:Australian party shading/CLP|Col Firmin
Macdonnell	Labor	Template:Australian party shading/Labor|Neil Bell	Ian McKinlay	Ted Hampton (Dem)
Millner	Labor	Template:Australian party shading/Labor|Terry Smith	Lorraine Palfy	Christopher Fenner (Ind)
Nhulunbuy	Labor	Template:Australian party shading/Labor|Dan Leo	Kevin Graetz
Nightcliff	Independent	Colin Dyer	Template:Australian party shading/CLP|Stephen Hatton	Dawn Lawrie (Ind)
Port Darwin	CLP	Russel Kearney	Template:Australian party shading/CLP|Tom Harris
Sadadeen	New	Morgan Flint	Template:Australian party shading/CLP|Denis Collins
Sanderson	Labor	June D'Rozario	Template:Australian party shading/CLP|Daryl Manzie
Stuart	CLP	Template:Australian party shading/Labor|Brian Ede	Bobby Liddle
Victoria River	Labor	Dennis Bree	Template:Australian party shading/CLP|Terry McCarthy* Ronald Wright	Jack Doolan (Ind) Maurie Ryan (Dem)
Wagaman	New	Brian Reid	Template:Australian party shading/CLP|Fred Finch
Wanguri	New	Pat Burke	Template:Australian party shading/CLP|Don Dale	Edward Miller (Ind)

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.

Country Liberal seats
Marginal
Sanderson	Daryl Manzie	CLP	4.8
Fairly safe
Nightcliff	Stephen Hatton	CLP	7.9 v IND
Ludmilla	Col Firmin	CLP	8.2
Fannie Bay	Marshall Perron	CLP	9.8
Safe
Barkly	Ian Tuxworth	CLP	10.3
Wagaman	Fred Finch	CLP	11.1
Wanguri	Don Dale	CLP	11.4
Victoria River	Terry McCarthy	CLP	15.2
Casuarina	Nick Dondas	CLP	15.4
Elsey	Roger Steele	CLP	15.8
Leanyer	Mick Palmer	CLP	15.9
Araluen	Jim Robertson	CLP	16.2 v IND
Port Darwin	Tom Harris	CLP	18.6
Berrimah	Barry Coulter	CLP	18.7
Flynn	Ray Hanrahan	CLP	19.2
Very safe
Koolpinyah	Noel Padgham-Purich	CLP	20.1
Sadadeen	Denis Collins	CLP	20.5
Jingili	Paul Everingham	CLP	21.8
Braitling	Roger Vale	CLP	27.8

Labor seats
Marginal
Nhulunbuy	Dan Leo	ALP	1.2
Millner	Terry Smith	ALP	4.4
Fairly safe
Arnhem	Wes Lanhupuy	ALP	8.6
Macdonnell	Neil Bell	ALP	8.9
Safe
Arafura	Bob Collins	ALP	11.7
Stuart	Brian Ede	ALP	14.3