Electoral division of Johnston

rdf:langString Electoral division of Johnston

rdf:langString Johnston

rdf:langString Location of Johnston in the Darwin/Palmerston area

rdf:langString Urban

rdf:langString nt

rdf:langString 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 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.