Meet the current candidates vying for Territorians’ votes as election date set
The names of all candidates vying for your vote this election can finally be revealed. SEE THE FULL LIST
Northern Territory
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CONSERVATIVE parties have taken out the top spots on the ballot papers for the upcoming federal election, after the Australian Electoral Commission announced the candidates.
After stepping up to give the ballot balls one final spin before the draw, Liberal Democrats candidate Kylie Bonanni secured top spot on the House Representatives seat of Solomon , saying she must had had the lucky touch.
“I just felt it, I really felt it” she said. The Greens’ Aiya Goodrich Carttling secured the second spot with Labor’s Luke Gosling coming in at third.
“Halfway through the field, it’s important but by the time the election comes around, the choices for Territorians will be pretty clear,” Mr Gosling said.
The CLP’s Tina Macfarlane was unfazed with being placed in fourth: “I’m more than happy with the position I’m in and I put my trust and faith in Territorians to make the choice,” she said.
Closing out the ballot paper for Solomon were One Nation’s Emily Lohse and the UAP’s Tayla Elise Selfe.
For the seat of Lingari the CLP’s Damien Ryan secured first position ahead of closest rival Labor’s Marion Scymgour in the fifth position.
The Greens’ Blair McFarland will be second on the ballot.
Lingari shaping up to be a competitive race with nine candidates running for the seat, including would-be pollies from the United Australia Party, Citizens Party, One Nation and indendents.
In the Senate the CLP gained a slight advantage over the Liberal Democrats securing first and second positions respectively.
The CLP’s Senate candidate Jacinta Price said even if she didn’t have top spot, Territorians “weren’t silly”.
“They’d know exactly where they need to go to vote number one to look after our Territory,” she said.
Former CLP Senator Sam McMahon — who is now running for the Liberal Democrats — said she was not concerned with the CLP ranking ahead.
“There is a little bit of luck if you’re top of the ballot paper but I don’t think that plays a huge part,” the incumbent Senator said.
Labor’s candidates will come third on the Senate Ballot, with the Greens coming in the bottom spot.
Candidates from the Legalise Cannabis Australia party, the Sustainable Australia Party - Stop Overdevelopment/ Corruption, the Great Australian Party and the Citizens Party will also run.
NT’S BALLOT ORDERS REVEALED
THE NT’s ballot draw for the 2022 election has been announced.
There will be 9 candidates vying for the seat of Lingiari in the House of Representatives.
In order of how they will appear on the ballot paper they are:
Damien Ryan, CLP
Blair McFarland, Greens
Thong Sum Lee, Citizens Party
Allan McLeod, United Australia Party
Marion Scrymgour, Labor
Michael Setford Gravener, Independent
Imelda Adamson Agars, Independent
Tim Gallard, One Nation
George Kasparek, Liberal Democrats
Six people will be running for Solomon.
In order of how they will appear on the ballot paper, they are:
Kylie Bonanni, Liberal Democrats
Aiya Goodrich Carttling, Greens
Luke Gosling, Labor
Tina Macfarlane, CLP
Emily Lohse, One Nation
Tayla Elise Selfe, United Australia Party
In the Senate there will be 8 parties to choose from, listed in the following order:
CLP
Liberal Democrats
Australian Labor Party
Legalise Cannabis Australia
Sustainable Australia Party - Stop Overdevelopment/ Corruption
The Great Australian Party
Citizens Party
The Greens
SCROLL DOWN FOR SOME CANDIDATE PROFILES
WED APR 20: A FORMER staffer from Senator Sam McMahon’s office has been confirmed to have joined the Country Liberal’s senate ticket.
Kris Civitarese, who formerly ran an unsuccessful campaign for the CLP in the Territory seat of Daly, will be placed second on the party’s senate ballot after Jacinta Price.
That will put him up against his former boss Senator McMahon, who is running in the top spot for the Liberal Democrats.
Mr Civitarese has worked a number of times for Senator McMahon’s office during her first three year term in Canberra, with the outgoing senator mentioning him during her valedictory speech.
“Kris Civitarese—Big Kris—joined my office after helping me fire a previous office manager. It’s been a gift that keeps on giving,” Senator McMahon said last month.
“Sorry, Kris. You’re like a boomerang: you keep coming back to us. Sometimes you don’t know what you’ve been missing until you find it. Kris became a confidant of mine, and he steadied the office through the use of his own measured temperament and people skills.”
In a statement on Wednesday, CLP party president Fiona Darcy said her party had fielded a gender-equal field of candidates for the upcoming federal election.
Mr Civitarese said he was excited to be selected to be on the CLP’s senate ticket.
“My message to Territorians this Federal Election is clear - a vote for Labor is a vote for crime, a broken economy and more debt,” Mr Civitarese said.
“A vote for Damien, Tina, Jacinta and I is a vote for a stronger economy and stronger future.
“Together we will ‘get things done’ and have a seat at the table.”
WED APR 20: THE Liberal Democrats are now running a candidate in every federal race in the Northern Territory, after George Kasperak announced he was running in Lingiari.
In a statement from the Liberal Democrats on Wednesday, the party said Mr Kasperak was a former secretary in the CLP’s Litchfield branch.
He is the latest defection from the CLP to end up running for the Liberal Democrats.
Former CLP senator Sam McMahon is running for top spot on the party’s senate ticket, with former CLP vice president Jed Hansen securing the second spot.
Former CLP candidate Kylie Bonanni will run for them in Solomon.
According to the Liberal Democrats, Mr Kasperak has a background of 30 years experience in the ADF, has previously worked as a teacher and migrated to Australia in 1968 from Czechoslovakia.
TUES APR 19: ANOTHER person has put their hand up for the seat of Lingiari at the upcoming federal election.
Michael Gravener will run as an independent and says he will demand “the Commonwealth gives the NT the respect and attention it deserves”.
Mr Gravener will stand on three key platforms:
BECOMING an economic and cultural powerhouse and the safest and most harmonious place in Australia to live and work;
THERE will be No Economy, without an Ecology; and
ENVIRONMENTAL Justice is impossible without Aboriginal Justice.
As part of his economic plan, Mr Gravener said true investment in a road network that enabled Territorians safe and accessible travel was “an absolute priority”,
“On the global stage Australia positions itself as a beacon for others to follow, all the while desperately covering up the entrenched poverty far too many Australians live in,” he said.
“Funding must be directed to those working on the ground; the best placed to develop and run programs are the people who are familiar with the diverse issues.”
MON APR 18: HE’S a man who wins votes with his striking akubra hat, he says.
Once an intensive care specialist, now a United Australia Party member, Raj Samson Rajwin is running for a place in the federal Senate to represent the NT.
He says he is “incredibly confident” after last year’s previous council election, where he ran for Palmerston mayor and alderman and received strong support but missed out on a position due to “poor preferences” on other candidates’’ voting cards.
Since 2016, the dogged campaigner has run in various council, Territory and federal elections representing as an independent, a Country Liberal Party (CLP) candidate and running for the United Australia Party in 2019 and now 2022.
His political career almost took flight in 2016 when he was preselected by the CLP for the Wanguri electorate but a citizenship glitch stopped him from progressing.
But, in an untimely turn of events, the aspiring pollie received his citizenship just five days after the election.
Like a political chameleon, Mr Samson Rajwin shapeshifts from council, Territory and federal elections.
He believed this federal election was his chance to represent the common Australian, the “normal day-to-day working class”.
“I’m a person with four medical degrees, two in Australia and two in India, so I can be considered a very educated person,” Mr Samson Rajwin said. He emphatically condemned the federal and Territory governments’ management of the pandemic and decried the use of lockdowns and the vaccine mandate.
“I don’t support the vaccine mandate,” he said.
“We need a strong management who can make the right decisions that may not be popular but they are right for the public and right for the people.”
Mr Samson Rajwin said there was a movement for Australia voters who were looking to swing their votes towards independent parties.
“A lot of people have moved towards the United Australia Party, a lot of people are joining our freedom rallies in all of Australia,” Mr Samson Rajwin said.
“Time changes and I think there is stagnation of action.
“I think they (voters) will like me because they have heard about me, know my policies and know my stance that I’m a pro-Australian and speak for everybody.”
His iconic broadbrimmed, akubra hat particularly draws in the voters, particularly female votes, he says.
“Many girls said to me they voted for me because of the hat, they said to me ‘I love your hat’,” Mr Samson Rajwin said.
“If I remove the hat I will be a different person – now I have to wear the hat – if I remove the hat I have to start campaigning again.”
Bush poet puts his hat in the ring
THURS APR 14: A SELF-DESCRIBED “horse whisperer”, “bushman”, “Virgo and poet” has put his Akubra in the ring to represent the Territory at a Federal level.
Lance Lawrence wore work clothes faded by years in the sun. He tries to not smile to avoid showing off his missing teeth. And the same matching later of dirt covers the plastic crocs on his feet all the way to the wide-brimmed hat on his head.
He is not the typical politician you would see in the halls of Canberra, but the 72-year-old is hoping to take a small part of the other Territory up north.
Mr Lawrence — formerly of the Help End Marijuana Prohibition party and the Marijuana Party — has announced he would be running as a Senate candidate for the Legalise Cannabis Party in the upcoming May 21 election.
Mr Lawrence said his goal “at a minimum” was for Australia to follow the ACT’s lead and decriminalise cannabis.
The ACT allows adults to possess up to 50g of dried or 150g of fresh cannabis, grow up to two plants and to use the drug inside their home.
“I get locked up for that,” Mr Lawrence said.
The Senate candidate said he had been arrested by the police, who he called the “bully boys”, for possessing cannabis oil and was fined $4800.
“The fact is that people in Canberra can grow it and smoke it, and we get arrested for it,” Mr Lawrence said.
“Are we living in the same country or not?
“Where is my victim? It’s a victimless crime.
This is not Mr Lawrence’s first shot at political life.
“I’ve stood in every election in the Territory, except for one, for 48 years,” the 72-year-old said.
The long-running candidate secured 102 votes in his last Federal Senate run, according to the Australian Electoral Commission.
As second on the ticket Mr Lawrence’s 2019 run brought the total NT Senate votes for the Help End Marijuana Prohibition to 3.4 per cent.
In 2020 Mr Lawrence won 243 votes, or 8 per cent of the vote, competing against the current Attorney-General Selena Uibo for the seat of Arnhem.
Mr Lawrence said he would be joined on the Legalise Cannabis Party NT Senate ticket by Western Australian single mother Kelly-Anne Hibert.
On the party’s website Ms Hibert she was able to overcome an addiction to opioids and alcohol abuse, largely due to cannabis use.
“The only addiction I have now is to feeling healthy and stronger and if that’s being a ‘stoner’, I would much rather be a ‘stoner’,” she wrote.
But Mr Lawrence has denied the Legalise Cannabis Party was a one-issue group, despite running under the slogan “If you want some relief, vote one for the leaf”.
The Pine Creek farmer said he had a “missionary’s zeal” for self-sufficient agriculture, and was passionate about opposing fracking, revoking the Port of Darwin lease, and Aboriginal health.
Mr Lawrence said his campaign across the Territory may be hampered, as he had been rejected from entering Traditional Owners land since he was unvaccinated.
WED APR 13: THE Greens have unveiled a full ticket of NT candidates for the upcoming federal election, with the minor party expected to be in the balance of power when Territorians cast their votes.
Blair McFarland, a prominent figure in the youth sector, will campaign for the marginal seat of Lingiari, currently held by Labor since its inception in 2001.
The longtime Alice Springs resident founded the Central Australian Youth Link Up Service in 2002 and has worked since to keep kids across Central Australia out of prison.
Mr McFarland helped lead the community campaign for non-sniffable fuel in the Territory. working with then-Greens Senator Rachel Siewert in 2012 to secure the Opal fuel rollout.
Healthcare worker Aiya Goodrich Carttling has been fielded as the party’s candidate for Solomon, where Labor currently holds the seat with a narrow margin of 3.1 per cent.
Ms Goodrich Carter, also a student, was the Greens’ candidate for Johnston at the 2020 Territory election.
Darwin-based teacher Jane Anlezark will run as the Greens’ first preference for one of two spots on the Senate.
Ms Anlezark has taught in schools across the Territory for decades, including in Groote Eylandt, Arnhem Land and the Tiwi Islands.
She moved to the Territory at age 21 to teach in Umbakumba and has worked in NT education ever since.
Deputy Mayor of Barkly Regional Council Dianne Stokes is runnings at the Greens’ second pick for the Senate ticket.
Ms Stokes, a Warumungu and Warlmanpa woman, has lived and worked in the Barkly all her life.
She helped lead the decade-long campaign to stop a nuclear waste dump at Muckaty.
Meet the current candidates vying for Territorians’ votes as election date set
MON APR 11: WITH polling season officially under way after Prime Minister Scott Morrison pulled the trigger for a May 21 election on Sunday, it’s time to meet the Territory’s candidates.
Labor is the only one of the two major parties to boast incumbents going in, with Luke Gosling and Malarndirri McCarthy looking to retain their seats in the lower house electorate of Solomon and the Senate respectively.
The ALP’s Marion Scrymgour is eyeing of the vast lower house seat of Lingiari, after it was vacated by longtime Labor MP Warren Snowden last year.
While Sam McMahon entered the Senate on a Country Liberal Party ticket in 2016, she will be contesting this year’s poll under the Liberal Democrats’ banner after sensationally quitting the CLP amid bullying allegations.
Senator McMahon’s running mate in the Top End seat of Solomon is also a former CLP member in Kylie Bonanni, while their former colleague Jed Hansen is also in the running for the same seat as an independent.
For the CLP, former Alice Springs deputy mayor, Jacinta Price, is looking to return the second Territory Senate seat to the Country Liberals by unseating the party’s former pick in Senator McMahon.
Meanwhile Damien Ryan and Tina MacFarlane have also remained staunch to “the Territory party”, running for the CLP in Lingiari and Solomon in the lower house.
Controversial Territory Windscreens owner, Steve Arrigo, is running for the Senate under the Great Australian Party banner on a platform of “a fair go” and freedom from “never-ending taxes”.
Pauline Hanson’s One Nation is represented by Tim Gallard, “a family man with a desire to hand over a better Australia to the next generation”, who is contesting the lower house seat of Lingiari.
Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party has fielded candidates in both Lingiari and Solomon, with boilermaker/welder, Allan McLeod, and Charles Darwin University education/science student, Tayla Selfe, throwing their hats in the ring.
For the Citizens Party, Peter Flynn and Trudy Campbell have each put their hands up for the Senate, while Thong Sum Lee is vying for Lingiari.
The infighting between current and former CLP members has provided an unwelcome distraction for the party that regards itself as the natural choice for Territorians while it seeks to help the Coalition retain power in Canberra.
Last week, prominent party figure, Linda Fazldeen, and former deputy chief minister, Peter Styles, tendered their resignations, citing “poor management” and “backstabbings, character assassinations and vicious whisper campaigns”.
In her final speech to parliament last month, Senator McMahon revealed she quit the CLP because it appointed a former staff member who “terrorised” her to its central council.
Mr Morrison met with Governor-General, David Hurley, on Sunday morning, arriving at Government House in Canberra to dissolve parliament at about 10.15am.
Senator Sam McMahon joins Liberal Democrats in bid for Senate re-election
FORMER Coalition Senator Sam McMahon will stand as a Liberal Democrat candidate at the upcoming federal election.
Ms McMahon’s bid to win back her job in the upper house means she will run against a candidate for her former party, the Country Liberal Party.
“I have been contacted by thousands of Territorians, including community members, business leaders and peak industry bodies urging me to run,” she said on Friday.
“It was not my intention to contest the next election and I have consistently said so, however, after several events last week and a lot of community endorsement, I have reconsidered my decision.
“I have a proven record in delivering for the Northern Territory, including keeping our two House of Representatives seats, securing funding for much needed infrastructure, delivering for agriculture on the Ag visa, compensation for the live export ban and keeping defence industry spend local wherever possible.”
Ms McMahon said, if re-elected, she will continue her fight to allow for the Northern Territory to make its own laws on voluntary assisted dying.
Kylie Bonanni, one of several high-profile CLP members to quit the party in recent weeks, has announced she will also run in the federal election with the Liberal Democrats.
“As a small-business owner for at least 15 years, I understand the unique challenges facing small business owners and I will champion their cause, should I be elected,” Ms Bonanni said.
“Solomon has been represented by Labor for the past six years and the Local Member has delivered nothing and has ignored the business community.
“We need a voice in Canberra who actively pursues economic development for, and on behalf of Territorians and who argues in favour of infrastructure, roads, defence and tackle the difficult issues associated with living in the Northern Territory.”
Adding to the CLP’s woes, the NT News on Friday revealed prominent figure Linda Fazldeen and former deputy chief minister Peter Styles had tendered their resignations to the CLP in blistering fashion.
Senator Sam McMahon to make major announcement on future
FORMER Coalition Senator Sam McMahon is set to join the Liberal Democrats.
Sky News understands Senator McMahon will announce on Friday that she will stand for the party in the upper house at the federal election.
Senator McMahon was elected as the Country Liberal Party’s Senator for the Northern Territory in 2019.
But her relationship with the CLP has since turned sour.
She lost preselection to Jacinta Price last July before resigning from the party in January.
Last week she told the Senate she had resigned because the CLP had appointed her former chief of staff, Jason Riley, to its central council.
She also made allegations in the parliament that Mr Riley had abused her and other members of her staff.
Mr Riley declined to comment about the allegations.
At the time Senator McMahon said she was undecided about her political future.
But Sky News can reveal she is set to join the Liberal Democrats.
Senator McMahon’s electoral officer and former CLP Kylie Bonnani is expected to run for the Liberal Democrats in the lower house seat of Solomon.
When questioned about the move Senator McMahon said an announcement would be made in Darwin on Friday.
Former Queensland Premier turned Liberal Democrat Campbell Newman is expected in the Top End next week.
The senator has said she is proud of her achievements in parliament, in particular securing two lower house seats in the NT, opposing changes to live export standards that could have badly impacted NT cattlemen and convincing the government not to appeal the Federal Court’s decision to award the Brett Cattle Company compensation over Labor’s 2011 live export ban.
In her statement to the Senate last week she said she was still uncertain about her future. “My road was bumpy but then living in and coming from the Northern Territory, the roads are always bumpy,” she said.
In January, Senator McMahon said she had “been open and on the record about being approached by many parties to run for them”. “It should not be surprising that most of the minor parties see tremendous value in an experienced Senator,” she said.
Second CLP figure hints at independent Solomon tilt
FORMER CLP candidate for Fong Lim Kylie Bonanni has updated her Facebook profile to seemingly announce she is an “independent candidate for Solomon”.
If true, it would be the second high-profile CLP figure to announce their decision to run in the Darwin seat in two days.
Ms Bonanni on Friday updated her Facebook page to state she was running in the seat as an independent, just one day after former CLP vice president Jed Hansen announced his independent run in Solomon.
The NT News has contacted her for comment.
If confirmed, it would be the latest in a string of setbacks for the CLP after the decision for NT Senator Sam McMahon to quit the party.
CLP vice president quits, to run against Tina MacFarlane
CLP vice president Jed Hansen has resigned from the party and plans to run in Solomon as an independent.
And Mr Hansen has expressed concern about his former party’s candidate in the seat, Tina MacFarlane, saying he doesn’t have “much faith” in her campaign.
He also said the CLP tried to drop Ms MacFarlane as a candidate in December.
Mr Hansen is best known for addressing an anti-vaccination mandate rally earlier this year, where he said the CLP was listening to concerns from movements such as Free in the NT.
He previously ran against Labor’s Nicole Manison for the Northern Suburbs seat of Wanguri.
Speaking to the NT News, Mr Hansen said he told president Fiona Darcy of his decision on Sunday and submitted a two-page letter of his grievances to the party.
They included leaking to the media – including to the NT News – of events at the Central Council meeting earlier this year.
Mr Hansen said details of the secretive meeting were appearing in the media less than 15 minutes after they were discussed in Central Council, which demonstrated to him a level of dissatisfaction with CLP management.
“That speaks to an endemic problem within the CLP where people aren’t happy, and therefore it’s causing them to talk to people on the outside.”
Mr Hansen said his priority in Canberra, if elected in Solomon, would be to appoint a federal select committee to examine budgetary misspending of the Northern Territory government.
He said the CLP’s Lingiari candidate Damien Ryan and its Senate candidate Jacinta Price were “damn good” candidates, but he was less enthusiastic about their candidate in Solomon, Tina MacFarlane.
“Truth be told, I think there are some concerns about Tina MacFarlane.
“And the reality was that … the party tried to move away from Tina MacFarlane in December.”
In response to questions, Ms Darcy said the CLP wished Mr Hansen well.
She also hosed down the suggestion of any questions about Ms MacFarlane’s support within the CLP.
“Tina Macfarlane was chosen by the CLP to run for the seat of Solomon, and we are totally supportive of her.
“The CLP has no grievance with Mr Hansen.”
Mr Hansen put his hand up to become the new CLP president earlier this year, but lost to Ms Darcy.
In January, he was filmed addressing a crowd of anti-mandate protesters in Darwin’s CBD.
Originally published as Meet the current candidates vying for Territorians’ votes as election date set
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