Australian federal election, 2016
Division of Lingiari, Northern Territory
Outback Northern Territory: Alice Springs, Katherine, Nhulunbuy, Tennant Creek
Sitting member: Hon Warren Snowdon (Labor), elected 1987, defeated 1996, elected 1998
Enrolment at close of rolls: 63,082
2013 Labor majority over Country Liberal: 0.9%

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Candidates in ballot-paper order:

1. Chris Righton Family First	2. Hon Warren Snowdon Australian Labor Party	3. Alfred Gould Independent	4. Yingiya Mark Guyula Independent	5. Braedon Early Independent

6. Regina McCarthy Rise Up Australia	7. Peter Flynn Citizens Electoral Council	8. Rob Hoad Australian Greens	9. Tina MacFarlane Country Liberal Party

2013 results

Statistics and history

Lingiari was created 2001 when the old seat of Northern Territory was divided in two. It covers the whole of the Northern Territory except the
city of Darwin. Like most outback seats, it has a relatively low median income level and a low proportion of people in professional occupations.
It also has a very young population, with the lowest proportion of over-65s of any electorate, reflecting the lower life expectancy of its
Indigenous population.

The dominant political fact in Lingiari is that it has the largest Indigenous population (36.6%) of any federal electorate, and that until recently
Indigenous voters voted almost unanimously Labor, although they have a lower turnout than white voters. This meant that Labor needed only about 40%
of the white vote in Lingiari to win the seat, and Warren Snowdon, who has represented outback NT for nearly 30 years, has enough appeal to white
voters to be able to get at least that.

In recent years, however, Labor's support among Indigenous voters has declined, as was shown most spectacularly at the 2014 NT election. This partly
explains the swings against Snowdon in 2010 and 2013. Labor still wins most of the remote mobile booths, polling over 70% of the two-party vote in
some of them. The Liberals win most of the white-majority town booths, although Nhulunbuy is solid for Labor.

Warren Snowdon, MP for Northern Territory 1987-96 and 1998-2001 and for Lingiari since 2001, was a Parliamentary Secretary in the Keating Government
and a minister in the Rudd-Gillard Government. Now 66, he is the longest-serving member of the current Labor Caucus. Before entering politics, he was a
teacher and senior project officer with the Central Land Council in Alice Springs.

In 2013 Snowdon won with a two-party majority of 0.9%, and this is now Labor's second-weakest seat. His CLP opponent in 2016 is Tina MacFarlane, a
pastoralist who also ran in 2013. Given the slender Labor margin, she must be given some chance of winning, but that will more difficult if there is a
national swing to Labor. Her chances are not improved by the current poor standing of the CLP NT government.

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