Northern Territory general election, 1990
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A general election was held in the Northern Territory on Saturday 27 October 1990, and was won by the incumbent Country Liberal Party (CLP) under Chief Minister Marshall Perron.
The successful political strategy for the campaign was devised by the Chief Minister's media secretary, Tony Barker-May, who analysed the ALP policy platform and used the costings as the basis of a 'where's the money coming from?' media assault. Although the Chief Minister was ill for much of the campaign, Barker-May kept up the momentum by issuing challenging media statements on behalf of at least one Minister every day, ensuring the ALP remained on the back foot.
Another important aspect of the campaign is that it marked the emergence of Australia's most brilliant pollster, Mark Textor, subsequently head of Crosby|Textor. Textor's polling, which was basically learned on the job before and during the campaign, was so accurate he was able to provide precise odds on the number of seats which would be won, enabling some insiders to make a killing with the bookies. Meanwhile Barker-May's campaign of disinformation, privately feeding pessimistic projections to the ALP, kept the ALP in the dark - its polling was amateur in comparison with Textor's - and the result came as a huge surprise to all but CLP insiders.
Six months prior to the election, polling showed the CLP was headed for a big loss. The eventual win was effectively a landslide, although despite a big swing in the CLP's favour, the swing was not consistent across the Territory, the ALP had put up strong new candidates, and the government lost two seats — not sufficient to cost the government its majority in the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly, and a far better result than had been expected. Though the Northern Territory Nationals again contested the election, they lost much of their vote, along with both their assembly seats. The 1990 election also saw the Australian Greens emerge as a force in territory politics, with 3.05% of the vote—fourth behind the CLP, Labor and the Nationals.
Independents Noel Padgham-Purich and Denis Collins were both re-elected.
The NT Nationals lost both seats of Barkly and Flynn.
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