Labor Wipeout in Northern Territory Elections

The Northern Territory, Australia’s least-populated state or territory with a very low population density of less that a fifth of one person per square kilometre. It should be note that approximately 50% of the Northern Territory and 85% of its coastline is recognised as being owned, if that’s the right word, by First Nations groups. Well, they have recently had had an election. The media often use superlatives when describing election results such as “resounding election win”, “decisive victory”, “landslide defeat”, “collapse in Labor’s vote”, but my favourite, “NT wipeout”, “an election wipeout”. It’s especially amusing when they use more than one in one heading, “Labor wiped out in CLP landslide”. The only analogy more extreme would be if they compared the election results to one of those Mortal Kombat finishing moves, “CLP wins FATALITY!”

Even the ABC felt left out and started using superlatives: “CLP storms Darwin’s northern suburbs to win NT election landslide against Territory Labor”. Normally, I don’t really agree with all this hyperbolic language, but in this case, I kind of do.

Here’s the results of the previous election back in 2020. Labor won 14 seats winning the election, but in this election, their vote collapsed and they lost 10 seats, with the CLP’s Chief minister-elect Lia Finocchiaro easily claiming victory.

But the question is why? Why was there such a decisive rout against Labor who have been in power for the last eight years? Well, I’m not a resident of the Northern Territory, so I can only speculate on what I’ve read, but I think the number one concern was crime.

Just look at the news headlines for each month of 2024. “NT crime rates hit 10-year high”, “Current approach to youth crime not working”, “Chaos and violence sparks youth curfew in Alice Springs”, “Teacher held at knifepoint in Katherine”, “Jacinta Price blasts inaction over NT crime”, “Rocks, edged weapons, explosive scenes in wild carpark brawl”, and just last month, “Curfew being considered after off-duty police officers assaulted by 20 youths in Alice Springs”. And just a couple of weeks ago, the ABC were positing, “Crime and public safety could turn the NT election result”. Could? It certainly did! People don’t like living in a lawless society. This is supposedly a peaceful country, but if Labor weren’t willing to fix the out-of-control crime in the Northern Territory, well, people clearly were willing to vote for somebody who would.

The Incoming NT Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro has announced that her party will be lowering the age of criminal responsibility to 10 years old. She said, “It is important to hold people accountable for the crimes they’re committing, but to put them on a better path going forward. That’s why we’re lowering the age of criminal responsibility to 10 so that young people can be held accountable and that appropriate consequences for their age are delivered, such as boot camps. But importantly it’s not just about dealing with young people or offenders once they’re already committing crimes, this is about making sure we give kids every opportunity in life to succeed. That’s why our focus on getting kids to school is a very important part of our plan to reduce crime. I said in no uncertain terms to the police commissioner that his police have our full support, that they will be provided with the laws and the resources they need to make our community safe.”

It should be noted that the Northern Territory already has the highest detention rate for young people in all of Australia. Will locking more people up help reduce crime? I guess, but will it solve the underlying causes for all this criminality? I’m not sure.

Anyway, obviously there’s other reasons people voted against Labor, but I reckon crime is the big one. I really do wish the Northern Territory luck. I hope they can get on top of this rampant crime and return to a more welcoming and laid back lifestyle with a thriving tourism sector.

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Allégro by Emmit Fenn