Electoral division of Johnston

Johnston is an electoral division of the Legislative Assembly in Australia's Northern Territory. It was first created in 2001, replacing the abolished seat of Jingili, and is named after Commodore Eric Johnston, a former Administrator of the Northern Territory. Johnston is an urban electorate, covering only 5 km² and taking in the Darwin suburbs of Jingili, Moil, Wagaman and part of Alawa. There were 5,556 people enrolled within the electorate as of August 2020.

Johnston Northern Territory—Legislative Assembly
Location of Johnston in the Darwin/Palmerston area
Territory	Northern Territory
Created	2001
MP	Joel Bowden
Party	Labor
Namesake	Eric Johnston
Electors	5,556 (2020)
Area	5 km2 (1.9 sq mi)
Demographic	Urban
Electorates around Johnston: Nightcliff Casuarina Sanderson Nightcliff Johnston Sanderson Nightcliff Sanderson Sanderson

History

Johnston was essentially a reconfigured version of one of the original electorates in the Northern Territory, Jingili, which had been held by the Country Liberal Party for its entire existence and was the seat of the Territory's second head of government, Paul Everingham. At the 2001 election, however, the CLP member for Jingili, Steve Balch, was defeated by Labor Party challenger Dr Chris Burns. Burns' victory was part of an unexpected Labor wave that swept through northern Darwin, allowing Labor to win government in the Territory for the first time. The area's CLP voting history led many commentators to suggest that it was likely to revert to the CLP at the 2005 election. As it turned out, Burns was re-elected easily amid that year's Labor landslide with a substantially increased majority, though the margin didn't blow out as much as in nearby seats. Burns retired at the 2012 election, and the seat was retained for Labor by former cricketer Ken Vowles with only a small swing against Labor. Vowles consolidated his hold on the seat amid Labor's massive landslide in 2016. In 2018, Vowles was expelled from the Labor cabinet, and resigned on 31 January 2020, with the resulting vacancy filled at a by-election on 29 February 2020.

Members for Johnston

Member		Party	Term
	Chris Burns	Labor	2001–2012
	Ken Vowles	Labor	2012–2020
	Joel Bowden	Labor	2020–present

Election results

See also: Electoral results for the division of Johnston

This section is an excerpt from Results of the 2020 Northern Territory general election § Johnston.[edit]

2020 Northern Territory general election: Johnston

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labor	Joel Bowden	1,940	45.3	−7.7
	Country Liberal	Gary Haslett	843	19.7	−10.7
	Greens	Aiya Goodrich Carttling	736	17.2	+1.9
	Territory Alliance	Steven Klose	626	14.6	+14.6
	Independent	Joshua Thomas	139	3.2	+3.2
Total formal votes			4,284	96.6	N/A
Informal votes			150	3.4	N/A
Turnout			4,434	79.8	N/A
Two-party-preferred result
	Labor	Joel Bowden	2,851	66.5	+0.8
	Country Liberal	Gary Haslett	1,433	33.5	−0.8
	Labor hold		Swing	+0.8

External links

• Division profile from the Northern Territory Electoral Commission