{"id":478015,"date":"2026-02-13T20:10:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T20:10:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/478015\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T20:10:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T20:10:14","slug":"nightcliff-by-election-set-for-march-7-greens-and-labor-announce-candidates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/478015\/","title":{"rendered":"Nightcliff by-election set for March 7, Greens and Labor announce candidates"},"content":{"rendered":"

A by-election for the Darwin-based seat of Nightcliff will be held on March 7, following the resignation of Greens MLA Kat McNamara from Northern Territory parliament.<\/p>\n

McNamara resigned on Monday for health reasons<\/a>, having won the typically progressive northern suburbs seat from former Labor chief minister Natasha Fyles at the 2024 NT election.<\/p>\n

Beating Ms Fyles by just 36 votes, McNamara’s victory marked the first time the Greens had won a seat in NT parliament<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Kat<\/p>\n

Kat McNamara quit NT parliament for health reasons earlier this week. (ABC News: Pete Garnish)<\/p>\n

March 7 was confirmed as the Nightcliff by-election date on Thursday, with Acting NT Administrator Michael Grant issuing the writ.<\/p>\n

The Greens became the first party to announce a candidate, preselecting Suki Dorras-Walker on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Ms Dorras-Walker contested the neighbouring seat of Fannie Bay at the 2024 general election, losing to the Country Liberal Party’s (CLP) Laurie Zio by 37 votes.<\/p>\n

\"Woman<\/p>\n

Suki Dorras-Walker has been announced as the Greens candidate for the Nightcliff by-election. (ABC News: Pete Garnish\u00a0)<\/p>\n

A former teacher, Ms Dorras-Walker said her campaign would be focused on the environment and long-term solutions for a safer community.<\/p>\n

“I’m interested in providing the services that this community desperately needs, and that’s about fully funding domestic violence services, affordable housing, increasing our public housing stock,” she said.<\/p>\n

“That’s what will actually provide long-term solutions for this community to make sure everyone is safe.”<\/p>\n

Labor preselects Darwin councillor<\/p>\n

Nightcliff was one of 10 seats that Labor lost at the 2024 election, when the party was booted from government after two terms.<\/p>\n

The party currently has just four seats in the territory’s 25-seat parliament, all of which are remote NT-based. The CLP government holds 17.<\/p>\n

Going into the 2024 election, Nightcliff was Labor’s safest seat, with the party having held it for 23 consecutive years.<\/p>\n

Labor announced Darwin councillor and engineer Ed Smelt as its candidate on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\"ed<\/p>\n

Ed Smelt has been announced as Labor’s candidate. (ABC News: Dane Hirst\u00a0)<\/p>\n

Mr Smelt said he would campaign on local issues.<\/p>\n

“We need to be where people are right now, today. What do they see and what do they experience when they drive out of their driveway in the morning?” he said.<\/p>\n

“Things like cost of living \u2014 it’s our local environment, it’s community safety, it’s what the government’s doing to make their lives better.”<\/p>\n

Mr Smelt said he would also push for infrastructure improvements, including to the Nightcliff jetty and pool.<\/p>\n

The CLP is expected to announce a candidate in the coming days, while a progressive independent from the Voices of the Top End group is also expected to nominate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A by-election for the Darwin-based seat of Nightcliff will be held on March 7, following the resignation of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":478016,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,38323,20294,5249,243134,4271,243136,239396,1788,44,193190,8867,1098,243135],"class_list":{"0":"post-478015","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-by-election","11":"tag-clp","12":"tag-darwin","13":"tag-ed-smelt","14":"tag-greens","15":"tag-independents","16":"tag-kat-mcnamara","17":"tag-labor","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-nightcliff","20":"tag-northern-territory","21":"tag-nt","22":"tag-suki-dorras-walker"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=478015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478015\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/478016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}