Territory Labor Territory Labor Party
Abbreviation	NTL, TL, ALP
Leader	Eva Lawler
Deputy Leader	Chansey Paech
Secretary	Karlee Dalton[1]
President	Erina Early[2]
Founded	1967 (1967)
Headquarters	38 Woods Street, Darwin, Northern Territory[3]
Ideology	Social democracy
Political position	Centre-left
National affiliation	Australian Labor
Union affiliate	Unions NT[4]
Colours	Red
Legislative Assembly	13 / 25
House of Representatives	2 / 2 (NT seats)
Senate	1 / 2 (NT seats)
Local government	2 / 122
Website
territorylabor.com.au
Politics of Australia Political parties Elections

The Territory Labor Party,^{[lower-alpha 1]} officially known as the Australian Labor Party (Northern Territory Branch) and commonly referred to simply as Territory Labor, is the Northern Territory branch of the Australian Labor Party.^[5] It is the current ruling party in the Northern Territory and is led by Natasha Fyles, who has concurrently served as chief minister of the Northern Territory since 2022, and previously Michael Gunner from 2016 to 2022.^[6][7]

History

The first Labor candidate from the Northern Territory—which was then represented by the Northern Territory seat in the South Australian House of Assembly—was Pine Creek miner and former City of Adelaide alderman James Robertson in 1905. The first Labor MP was Thomas Crush, who was elected at a 1908 by-election and accepted into the South Australian Labor caucus despite not having signed the Labor pledge. He was re-elected in 1910, and served until the Northern Territory formally separated from South Australia in 1911, resulting in the loss of the seat in state parliament. A non-voting federal seat in the Australian House of Representatives, the Division of Northern Territory, was established for the 1922 election, and was won by independent candidate and former union leader Harold George Nelson, who joined the Labor caucus after the election.^[8]

In March 1928, a general meeting of the North Australian Workers Union resolved to establish a Northern Territory branch of the Labor Party and elected an interim executive.^[9] In July 1928, it was reported that the federal secretary had requested that the South Australian branch instead form a Darwin branch.^[10] It was reported in October 1928 that affiliation with the South Australian branch had been granted, and that the South Australian state executive had re-endorsed Nelson to contest the 1929 election.^[11] An Alice Springs branch was established in 1947.^[12] The Northern Territory branch was upgraded to receive the status of a state branch in August 1967.^[13]

The Northern Territory Legislative Council was established in 1947 as a partly elected representative body with limited powers, with the Labor Party endorsing candidates from the first election.^[12][14] Labor members of the Legislative Council included Tom Bell, Eric Marks, Charles Orr, Len Purkiss, Tom Ronan, and Richard Ward^{[15][16][17][8]}

In 1974, the Legislative Council was replaced by the fully elected Northern Territory Legislative Assembly in preparation for self-governance.^[18] However, the 1974 election was disastrous for Labor, which failed to win a single seat.^[19] The party recovered to some extent at the 1977 election, winning six seats. However, over the next 24 years, it never came particularly close to winning government; it never won more than nine seats at an election and never held more than two seats in the Darwin/Palmerston area at any time.^[20]

As a result, Labor remained in opposition until 2001 election, when Clare Martin led the party to government for the first time primarily on the strength of a near-sweep of Darwin, including all seven seats in the northern part of the capital.^[20] Four years later, in 2005, Martin led Labor to one of the most comprehensive victories on record at the state or territory level, winning 19 out of 25 seats, the second-largest majority government in the history of the Territory.^[21] Martin retired in 2007 and was succeeded by Paul Henderson. Under Henderson, Labor won a third term with a reduced majority in 2008 before being defeated by the CLP at the 2012 election. After one term in opposition, Labor returned to power at the 2016 election. Under Michael Gunner, Labor won a landslide almost as massive as the one it won in 2005, with 18 seats, the third-largest majority government in the history of the Territory. Gunner was reelected in 2020 with a somewhat reduced mandate of 14 seats.

Leaders

• Richard Ward (1974)
• Jon Isaacs (September 1977 – November 1981)
• Bob Collins (November 1981 – August 1986)
• Terry Smith (August 1986 – November 1990)
• Brian Ede (November 1990 – April 1996)
• Maggie Hickey (April 1996 – February 1999)
• Clare Martin (February 1999 – November 2007)
• Paul Henderson (November 2007 – August 2012)
• Delia Lawrie (August 2012 – April 2015)
• Michael Gunner (April 2015 – May 2022)
• Natasha Fyles (May 2022 – December 2023)
• Eva Lawler (December 2023 - present)

Election results

Note: this section only lists elections for the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly.

Election	Leader	Seats	±	Total votes	%	±%	Position
1974	Richard Ward	0 / 19	0	8,508	30.5%	30.5%	Extra-parliamentary
1977	Jon Isaacs	6 / 19	6	12,165	38.2%	7.7%	Opposition
1980		7 / 19	1	15,818	39.4%	1.2%	Opposition
1983	Bob Collins	6 / 25	1	17,505	35.6%	3.8%	Opposition
1987	Terry Smith	6 / 25	0	18,307	36.0%	0.4%	Opposition
1990		9 / 25	3	23,827	36.6%	0.6%	Opposition
1994	Brian Ede	7 / 25	2	30,507	41.4%	4.8%	Opposition
1997	Maggie Hickey	7 / 25	0	29,365	38.5%	2.9%	Opposition
2001	Clare Martin	13 / 25	6	33,038	40.6%	2.1%	Majority government
2005		19 / 25	6	44,822	51.9%	11.3%	Majority government
2008	Paul Henderson	13 / 25	6	34,557	43.2%	8.7%	Majority government
2012		8 / 25	5	33,594	36.5%	6.7%	Opposition
2016	Michael Gunner	18 / 25	11	41,476	42.2%	5.7%	Majority government
2020		14 / 25	4	40,291	39.4%	2.8%	Majority government
2024	Eva Lawler	This election is yet to occur but will take place on 24 August 2024.

Notes

References