Electoral division of Casuarina: Difference between revisions

'''Casuarina''' is an [[electoral divisions of the Northern Territory|electoral division]] of the [[Northern Territory Legislative Assembly|Legislative Assembly]] in Australia's [[Northern Territory]]. It was first created in 1974 and was named after the adjacent suburb of [[Casuarina, Northern Territory|Casuarina]]. Casuarina is an entirely urban electorate, covering only 12 km² and taking in the suburbs of [[Brinkin, Northern Territory|Brinkin]], [[Nakara, Northern Territory|Nakara]], [[Tiwi, Northern Territory|Tiwi]] and part of [[Alawa, Northern Territory|Alawa]], as well as the [[Charles Darwin University]]. There were 5,647 people enrolled in the electorate as of August 2020.

 

For the first three decades of its existence, Casuarina, like most seats in the Darwin area, was a stronghold for the [[Country Liberal Party]]. [[Clare Martin]] did nearly manage to take the seat for the [[Australian Labor Party (Northern Territory Branch)|Labor Party]] upon the retirement of long-serving CLP member [[Nick Dondas]] in 1994, but lost out to the CLP's [[Peter Adamson (Australian politician)|Peter Adamson]], who held the seat for the next seven years. It was still widely presumed to be a safe Liberal seat in 2001, when it unexpectedly fell to Labor challenger [[Kon Vatskalis]] as part of Labor's sweep of the northern suburbs that year en route to winning government for the first time. Vatskalis easily retained the seat in 2005, 2008, and 2012. He resigned on 18 September 2014, which triggered a [[2014 Casuarina by-election|by-election]].<ref name=resignation>{{cite news|last1=Hind|first1=Rick|title=Labor's Kon Vatskalis quits Northern Territory politics, by-election looms|url=https://au.news.yahoo.com/a/24579194/labors-kon-vatskalis-quits-northern-territory-politics-by-election-looms/|access-date=30 July 2014|work=ABC Local|agency=Yahoo!|date=30 July 2014|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140814010625/https://au.news.yahoo.com/a/24579194/labors-kon-vatskalis-quits-northern-territory-politics-by-election-looms/|archivedate=14 August 2014}}</ref> It was won by Labor candidate [[Lauren Moss]] with a reduced margin. Moss picked up enough of a swing in [[2016 Northern Territory general election|2016]] to make Casuarina much more secure for Labor, and consolidated her hold on the seat in [[2020 Northern Territory general election|2020]]; the CLP now needs a swing of 15.9 percent to win it.