1977 Northern Territory general election

A general election was held in the Northern Territory on Saturday 13 August 1977. Though the election was won by the incumbent Country Liberal Party (CLP), the party lost five of its seven executive members. Surprisingly, one of the casualties was Majority Leader Goff Letts—one of the few instances where a major-party leader at any level in Australia lost his own seat. The election also marked the emergence of the Labor Party as a parliamentary force: Labor took six seats in the new assembly.

1977 Northern Territory general election

13 August 1977 (1977-08-13)
All 19 seats of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly 10 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	75.9 ( 0.5 pp)
First party Second party   ALP Leader Goff Letts No leader Party Country Liberal Labor Leader since 19 October 1974 – Leader's seat Victoria River (lost seat) – Last election 17 seats 0 seats Seats won 12 6 Seat change 5 6 Popular vote 12,769 12,165 Percentage 40.1% 38.2% Swing 8.9 7.7
Majority Leader before election Goff Letts Country Liberal Elected Majority Leader Paul Everingham Country Liberal

The Progress Party contested the elections, winning 9.76% of the primary vote across the territory, but failed to secure any assembly seats.

The Country Liberals chose Paul Everingham to succeed Letts as Majority Leader. Everingham appointed a new Executive, which included future Chief Ministers Marshall Perron and Ian Tuxworth. The following year, the Territory attained self-government. Everingham became Chief Minister, while his Executive became a Ministry with greatly expanded powers.

Independent Dawn Lawrie retained her seat of Nightcliff at this election, while Ron Withnall lost his seat of Port Darwin to the CLP.

Retiring MPs

CLP

• Eric Manuell MLA (Alice Springs)
• Hyacinth Tungutalum MLA (Tiwi)

Results

See also: Results of the Northern Territory general election, 1977

↓ 

12	1	6
CLP	Ind	Labor

Summary of the results of the 1977 Northern Territory general election, Legislative Assembly

Party		Votes	%	+/–	Seats	+/–
	Country Liberal	12,769	40.13	8.88	12	5
	Labor	12,165	38.23	7.77	6	6
	Independents	3,718	11.69	8.85	1	1
	Progress	3,104	9.76	New	0
	Communist	61	0.19	0.19	0
Total		31,817	100.00	–	19	–
Valid votes		31,817	96.82
Invalid/blank votes		1,044	3.18	1.89
Total votes		32,861	100.00	–
Registered voters/turnout		43,284	75.92	0.52

Popular vote Country Liberal   40.1% Labor   38.2% Progress   9.8% Communist   0.2% Independents   11.7%

Seats Country Liberal   63.2% Labor   31.6% Independents   5.3%

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	ALP candidate	CLP candidate	Progress candidate	Other candidates
Alice Springs	CLP	Rosalie McDonald	Rod Oliver	Brian Evans
Arnhem	CLP	Bob Collins	Rupert Kentish	Phillip Brain
Barkly	CLP	Jean Havnen	Ian Tuxworth	Neville Andrews	Margaret Conway Billy Foster
Casuarina	CLP	Dennis Bree	Nick Dondas	Robert Hoey
Elsey	CLP		Les MacFarlane	Deidre Killen	Davis Daniels Patricia Davies
Fannie Bay	CLP	Pam O'Neil	Grant Tambling	Edward Osgood	William Fisher
Gillen	CLP	John Thomas	Jim Robertson	Peter Johncock
Jingili	CLP	Diana Rickard	Paul Everingham	David Cooper	John McCormack George Tarasidis
Ludmilla	CLP	Christopher Draffin	Roger Steele	Terry Johnson
Macdonnell	CLP	Neville Perkins	Dave Pollock	Mark Fidler
Millner	CLP	Jon Isaacs	Roger Ryan	Elva Pearce
Nhulunbuy	CLP	Denise Fincham	Milton Ballantyne	Jacob De Vries
Nightcliff	Independent		Ronald Nobbs	Uldis Blums	Dawn Lawrie
Port Darwin	Independent	Michael Scott	Tom Harris	Ian Smith	Brian Manning Ron Withnall
Sanderson	CLP	June D'Rozario	Liz Andrew	Geoffrey Bennett	Kitty Fischer Herbert Sinclair
Stuart	CLP	Trevor Cutter	Roger Vale	Kenneth Kitto
Stuart Park	CLP	Judith Muras	Marshall Perron	Kenneth Day	Ernest Chin
Tiwi	CLP	Harry Maschke Bernard Tipiloura	Noel Padgham-Purich* Cyril Rioli	George Ryan	Terrence O'Brien Strider
Victoria River	CLP	Jack Doolan	Goff Letts	Frank Favaro

Seats changing hands

Seat	Pre-1977				Swing	Post-1977
	Party		Member	Margin		Margin	Member	Party
Arnhem		Country Liberal	Rupert Kentish	16.9	34.1	17.2	Bob Collins	Labor
Fannie Bay		Country Liberal	Grant Tambling	N/A	N/A	1.1	Pam O'Neil	Labor
Macdonnell		Country Liberal	Dave Pollock	7.9	20.8	13.8	Neville Perkins	Labor
Millner		Country Liberal	Roger Ryan	14.3	26.5	12.2	Jon Isaacs	Labor
Port Darwin		Independent	Ron Withnall	3.3	13.8	10.5	Tom Harris	Country Liberal
Sanderson		Country Liberal	Liz Andrew	6.5	14.8	8.3	June D'Rozario	Labor
Victoria River		Country Liberal	Goff Letts	19.7	23.4	3.7	Jack Doolan	Labor

References

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

See also

• Everingham Executive
• First Everingham Ministry
• Second Everingham Ministry
• Third Everingham Ministry
• Fourth Everingham Ministry