Northern Territory general election, 1977

1974 ←

13 August 1977 (1977-08-13)

→ 1980

All 19 seats of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly

	First party	Second party

Leader	Paul Everingham
Party	Country Liberal Party	Labor
Leader since	13 August 1977
Leader's seat	Jingili
Last election	17 seats	0 seats
Seats won	12 seats	6 seats
Seat change	5	6
Percentage	40.1%	38.2%
Swing	8.8	7.8

Majority Leader before election

Goff Letts
Country Liberal Party

Elected Majority Leader

Paul Everingham
Country Liberal Party

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, including Majority Leader Goff Letts. The election also marked the emergence of the Australian 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 replace 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, 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.

Northern Territory general election, 1977

See also