Electoral division of Arnhem

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 137,100 km², and taking in the towns of Alyangula, Angurugu, Barunga, Beswick, Ngkurr, Numbulwar and Milingimbi. There were 4760 people enrolled within the electorate as of June 2005.

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 Labor 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 territory Labor Party won no seats. It 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 1985. Labor candidate John 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. The high proportion of indigenous people in the Arnhem population has been reflected in the seat having had three consective indigenous MPs, and current MP McCarthy has been an outspoken advocate of indigenous rights in parliament.

Members for Arnhem

External links

* [http://notes.nt.gov.au/nteo/Electorl.nsf/94150a183d04f75f692564e2000ed605/ff4337cf7355455b6925693600061c13?OpenDocument Division profile from the Northern Territory Electoral Commission]