NT goes to the poll in election nail biter

24 Aug 2012, 7:39 pm   -   Source: AAP
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What do a rock concert, press freedom and heavy drinking have in common? They are all issues raised during the Northern Territory election campaign.

NT election preview

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What do a rock concert, press freedom and heavy drinking have in common? They are all issues raised during the Northern Territory election campaign.

Voters in the NT go to the polls on August 25, and most commentators are tipping a tight result. A Labor victory would allow the party to extend its reign in the Northern Territory to at least 15 years, after gaining power from the conservatives in 2001.

The outback seats traditionally stick with the ALP, while the urban centres of Alice Springs and Katherine can usually be relied on to support a Country Liberal Party (CLP) candidate. Because of CLP support in Palmerston, south of Darwin, it typically falls to a small number of seats in Darwin's northern suburbs to decide the election.

A poll by the NT News of four seats in that electoral sweet spot found the CLP could squeak to victory, with a jump in support in a crucial seat.

This was countered somewhat late in the campaign by leaked ALP polling that showed a swing towards Labor of 2.4 per cent in key seats, once preferences were taken into consideration.

ABC election analyst Antony Green says the CLP go into the race as favourites. "They (the CLP) just have to win one extra seat and the government is out of office," Mr Green says.

Punters on Sportsbet are also strongly backing the conservatives. But on sheer numbers the ALP should not be written off. The ALP holds only one marginal seat that it would lose if there was a swing of less than three per cent. (That seat, Fannie Bay, is held by a wafer-thin 78 votes.)

By contrast the CLP has two or three seats it could lose if there was a similar swing against it.

Labor is also facing a tough battle to hold the former seat of Macdonnell, renamed Namatjira, and represented by Alison Anderson, who defected to the CLP from the ALP and is hugely popular in the remote seat.

As the saying goes, all politics is local - and in the Northern Territory that is especially true. With just under 5000 voters in each seat, candidates can conceivably speak to just about every one of them before the election. In outback towns people seem to know all the locals, and NT is the only place in Australia where candidates' photos are included on ballots.

The government, which has centred its campaign on Chief Minister Paul Henderson, is campaigning under the slogan "Keep the Territory moving in the right direction".

Mr Henderson says although the ALP has been in office for 11 years, voters don't seem especially keen to throw his party out.

"I am not sensing in this election that there is an `it's time to change the government' mood," he says. "It is all about confidence at the end of the day."

Links between the government and the ALP have been played down in election material.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who is particularly unpopular in the NT, has not personally taken part in the campaign.

That's in contrast to Tony Abbott's involvement with the CLP. The ALP is promising more hospital beds and extra doctors, a new home deposit scheme and a doubling of a back-to-school voucher, to $150 per child. Police would have new powers to drug-test people involved in serious assaults.

The ALP also wants income management for problem drinkers. The Territory has a budget deficit - seen as a weak spot for the ALP - but the government stands by its handling of a huge gas deal as evidence it is a good economic manager.

And economic growth and employment in NT are among the strongest in the nation.

The CLP, which is campaigning on the slogan "It's about you!", has seized on law and order as a key issue. It is promising 120 extra police on the front line, boot camps for offenders and compulsory minimum sentencing for anyone who assaults a public servant.

The CLP says that, if elected, it will scrap the Territory's banned drinkers register, which forces everybody buying takeaway alcohol to scan their licence or passport.

The register is designed to deny sales of alcohol to problem drunks, but the CLP say it is unpopular and ineffective. The CLP is also picking up on discontent over the high cost of living in Darwin.

It promises to work with developers to deliver 2000 affordable homes. Both sides of politics have hit road bumps during the campaign. A protracted political stoush with the NT News, by far the biggest newspaper in the Territory, cost the ALP political oxygen at a time when it was desperate to sell its message.

The government's chief spin doctor, Jamie Gallacher, was forced to take leave after admitting he had exceeded his authority by threatening the paper with legal action over a story on an ALP candidate.

On another occasion the government tripped up after promising $500,000 towards a music concert featuring local and international artists.

Mr Henderson's government chose to give the taxpayer-funded show the indulgent name "Hendo's Big Nite In", which went down like a lead balloon on social media. Mr Henderson initially defended the name but soon afterwards said the event would be given a new title.

The CLP has also had difficult moments. CLP politician John Elferink was holding a press conference about violence when he was kicked from behind by a passer-by who appeared to be heavily intoxicated.

And on another occasion CLP candidate Dave Tollner engaged in an unseemly debate with the NT Criminal Lawyers Association, accusing it of wanting to maintain a high crime rate so lawyers could ride on the government's "gravy train".

Watch Shalailah Medhora's report on Youtube:

NT Election , Paul Henderson

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