Electoral division of Casuarina

Casuarina Northern Territory—Legislative Assembly
Location of Casuarina in the Darwin/Palmerston area
Territory	Northern Territory
Created	1974
MP	Lauren Moss
Party	Australian Labor Party
Namesake	Casuarina
Electors	5,457 (2016)
Area	18 km^2 (6.9 sq mi)
Demographic	Urban

Casuarina is an electoral division of the Legislative Assembly in Australia's Northern Territory. It was first created in 1974 and was named after the adjacent suburb of Casuarina. Casuarina is an entirely urban electorate, covering only 18 km² and taking in the suburbs of Brinkin, Nakara, Tiwi and part of Alawa, as well as the Charles Darwin University. There were 5,481 people enrolled in the electorate as of October 2014.

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 upon the retirement of long-serving CLP member Nick Dondas in 1994, but lost out to the CLP's 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 by-election.^[1] It was won by Labor candidate Lauren Moss with a reduced margin.

Members for Casuarina

Member		Party	Term
	Nick Dondas	Country Liberal	1974–1994
	Peter Adamson	Country Liberal	1994–2001
	Kon Vatskalis	Labor	2001–2014
	Lauren Moss	Labor	2014–present

Election results

Northern Territory general election, 2016: Casuarina^[2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labor	Lauren Moss	2,688	61.3	+2.5
	Country Liberal	Giovanna Webb	1,694	38.7	−2.5
Total formal votes			4,382	97.4	−0.5
Informal votes			117	2.6	+0.5
Turnout			4,499	82.4	+4.3
	Labor hold		Swing	+2.5

References

1. Hind, Rick (30 July 2014). "Labor's Kon Vatskalis quits Northern Territory politics, by-election looms". ABC Local. Yahoo!. Retrieved 30 July 2014.
2. Casuarina – Electorate summary, Northern Territory Electoral Commission, 9 September 2016

External links

• Division profile from the Northern Territory Electoral Commission