Division of Lingiari
Australian federal electoral division
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Through Voting
Its MP has been Marion Scrymgour of the Labor Party since 2022. The division has been held continuously by Labor since it was first contested in 2001.
Lingiari includes all of the Northern Territory's remote Indigenous communities, most of whom vote when visited by mobile polling teams during the election campaign. Scrymgour herself is Indigenous and inherited Tiwi identity from her mother.
Geography
Federal electoral division boundaries in Australia are determined at redistributions by a redistribution committee appointed by the Australian Electoral Commission. Redistributions occur for the boundaries of divisions in a particular state or territory, and they occur every seven years, or sooner if a state or territory's representation entitlement changes or when divisions of a state or territory are malapportioned.
Since the 2024 redistribution, the division covers almost the entirety of the Northern Territory except the City of Darwin and City of Palmerston local government areas.
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History
The division was named after prominent Aboriginal rights activist Vincent Lingiari AM (1908–1988), who was a member of the Gurindji nation. Other divisions named after Aboriginal Australians are Bennelong in New South Wales, Blair and Bonner in Queensland, and Cooper and Nicholls in Victoria.
The division was one of the two established when the former Division of Northern Territory was redistributed on 21 December 2000 ahead of the 2001 federal election. It covers almost the entire Territory—except for the area around Darwin, which is covered by the Division of Solomon—an area of 1,347,849 square kilometres (520,407 sq mi). It is the second largest electorate in terms of area in Australia, the largest being the Division of Durack in Western Australia. The division also includes the Christmas and Cocos (Keeling) Islands. From its formation until the 2022 Australian federal election, it had been held by Warren Snowdon of the Australian Labor Party, who transferred there after the Division of Northern Territory was abolished.
At the time of the 2004 election, there were 58,205 people enrolled to vote in Lingiari, making it one of the least populous divisions in Australia. Lingiari has the largest Indigenous population in Australia; as of the 2013 election, 42.7 percent of the population was Indigenous.