1977 Northern Territory general election

1977 Northern Territory general election

← 1974 13 August 1977 (1977-08-13) 1980 →

All 19 seats of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly
10 seats needed for a majority
Turnout75.9 (Increase 0.5 pp)
  First party Second party
 
ALP
Leader Goff Letts Jon Isaacs
Party Country Liberal Labor
Leader since 19 October 1974
Leader's seat Victoria River
(lost seat)
none
(won Millner)
Last election 17 seats 0 seats
Seats won 12 6
Seat change Decrease 5 Increase 6
Popular vote 12,769 12,165
Percentage 40.1% 38.2%
Swing Decrease 8.9 Increase 7.7


Majority Leader before election

Goff Letts
Country Liberal

Elected Majority Leader

Paul Everingham
Country Liberal

A general election was held in the Northern Territory on Saturday 13 August 1977. Though the election was won by the incumbent Country Liberal Party (CLP), the party lost five of its seven executive members. Surprisingly, one of the casualties was Majority Leader Goff Letts—one of the few instances where a major-party leader at any level in Australia lost his own seat. The election also marked the emergence of the Labor Party as a parliamentary force: Labor took six seats in the new assembly.

The Progress Party contested the elections, winning 9.76% of the primary vote across the territory, but failed to secure any assembly seats.

The Country Liberals chose Paul Everingham to succeed Letts as Majority Leader. Everingham appointed a new Executive, which included future Chief Ministers Marshall Perron and Ian Tuxworth. The following year, the Territory attained self-government. Everingham became Chief Minister, while his Executive became a Ministry with greatly expanded powers.

Independent Dawn Lawrie retained her seat of Nightcliff at this election, while Ron Withnall lost his seat of Port Darwin to the CLP.