PARADE took a quick trip to the Northern Territory on the weekend.
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It didn’t involve any plane journeys, a change of wardrobe to shorts, sandals and a big floppy hat, or accommodation at Katherine, Darwin or Tennant Creek.
Instead, Parade tuned in to the ABC’s Northern Territory election coverage on Saturday night to watch all the shocks, surprises and open-necked shirts from up north.
In short, it was a terrific night of sightseeing.
Parade is a fan of election coverage at the best of times, but the NT coverage offered a series of very particular pleasures.
The small number of seats (just 25) meant it was easy to keep abreast of all the goings-on and the shifts in party support.
The interviews with candidates, successful and not successful, seemed to be conducted almost exclusively in outdoor locations (probably because it’s not a bad time of year in the NT to be outside), so Parade got to enjoy a bit of tropical weather from afar.
The sweaty faces on the television were somehow comforting at the tail end of a Bathurst winter – a reminder that the weather does get warmer than this.
And then there was that Territory informality.
Ties were at a minimum, one of the female journalists was referred to as “mate” at one stage and outgoing chief minister Adam Giles (Parade is sure he didn’t dream this) was sipping on a schooner when he appeared for his concession speech in Alice Springs.
But not everyone can recognise the pleasures of a night in front of the box watching the election coverage.
Parade’s significant other, when she realised what Parade had planned for the evening’s viewing, was less than enthusiastic.
“You’re going to watch an election from another part of Australia, that doesn’t affect you in any way, being contested by candidates you barely know anything about?” she asked Parade.
Parade confirmed this was so.
“That is just freaky behaviour,” she said, then turned on her heel dramatically and went off to find something better to do.