Electoral division of Arnhem

Arnhem Northern Territory—Legislative Assembly
Interactive map of boundaries as of the 2024 election
Territory	Northern Territory
Created	1974
MP	Selena Uibo
Party	Labor Party
Namesake	Arnhem Land
Electors	5,431 (2020)
Area	115,522 km2 (44,603.3 sq mi)
Demographic	Remote
Electorates around Arnhem: Daly Arafura Mulka Katherine Arnhem Gulf of Carpentaria Daly Barkly Barkly

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 includes the Arnhem Land towns of Barunga, Beswick, Mataranka, Jabiru and Kakadu. In the redistribution before the 2016 election, gained territory from Arafura and Stuart, while losing territory to Nhulunbuy. There were 5,431 people enrolled within the electorate as of August 2020.

History

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 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. After much of the northern portion of the seat was transferred to the new seat of Arafura in 1983, Collins transferred there and was succeeded in Arafura 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 1995 by-election resulting from Lanhupuy's death, 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. Lee herself sat under three different banners during the next parliament, leaving the CLP to sit as an independent, joining the Palmer United Party, before returning to be an independent. Selena Uibo regained the seat for Labor at the 2016 election. Lee won only 117 votes or 4.0 percent, finishing in fifth and last place.

The high proportion of indigenous people in the Arnhem population has been reflected in the seat having had five consecutive indigenous MPs, and McCarthy (now a Senator) 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	2014–2016
	Selena Uibo	Labor	2016–present

Election results

See also: Electoral results for the division of Arnhem

This section is an excerpt from Results of the 2024 Northern Territory general election § Arnhem.[edit]

Results as of 2:30 UTC, 5 September

2024 Northern Territory general election: Arnhem

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labor	Selena Uibo	2,145	64.4	+23.4
	Country Liberal	Ian Mongunu Gumbula	1,185	35.6	+20.2
Total formal votes			3,330	97.1	+4.2
Informal votes			92	2.9	−4.2
Turnout			3,422	51.5
	Labor hold		Swing	−3.2

External links

• Division profile from the Northern Territory Electoral Commission