Psephos - Adam Carr's Election Archive

Adam Carr's Election Archive

Australian federal election, 2025
Division of Lingiari, Northern Territory

Named for: Vincent Lingiari (1908-88), NT Indigenous leader and land rights campaigner


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Outback Northern Territory: Alice Springs, Humpty Doo, Katherine, Nhulunbuy, Tennant Creek

Enrolment at 2019 election: 69,994
Enrolment at 2022 election: 74,008 (+05.8)

2018 same-sex marriage survey: Yes 54.5
2023 Voice referendum: No 56.5


Sitting member: Marion Scrymgour (Labor): Elected 2022


2007 Labor majority over Country Liberal: 11.2%
2010 Labor majority over Country Liberal: 3.7%
2013 Labor majority over Country Liberal: 0.9%
2016 Labor majority over Country Liberal: 8.4%
2019 Labor majority over Country Liberal: 5.5%
2022 Labor majority over Country Liberal: 1.0%
2025 notional Labor majority over Country Liberal: 1.0%

Status: Very marginal Labor
Labor two-party vote 2001-22


  • 2022 results
  • Statistics and history

  • Announced candidates:

    Marion Scrymgour
    Australian Labor Party

    Division of Lingiari

    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 cities of Darwin and Palmerston. Despite its large Indigenous population, it has an above-average median income level, mainly due to the high wages paid in the mining industry. It has very low proportion of university graduates and of people in professional occupations. It also has a very young population, with the lowest proportion of over-65s of any electorate, reflecting the high birth-rate and lower life expectancy of its Indigenous population.

    The dominant political fact in Lingiari is that it has the largest Indigenous population (41.7%) 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 35% of the white vote in Lingiari to win the seat, and Warren Snowdon, who represented outback NT for 30 years, had enough appeal to white voters to be able to get at least that.

    In recent years, however, Labor's support among Indigenous voters has fluctuated, as was shown most spectacularly at the 2012 NT election. This partly explains the swings against Snowdon in 2010 and 2013. Labor still wins most of the remote mobile booths, polling over 80% of the two-party vote in some of them. The Country Liberals win most of the white-majority town booths.

    Snowdon, MP for Northern Territory 1987-96 and 1998-2001 and for Lingiari 2001-22, was a Parliamentary Secretary in the Keating Government and a minister in the Rudd-Gillard Government. He retired at the 2022 election.

    Marion Scrymgour, was MLA for Arafura from 2001 to 2012, and was a minister in the Martin government. More recently she was Chairperson of the Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance Northern Territory and CEO of the Northern Land Council. At the 2022 she survived the loss of Snowdon's personal vote and was elected with a narrow majority. Following Labor's heavy defeat at the 2024 Territory election, the CLP will be keen to win this seat.

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