Electoral division of Nelson (Northern Territory)
Nelson is an electoral division of the Legislative Assembly in Australia's Northern Territory. It was first created in 1990, and was named after Harold Nelson, the first member for the federal Northern Territory electorate. Nelson is a largely rural electorate, covering 197.49 km² and taking in the small towns of Howard Springs, McMinn's Lagoon and part of Humpty Doo, and some areas between Darwin and Palmerston. There were 4628 people enrolled in the electorate as of June 2005.
Nelson is also a rarity among Northern Territory electorates in that it has traditionally been an independent-held seat, as opposed to being held by either of the major parties. Long-serving independent Noel Padgham-Purich held the seat for the last few years of her career, and only narrowly failed in installing another independent, Dave Tollner, as her replacement. After four years of Country Liberal Party control under Chris Lugg, another independent candidate, Gerry Wood, was successful in winning the seat. Wood was easily re-elected at the 2005 election, polling more than double the vote of his nearest rival, Lugg. He increased his vote by over 20% for the second election in a row in 2008, winning 72.2% of the primary vote with a two-party preferred margin of 28.7% over the CLP. This makes Nelson the safest seat in the Territory.
Members for Nelson
| Member | Party | Term | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Template:Australian politics/party colours/Independent| | Noel Padgham-Purich | Independent | 1990–1997 |
| Template:Australian politics/party colours/CLP| | Chris Lugg | Country Liberal | 1997–2001 |
| Template:Australian politics/party colours/Independent| | Gerry Wood | Independent | 2001–present |
Election results
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Independent | Gerry Wood | 2,436 | 72.2 | +15.0 | |
| Country Liberal | Maureen Kohlman | 646 | 19.1 | −11.5 | |
| Labor | Justine Luders-Searle | 292 | 8.7 | −3.5 | |
| Total formal votes | 3,374 | 97.6 | −0.2 | ||
| Informal votes | 82 | 2.4 | +0.2 | ||
| Turnout | 3,456 | 74.6 | |||
| Two-party-preferred result | |||||
| Independent | Gerry Wood | 2,654 | 78.7 | +12.1 | |
| Country Liberal | Maureen Kohlman | 720 | 21.3 | −12.1 | |
| Independent hold | Swing | +12.1 | |||
External links
Template:Electoral divisions of Northern Territory