Australian Labor Party (Northern Territory Branch)

The Territory Labor Party, officially known as the Australian Labor Party (Northern Territory Branch) and commonly referred to simply as Territory Labor, is the Northern Territory branch of the Australian Labor Party. It is the current ruling party in the Northern Territory and is led by Natasha Fyles, who has concurrently served as chief minister of the Northern Territory since 2022, and previously Michael Gunner from 2016 to 2022. History The first Labor candidate from the Northern Territory—which was then represented by the Northern Territory seat in the South Australian House of Assembly—was Pine Creek miner and former City of Adelaide alderman James Robertson in 1905. The first Labor MP was Thomas Crush, who was elected at a 1908 by-election and accepted into the South Australian Labor caucus despite not having signed the Labor pledge. He was re-elected in 1910, and served until the Northern Territory formally separated from South Australia in 1911, resulting in the loss of the seat in state parliament. A non-voting federal seat in the Australian House of Representatives, the Division of Northern Territory, was established for the 1922 election, and was won by independent candidate and former union leader Harold George Nelson, who joined the Labor caucus after the election. In March 1928, a general meeting of the North Australian Workers Union resolved to establish a Northern Territory branch of the Labor Party and elected an interim executive. In July 1928, it was reported that the federal secretary had requested that the South Australian branch instead form a Darwin branch. It was reported in October 1928 that affiliation with the South Australian branch had been granted, and that the South Australian state executive had re-endorsed Nelson to contest the 1929 election. An Alice Springs branch was established in 1947. The Northern Territory branch was upgraded to receive the status of a state branch in August 1967.