Araluen is an electoral division of the Legislative Assembly in Australia's Northern Territory. It was first created in 1983, replacing the electorate of Alice Springs, which had been abolished as part of the enlargement of the Assembly. The electorate covers a 54.26 km² area to the west of Alice Springs, including the Alice Springs CBD, the suburb of Araluen, and some surrounding rural areas. There were 5,024 people enrolled in the electorate as of October 2010.
The city of Alice Springs has traditionally been a strong support base for the conservative Country Liberal Party, and Araluen has returned CLP members at every election since its creation in 1983. The party has only come close to losing the seat on one occasion: in 2001, when the retirement of veteran Cabinet minister Eric Poole and two prominent independent candidacies nearly delivered the seat to Labor, with new Liberal candidate Jodeen Carney only holding the seat by 134 votes. Carney proved to be a popular local member, and despite holding the territory's most marginal CLP-held seat, was one of only four CLP members across the territory to be returned amidst the Labor landslide at the 2005 election. She subsequently served as the territory's Opposition Leader after the election from 2005 until January 2008. Carney was re-elected with nearly 70 per cent of the primary vote at the 2008 election.
Carney resigned on 3 September 2010; a by-election to replace her was held on 9 October 2010.
| Member | Party | Term | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jim Robertson | Country Liberal Party | 1983–1986 | |
| Eric Poole | Country Liberal Party | 1986–2001 | |
| Jodeen Carney | Country Liberal Party | 2001–2010 | |
| Robyn Lambley | Country Liberal Party | 2010–present | |
| Araluen by-election, 2010 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
| Country Liberal | Robyn Lambley | 1,935 | 68.04 | −0.31 | |
| Labor | Adam Findlay | 909 | 31.96 | +14.96 | |
| Total formal votes | 2,844 | 95.60 | −1.97 | ||
| Informal votes | 131 | 4.40 | +1.97 | ||
| Turnout | 2,975 | 59.22 | −15.43 | ||
| Country Liberal hold | Swing | −0.31 | |||
| Northern Territory general election, 2008: Araluen | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
| Country Liberal | Jodeen Carney | 2,470 | 68.3 | +14.4 | |
| Labor | John Gaynor | 618 | 17.1 | -19.4 | |
| Greens | Linda Chellew | 526 | 14.6 | +5.4 | |
| Total formal votes | 3,614 | 97.6 | +0.6 | ||
| Informal votes | 90 | 2.4 | -0.6 | ||
| Turnout | 3,704 | 74.6 | |||
| Two-candidate preferred result | |||||
| Country Liberal | Jodeen Carney | 2,699 | 74.7 | +17.2 | |
| Labor | John Gaynor | 915 | 25.3 | -17.2 | |
| Country Liberal hold | Swing | +17.2 | |||
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