MacDonnell is an electoral division of the Legislative Assembly in Australia's Northern Territory. It was first created in 1974, and derives its name from the nearby MacDonnell Ranges. MacDonnell is an almost entirely rural electorate, covering 333398.61 km², and taking in the resort town of Yulara, and the remote communities of Hermannsburg, Kintore, Papunya and Docker River. There were 4471 people enrolled within the electorate as of June 2005.
MacDonnell has generally been a safe seat for the Australian Labor Party, due to its large indigenous population, but there have been two exceptions - 1974-1977 (when there were no ALP members in the Assembly), and from 1997 to 2005, when several factors helped deliver the seat to the Country Liberal Party candidate, who then managed to use his incumbency to his advantage and thus retain the seat at the following election. However, it was easily regained by the ALP at the 2005 election, amidst a territory-wide landslide result and a particularly strong candidate in former ATSIC Central Zone Commissioner Alison Anderson, ultimately sweeping Elferink away with an electoral swing of more than 30%.
| Member | Party | Term | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dave Pollock | Country Liberal | 1974–1977 | |
| Neville Perkins | Labor | 1977–1981 | |
| Neil Bell | Labor | 1981–1997 | |
| John Elferink | Country Liberal | 1997–2005 | |
| Alison Anderson | Labor | 2005–2009 | |
| Independent | 2009–2011 | ||
| Country Liberal | 2011–present | ||
| Northern Territory general election, 2008: MacDonnell | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
| Labor | Alison Anderson | unopposed | |||
| Labor hold | Swing | ||||
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