Lingiari vote count shows Coalition plans failed to inspire the remote NT
But it wasn't the cap that swayed voters away from the Coalition in the Northern Territory, where Senator Nampijinpa Price was its sole representative re-elected last night.
Election essentials:
Labor regained the territory's two lower house seats of Solomon and Lingiari.
Photo shows
Solomon Labor MP smiling in front of a crowd of supports, inside a room.
Labor has won the NT seats of Lingiari and Solomon, holding off a challenge from the Country Liberal Party.
The Country Liberal Party (CLP) — an NT arm of the Coalition — came close in Solomon, but fell short.
So, what happened? Where was the disconnect for the conservatives?
Aside from the national trend towards Labor, voters in the territory were offered two very different pathways by Labor and the CLP about how to fix the immense social problems the NT is currently facing.
Its high crime rates, its overpopulated prison system, its overloaded health system, its overcrowded remote community housing and its dismal remote education outcomes.
Peter Dutton was a frequent visitor to the NT during the election campaign.
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ABC News: Ian Cutmore
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On Senator Nampijinpa Price's side, the Coalition's key promises for the NT
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, a former police officer himself, made it clear any government he led would be on the same page as the current NT CLP government, or at least, that
A CLP election corflute showing the party's Solomon candidate, Lisa Bayliss, side-by-side with Lia Finocchiaro.
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ABC News: Michael Donnelly
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That is, plans centred on protecting society by keeping serious lawbreakers off the streets and focusing on longer-term solutions later.
The Coalition hooked themselves so closely to the NT government's plans that its territory candidates even appeared next to the NT chief minister, Lia Finocchiaro, on election corflutes.
Labor, on the other hand, took an alternative route, promising huge funding boosts to
Indigenous Australians Minister Malarndirri McCarthy spent much of the election campaign in the remote NT, flanked by returning Lingiari MP Marion Scrymgour, talking up their policies for
As it turns out, residents in Lingiari supported Labor at the ballot box and increased the margin for Ms Scrymgour.
Marion Scrymgour has significantly extended Labor's previously slim margin in Lingiari.
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ABC News: Xavier Martin
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At the latest first preference count, Ms Scrymgour had defeated the Coalition's Lingiari candidate Lisa Siebert by more than 5,000 votes, and extended the seat's margin to more than 6 per cent for Labor.
"It is about having relationships, it's about having honest conversations with our mob," Ms Scrymgour said in Alice Springs on election night.
"And it's about sitting down and rolling up our sleeves and doing the hard work.
"So, they chose Labor — they want us to do the right thing for them."
Labor's Luke Gosling and Malarndirri McCarthy celebrating with supporters at the party's election night event in Darwin.
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ABC News: David O'Shea
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In Solomon, the CLP's promises around crime did seem to gain traction, with the party's candidate Lisa Bayliss receiving more first preferences than Labor.
But ultimately it wasn't enough to get her over the line.
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Allegations of remote booth misbehaviour
The vote in Lingiari has also raised some significant allegations.
The remote NT can be out of sight, out of mind, and it can be difficult to gauge exactly what goes on at very remote polling places.
Both Senator Nampijinpa Price and Ms Scrymgour have alleged serious wrongdoing by their opposing parties at bush NT voting booths during this election campaign — allegations not yet proven.
Remote NT voters swung away from the Coalition and towards Labor.
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ABC News: Jane Bardon
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Ms Scrymgour has alleged that Aboriginal women in unspecified remote communities were targeted "by interstate volunteers for the Liberal Party".
"Women didn't want to come to the polling booths, because they felt frightened and intimidated — men were standing over them," she said.
Senator Nampijinpa Price on Saturday night urged the ABC to "send an investigative journalist out and watch what occurs at remote polling booths [by Labor]".
"The AEC [Australian Electoral Commission] has been alerted to this over and over and do very little to deal with that situation," she said.
The AEC said in a statement that it had 'visited around 500 remote communities throughout a two week period with many teams, complicated logistics and no reports that sound like what the senator is describing'.
It also said it was checking to see if it had received a specific complaint from Ms Scrymgour.
Labor now has a mandate in the bush
Whatever the case, even if such allegations are proven, there weren't a huge number of people from remote NT communities changing their votes to instead back the Coalition.
Photo shows
An election sign of Wil Anderson in a neighbourhood with a dog urinating on it with Gruen Nation Election edition and iview.
It's election season and politicians are trying to sell you the world. The team at Gruen isn't about to buy it. They're taking a big swing at the election, showing you how the democracy sausage is made, all the sizzle and none of the meat.
The Coalition's policies, such as
At least, not enough to flip Lingiari or Solomon.
And as Senator McCarthy acknowledged on election night, Labor now has a chance to create real change, that produces actual results in communities.
Malarndirri McCarthy says Labor has been "given a mandate" to find a "better way for all Australians".
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ABC News: Jayden O'Neill
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"We have been given a mandate tonight — to find and persevere through a better way for all Australians, especially the First Nations people of Australia," she said.
Photo shows
Split Jacinta Price Malcolm Turnbull
Coalition senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price makes a Trumpian sartorial choice.
After three years in government, Labor has already made significant promises,
Senator Nampijinpa Price has criticised the media for putting so much focus on her MAGA hat, which she's said she wore as a Christmas "stunt" with her husband, and which was ripped from her personal Facebook feed.
Now it must be hoped the same level of scrutiny given to that hat can be given to the remote NT, to make sure its federal representatives truly deliver the change they've promised for this term.
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