Division of Solomon

Solomon Australian House of Representatives Division
Solomon, shown within north-western Australia
State or territory:	Northern Territory
Created:	2001
MP:	Damian Hale
Party:	Labor
Namesake:	Vaiben Solomon
Electors:	57,560
Area:	326 km² (125.9 sq mi)
Demographic:	Inner Metropolitan

The Division of Solomon is an Australian Electoral Division in the Northern Territory. It covers the cities of Darwin (including the surrounding suburbs) and Palmerston. The Division covers only 326 square kilometres (126 sq mi); the Division of Lingiari, the only other Division in the territory, covers 1,347,849 square kilometres (520,407 sq mi).

The Division was named after Hon Vaiben 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 created when the former Division of Northern Territory was subdivided at the redistribution of 21 December 2000. It was first contested at the 2001 Federal election. After the 2004 election the seat was a marginal Country Liberal seat.

In the 2007 Federal election, after more than a week's counting, the seat was still considered 'in doubt' by the Australian Electoral Commission. The result was declared on 10 December with ALP candidate Damian Hale edging out his CLP rival, the incumbent David Tollner, by only 196 votes or 0.38% of the two-candidate preferred vote.

[edit] Members

Member		Party	Term
	David Tollner	Country Liberal	2001—2007
	Damian Hale	Labor	2007—present

Australian federal election, 2007: Solomon
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Country Liberal	David Tollner	24,109	46.80	-1.95
	Labor	Damian Hale	21,581	41.90	+3.37
	Greens	Debbie Hudson	4,672	9.07	+2.30
	Independent	Maurice Foley	545	1.06	-0.44
	Liberty and Democracy	Jacques Chester	358	0.70	+0.70
	Citizens Electoral Council	Trudy Campbell	245	0.48	-0.01
Total formal votes			51,510	97.07	+0.98
Informal votes			1,555	2.93	-1.07
Turnout			53,065	91.29	+0.98
Two Candidate Preferred Result
	Labor	Damian Hale	25,853	50.19	+3.00
	Country Liberal	David Tollner	25,657	49.81	-3.00
	Labor gain from Country Liberal		Swing	+3.00

Australian federal election, 2004: Solomon
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Country Liberal	David Tollner	23,361	48.75	+6.94
	Labor	Jim Davidson	18,464	38.53	+0.17
	Greens	Ilana Eldridge	3,256	6.77	+1.63
	Family First	Mark West	1,000	2.09	+2.09
	Democrats	Duncan Dean	892	1.86	-3.58
		Maurice Foley	718	1.50	+1.50
	Citizens Electoral Council	Peter Flynn	235	0.49	+0.49
Total formal votes			47,916	96.00	+0.43
Informal votes			1,996	4.00	-0.43
Turnout			49,912	91.21	-0.78
Two Candidate Preferred Result
	Country Liberal	David Tollner	25,303	52.81	+2.72
	Labor	Jim Davidson	22,613	47.19	-2.72
	Country Liberal hold		Swing	+2.72

Division of Solomon. Australian Electoral Commission Divisional Profiles. Retrieved on 2007-06-29. (PDF, 177 kB)

Electoral Divisions of the Australian House of Representatives in the Territories
Australian Capital Territory Canberra · Fraser (also covers Jervis Bay Territory) Abolished: Australian Capital Territory · Namadgi Northern Territory Lingiari (also covers Christmas Island and Cocos (Keeling) Islands) · Solomon Abolished: Northern Territory