Division of Solomon

Solomon Australian House of Representatives Division
200px The location of the Division of Solomon, highlighted in red, in the Northern Territory, as of the 2016 federal election.
Created	2000
MP	Natasha Griggs
Party	Country Liberal
Namesake	Vaiben Louis Solomon
Electors	63,267 (2013)
Area	337 km2 (130.1 sq mi)
Demographic	Inner Metropolitan

The Division of Solomon is an Australian Electoral Division in the Northern Territory. It is largely coextensive with the Darwin/Palmerston metropolitan area. The only other division in the territory, the Division of Lingiari, covers the remainder of the territory.

The division was one of the two established when the former Division of Northern Territory was redistributed on 21 December 2000. It is named for Hon Vaiben Louis Solomon, a Premier of South Australia, a delegate to the second Constitutional convention and member of the first Australian Parliament. He represented the Northern Territory in the South Australian House of Assembly, when it was still part of that state.

The Division was first contested at the 2001 federal election. For most of its history, it has been a marginal seat. Although the Darwin-Palmerston area has historically been a stronghold for the Country Liberal Party at the territorial level, recent gains by Labor have made it much more competitive.

The CLP's David Tollner held the seat for its first two terms of existence before narrowly losing it to Labor's Damian Hale in 2007. At the 2010 election, the CLP's Natasha Griggs won the seat back for the Coalition with a 1.75 percent two-party margin, becoming the first opposition MP in the seat's history. Griggs was reelected in 2013 as the Coalition won government.

Members

Member		Party	Term
	David Tollner	Country Liberal	2001–2007
	Damian Hale	Labor	2007–2010
	Natasha Griggs	Country Liberal	2010–present

Election results

Main article: Electoral results for the Division of Solomon

Australian federal election, 2013: Solomon

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Country Liberal	Natasha Griggs	23,875	44.69	−1.68
	Labor	Luke Gosling	18,929	35.43	−0.65
	Greens	Todd Williams	4,269	7.99	−5.30
	Palmer United	Stephen Spain	2,691	5.04	+5.04
	Sex Party	Krystal Metcalf	1,847	3.46	+3.46
	Voluntary Euthanasia	Martin Burgess	597	1.12	+1.12
	Rise Up Australia	Paul Sellick	527	0.99	+0.99
	First Nations	Eileen Cummings	470	0.88	+0.88
	CEC	Trudy Campbell	217	0.41	−0.90
Total formal votes			53,422	94.70	−0.24
Informal votes			2,991	5.30	+0.24
Turnout			56,413	89.17	−0.45
Two-party-preferred result
	Country Liberal	Natasha Griggs	27,461	51.40	−0.35
	Labor	Luke Gosling	25,961	48.60	+0.35
	Country Liberal hold		Swing	−0.35

External links

• Division of Solomon - Australian Electoral Commission