Recording available here:

https://youtu.be/44Q5_VXwrPQ

Abstract

The Northern Territory has the lowest rates of voter enrolment in the nation, with just over 22,000 eligible voters not on the role. In the House of Representatives division of Lingiari, which covers the entire Northern Territory beyond the greater Darwin area, the turnout rate for the recent federal election was 66.79%. This was the lowest of any electorate in the nation, and significantly down from the rate of 72.85% reported for Lingiari in the 2019 federal election. Lingiari has the highest proportion of Indigenous people of any electorate in the country, many of whom live in remote communities. This seminar will analyse data on enrolment and participation in Lingiari to show the significance of Indigenous community electors in federal and territory politics. It will discuss the policy barriers and other potential reasons for persistently low rates of participation by electors in Lingiari, as well as some of the steps that have been taken to reverse the decline. Finally, it will consider the impact that tens of thousands of additional Indigenous votes could have on elections and other institutions.

This seminar is the first in a two part series about Indigenous voters. The second seminar will concentrate on the power of Indigenous voters in key electorates across Australia.

Biography

Dr Morgan Harrington is an ethnographer and social researcher who has worked on multiple projects within and beyond academia. Prior to joining the CAEPR team, he held positions as with social research consultancy LocuSAR, as a Research Fellow at the National Library of Australia, as a lecturer in anthropology and development studies, and as a ‘Working-on-Country’ manager for the Ngaanyatjarra Land Council. He was awarded his PhD in anthropology by the University of Melbourne in 2014.