1983 Northern Territory general election

3 December 1983 (1983-12-03)
All 25 seats of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly 13 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	81.6% ( 3.6 pp)
First party Second party   Leader Paul Everingham Bob Collins Party Country Liberal Labor Leader since 13 August 1977 2 November 1981 Leader's seat Jingili Arafura Last election 11 seats 7 seats Seats won 19 6 Seat change 8 1 Popular vote 28,637 17,505 Percentage 58.2% 35.6% Swing 8.2 3.8 TPP 61.1% 38.9%
Chief Minister before election Paul Everingham Country Liberal Elected Chief Minister Paul Everingham Country Liberal

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

Results

Summary of the results of the 1983 Northern Territory general election, Legislative Assembly^[1][2]

Party		Votes	%	+/–	Seats	+/–
	Country Liberal	28,637	58.22	0.55	19	8
	Labor	17,505	35.59	3.13	6	1
	Independents	2,155	4.38	2.29	0	1
	Democrats	887	1.80	1.08	0
Total		49,184	100.00	–	25	–
Valid votes		49,184	96.98
Invalid/blank votes		1,532	3.02	0.37
Total votes		50,716	100.00	–
Registered voters/turnout		62,178	81.57	12.49

Candidates

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

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

• Jaensch, Dean; Wade-Marshall, Deborah (1984). Northern Territory Electoral Atlas 1974–1984. Australian National University/Flinders University. ISBN 0959924698.