John Elferink
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Johan Wessel (John) Elferink is an Australian politician. He was a Country Liberal Party member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly from 1997 to 2005, representing the rural electorate of MacDonnell. Elferink sent shockwaves through the Australian Labor Party at the 1997 election, when he won their safest seat, and surprised many by managing to hold it at the 2001 election. He served in the Shadow Ministry under Opposition Leaders Terry Mills and Denis Burke, but was swept away in the ALP's landslide victory at the 2005 election.
Elferink was born in The Netherlands, but moved to Australia in 1969 as a teenager. His family settled in Darwin, and he subsequently graduated from Casuarina High School. In 1983, Elferink joined the Northern Territory Police as a cadet. He subsequently rose to the rank of Senior Sergeant, and served in both Darwin and Alice Springs. While in the police force, he embarked on a correspondence degree through Monash University, and ultimately graduated with a Bachelor of Arts at the end of 1997.
It was in Elferink's final year of university that he decided to make a run for the Legislative Assembly at the 1997 election. He initially challenged Loraine Braham, the sitting member for the electorate of Braitling, for her Country Liberal Party preselection. This was unsuccessful, but in a surprise move, the CLP instead installed Elferink as their candidate for Macdonnell, then the safest ALP-held seat in the Territory, held by Neil Bell, the ALP's longest-serving member.
While this would have normally meant that Elferink had little chance of winning, the odds improved when Bell abruptly resigned before the election, after earlier suggesting that he would run for another term. The announcement came so late that well-known local ALP candidate Peter Kavanagh had already been preselected for Braitling - where he was not so well-known. With Kavanagh contesting another seat, the ALP turned to Mark Wheeler, a white Alice Springs-based trade unionist - who had some profile in Braitling, but not in Macdonnell, as their candidate for Macdonnell. Circumstances turned even further in Elferink's favour when Ken Lechleitner, a prominent figure in the indigenous community, nominated as an independent and directed his preferences to Elferink. In a shock result, there was an 18.5% swing to Elferink on election day, which was enough to win him the seat that the ALP had held since 1977.
Elferink served as a backbencher for his first term in parliament, and when he ran for re-election at the 2001 election, the ALP had high hopes of regaining the once-safe seat. During the campaign, Elferink caused some controversy when he handed out kangaroo tails, considered by some to be a delicacy, while canvassing in remote Aboriginal communities, leading to accusations of pork-barrelling. He was also ordered by the Northern Territory Electoral Commission to stop handing out playing cards with his picture on the back, which were ruled to be violating electoral advertising laws. In the end, despite a significant swing to Labor across most of the Territory - which delivered them government for the first time in Territory history - Elferink held the seat, enjoying a swing in his favour against the territory-wide trend, even though Labor had endorsed a prominent Stolen Generations campaigner as their candidate. In the aftermath of his election win, Elferink was appointed to the ministry, being given the portfolios of Aboriginal Affairs, Parks and Wildlife, and Arts and Museums.
In April 2002, Elferink saved the life of a badly injured toddler by digging her out from the car she was pinned under, after an accident that had killed several other occupants. Nine months later, in January 2003, Elferink was walking through Darwin at night when he witnessed a knife-carrying attacker attempting to assault an older Aboriginal man. Elferink intervened, and after a short confrontation, the attacker fled.
Elferink became an increasingly prominent member of the shadow ministry during his first two years in a portfolio. However, by early 2003, Elferink became increasingly frustrated with the leadership of Opposition Leader Denis Burke, who was struggling to maintain his grip on the party at the time. In June 2003, Elferink resigned as Shadow Minister for Local Government and Indigenous Affairs and publicly slammed Burke's leadership, labelling him "arrogant" and calling for him to be replaced by rival Terry Mills. He later returned to the shadow ministry in September, taking on the portfolio of police, fire and emergency services - not long before Burke was toppled by Mills after all.
On November 25, 2003, during a debate on raising the age of consent for gay males, Elferink revealed that he was a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, which had led to the 1997 sentencing of the perpetrator to a jail term. He subsequently argued that the age of consent should be raised to 18 across the board. Elferink's disclosures, however, later led to several incidents surrounding alleged attempts by Labor MPs to harass him about the abuse. On June 18, 2004, during a parliamentary debate, Kon Vatskalis held up a long stem, at which point Dr Chris Burns yelled "that's the member for MacDonnell", in what was widely reported as an overt reference to Elferink's abuse, as it was known that his abuser had owned a garden centre. Another incident on February 17, 2005 led to national media attention, after Burns repeatedly mouthed the word "poofter" to Elferink, at which point he moved across the room, leaned over Burns and threatened to punch him. The confrontation led to Burns being removed from the Assembly for an hour, Elferink being removed for a day, and suggestions from Speaker Loraine Braham that they should both resign.
By late 2004, Elferink was once again becoming a key member of the parliamentary party, and this was reflected when, on October 12, he was made Opposition Whip. When Mills resigned from the leadership the following February, Elferink backed away from his earlier comments, and publicly endorsed the return of Denis Burke to the leadership, stating that they had resolved their differences and that Burke had his full confidence. Elferink was subsequently rewarded for this support, being made Leader of Opposition Business and Shadow Minister for Community Development, Housing, Local Government, Sport and Recreation, Regional Development and Indigenous Affairs, while maintaining the position of Whip. In May 2005, Elferink became a father for the first time, with his fiancee giving birth to a baby girl.
Elferink stood for re-election at the 2005 election, and was expected to at least have a reasonable chance of holding his seat, despite a challenge from the very high-profile ALP candidate, former ATSIC Central Zone Commissioner Alison Anderson, who was likely to be popular with the electorate's high indigenous population. However, the ALP won a landslide victory across the Territory on election day, and Elferink was caught up in this, ultimately suffering a huge swing against him. The size of the swing, particularly, came as a surprise to many, and Elferink was one of the first to concede on election night.
Elferink is now serving as party director for the Country Liberal Party.
