Northern Territory

Federal territory of Australia, formerly part of the state of South Australia but transfered to the Commonwealth shortly after Federation. Capital city is Darwin, on the north coast; second city is [Alice Springs]?, in the desert interior to the south.

For several years now it has been agitating for statehood. This raises several constitutional issues, since while it is self-governing the division of power between it and the Commonwealth is different from that between it and the states. A referendum was held on the issue in 2000 which failed. This was a shock to both the Northern Territory and Commonwealth governments, for opinion polls showed most Territorians supported statehood; it was generally put down to a lack of public consultation.

The Northern Territory for a while was one of the full places in the world with legal voluntary euthanasia, but the Federal Parliament overturned the legislation, but only after three people had been voluntarily euthanasised by Dr [Philip Nietzsche]?.

The current (Sep 2001) head of government in the Territory is Chief Minister Clare Martin (Australian Labor Party).