Electoral division of Arnhem

Arnhem Northern Territory—Legislative Assembly
File:NT electorates - Arnhem.png Electoral division of Arnhem in the Northern Territory
Territory	Northern Territory
Created	1974
MP	Larisa Lee
Party	Independent
Namesake	Arnhem Land
Electors	4,902 (2012)
Area	99,269 km2 (38,328.0 sq mi)
Demographic	Remote

Arnhem is an electoral division of the Legislative Assembly in Australia's Northern Territory. It was first created in 1974, and takes its name from Arnhem Land, the region encompassing much of the northern part of the Territory.

Arnhem is an almost entirely rural electorate, covering 99,269 km², and taking in the towns of Alyangula, Angurugu, Barunga, Beswick, Ngukurr, Numbulwar and Milingimbi. There were 4,902 people enrolled within the electorate as of August 2012.

Arnhem was one of the initial electorates created along with the introduction of the Legislative Assembly in 1974. Though it consisted of predominantly indigenous towns which voted strongly for the Australian Labor Party at a federal level, it was won by the Country Liberal Party amidst their landslide victory at the election of that year, in which the Labor Party won no seats. Arnhem returned to expectations at the 1977 election, when it was won by Labor candidate Bob Collins, who was elected leader of the party in 1981. Collins contested the new seat of Arafura in 1983, and was succeeded by new Labor candidate Wes Lanhupuy. Lanhupuy was comfortably re-elected three times, but died suddenly in 1995. Labor candidate Jack Ah Kit won the resulting by-election, and went on to serve as a Cabinet minister in the Martin government from 2001. He retired at the 2005 election, with former ABC TV presenter Barbara McCarthy being comfortably elected as his replacement. McCarthy was reelected unopposed in 2008, only to be ousted by the CLP's Larisa Lee in 2012 as the CLP swept into government. The high proportion of indigenous people in the Arnhem population has been reflected in the seat having had four consecutive indigenous MPs, and McCarthy having been an outspoken advocate of indigenous rights in parliament.

Members for Arnhem

Member		Party	Term
	Rupert Kentish	Country Liberal	1974–1977
	Bob Collins	Labor	1977–1983
	Wes Lanhupuy	Labor	1983–1995
	Jack Ah Kit	Labor	1995–2005
	Malarndirri McCarthy	Labor	2005–2012
	Larisa Lee	Country Liberal	2012–2014
		Independent	2014
		Palmer United	2014
		Independent	2014–present

Election results

See also: Electoral results for the division of Arnhem

Northern Territory general election, 2012: Arnhem

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Country Liberal	Larisa Lee	1,366	55.3	n/a
	Labor	Malarndirri McCarthy	1,102	44.7	n/a
Total formal votes			2,468	97.0	n/a
Informal votes			76	3.0	n/a
Turnout			2,544	51.9	n/a
	Country Liberal gain from Labor		Swing	n/a

External links

• Division profile from the Northern Territory Electoral Commission