The 1965 Northern Territory legislative election was held on 30 October 1965 to elect eight members of the partly elected

Northern Territory Legislative Council The Northern Territory Legislative Council was the partly elected governing body of the Northern Territory of Australia from 1947 until its replacement by the fully elected Northern Territory Legislative Assembly in 1974. Prior to 1947, there h ...

, the governing body of the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...

of Australia. An administrative change this saw the president of the council no longer being the

Administrator of the Northern Territory The administrator of the Northern Territory is an official appointed by the governor-general of Australia to represent the Crown in right of the Northern Territory. They perform functions similar to those of a state governor. Strictly speaking ...

, with the council electing its own president, Harry Chan, in December 1965.

Background

This election was the genesis of a party system in the Northern Territory, with the majority of candidates being nominated by political parties. The

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also known as the Labor Party or simply Labor, is the major Centre-left politics, centre-left List of political parties in Australia, political party in Australia and one of two Major party, major parties in Po ...

(ALP) fielded seven candidates, while the new North Australia Party (NAP) − co-founded by

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

MLC

Lionel Rose Lionel Edmund Rose MBE (21 June 1948 – 8 May 2011) was an Australian professional boxer who competed from 1964 to 1976. He held the undisputed WBA, WBC, and ''The Ring'' bantamweight titles from 1968 to 1969, becoming the first Indigeno ...

in August 1965 − fielded three candidates in Central Australia, one in Darwin and one in Katherine.

Results

Aftermath

Disputed results

Lionel Rose was defeated in

Alice Springs Alice Springs () is a town in the Northern Territory, Australia; it is the third-largest settlement after Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin and Palmerston, Northern Territory, Palmerston. The name Alice Springs was given by surveyor William ...

by 17 votes, however NAP candidate

Tony Greatorex Tony may refer to: People and fictional characters * Tony the Tiger, cartoon mascot for Frosted Flakes cereal * Tony (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Gregory Tony (born 1978), American law enforcement officer * M ...

won a large majority in the sparsely populated seat of

Stuart Stuart may refer to: People *Stuart (name), a given name and surname (and list of people with the name) * Clan Stuart of Bute, a Scottish clan *House of Stuart, a royal house of Scotland and England Places Australia Generally *Stuart Highway, ...

. The results in both seats were controversial, with the unsuccessful candidates claiming that their opponents had engaged in illegal conduct to secure the votes of

Indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology) In biogeography, a native species is indigenous to a given region or ecosystem if its presence in that region is the result of only local natural evolution (though often populari ...

constituents. Rose claimed that Labor candidate Charles Orr had bribed voters with alcohol, and petitioned the Court of Disputed Returns to overturn the result. David Smith, the Labor candidate in Stuart, petitioned the court to unseat Greatorex on the grounds that campaign workers had intimidated and misled Aboriginal voters.

By-elections

Independent Barkly MLC Len Purkiss died from silicosis shortly after the election on 24 November 1965. Labor's Eric Marks was elected to replace him in a by-election on 5 February 1966. Labor MLC Peter Murray resigned as member for

Arnhem Arnhem ( ; ; Central Dutch dialects, Ernems: ''Èrnem'') is a Cities of the Netherlands, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality situated in the eastern part of the Netherlands, near the German border. It is the capita ...

in 1966 and was replaced by

Ron Withnall Ronald John Withnall AM (9 September 1914 – 16 September 1990) was an Australian politician and lawyer. Withnall was born in Townsville, Queensland, but attended school at Canterbury High School in Sydney. He studied law at the Unive ...

(formerly an appointed Official Member) in a by-election on 26 November 1966.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Legislative Council Election, 1968

1968 Events January–February * January 1968, January – The I'm Backing Britain, I'm Backing Britain campaign starts spontaneously. * January 5 – Prague Spring: Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Cze ...

1960s in the Northern Territory