Australia's northern most federal electorate sits as a gateway to Asia and is considered a multicultural melting pot. But for the best part of a decade, Solomon, in the Northern Territory, has struggled to shake off an economic downturn and an uptick in crime. Labor's held the seat for a record three terms, but this federal election it's got a battle on its hands.
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00:00Growing up in the Territory you get, you know, brought up pretty tough, everyone knows it's
00:11a very hot environment so it's not an easy place to work and keep working, but I just
00:16love it.
00:17Anna Kouzouris knows well the challenges of life in the Top End.
00:22The mother of four runs a busy Darwin construction company in an industry that's felt the crunch
00:27of a lean few years.
00:30The NT in general has always had this, peaks and then lows.
00:36Honestly this last couple of years it's sort of lasted longer than usual, the low peak.
00:43It's a sting that's been felt across the federal seat of Solomon, which takes in the cities
00:47of Darwin and neighbouring Palmerston, where sluggish population and employment growth
00:54have been an economic handbrake.
00:56It's really brought down the confidence in people.
01:02Over recent years Solomon has also struggled with high rates of crime and anti-social behaviour.
01:09The owners of this supermarket forced to pay tens of thousands of dollars in security upgrades
01:15after it was ram-raided and looted.
01:17It has been hit pretty bad, so it's a loss of revenue for the shop holders as well as
01:22the damages it has caused.
01:25The crime is a point of discussion as well as a criteria for this election.
01:32The Prime Minister's been a repeat visitor to Solomon since Labor won government three
01:37years ago, as has the opposition leader.
01:40But some believe the federal attention could have been better targeted.
01:44I think the NT gets forgotten all the time in the scheme of federal politics.
01:50I think a lot of people are very apathetic about federal politics and politics in general.
01:57Do you know who your federal member is?
02:00As in the party?
02:02The guy who's been sitting in the seat, the MP?
02:05No, I don't.
02:11Since 2016, Solomon's been held by Labor MP and Defence Force veteran Luke Gosling.
02:19His main rival at this year's election, long-term former Territory Police Officer Lisa Bayliss,
02:26who's running for the country Liberal Party.
02:29Politics has always been something that interested me, but particularly after the last Territory
02:33election, I knew that it was going to be a now or never decision.
02:40After eight years of Labor, the country Liberals won last year's NT election on a crusade against crime.
02:47The Coalition candidate now pledging she'll work hand-in-glove with her Territory counterparts
02:52to try to make a difference.
02:54I want to see that change.
02:55I want to see that cycle broken.
02:57And what we've been doing hasn't been working and we need a change of direction.
03:01Labor's incumbent believes he's still the man for the job in Solomon,
03:05despite the electorate's ongoing challenges.
03:08You know what I find really incredible is that no one has won Solomon before me
03:16by more than about one and a half percent.
03:19And in the last election, we resoundingly held Solomon.
03:24Urging voters not to dismiss Labor as a one-term government,
03:28claiming their work in the NT is just getting started.
03:32Over the last two and a half years under federal Labor, we have poured billions of dollars
03:37into the Northern Territory for various issues, whether they be economic development
03:42or social development, health.
03:49Not just a two-horse race, independent Phil Scott is also throwing his hat in the ring,
03:55buoyed by the success of Independents and the Greens in last year's Territory poll.
04:00Nowhere quite tells the story of Solomon's stagnant economy
04:04than this construction site in Knightcliffe.
04:07It's been sitting dormant for more than eight years,
04:10as tools were downed over the state of the market.
04:13But with big projects on the horizon, like Santos's Barossa gas project off the Tiwi Islands,
04:19there are renewed signs of optimism for the future.
04:22The question now is, who do voters think is best placed to steer the top-end's economy
04:27into this new chapter?
04:29Will they stick with Labor, or look for a change of course?