The Northern Territory may be the most challenging of Australia’s States and Territories to govern, due to geographic, demographic, financial and constitutional differences. Exploring these differences aids understanding of elections and government office-holding from 2012 to 2024, and a strong two-party system built on single-member electoral divisions. We also explore the success of independents and geographic skews in demography and party support in the 25 divisions constituting the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly. Social policy controversies are discussed originating in a Country Liberal Party term of government, followed by two Labor terms and a return to the CLP. Three political economy perspectives are also explored over this time span—financial dependence, industry structure and divergent development ideas. We argue that the distinctiveness of Northern Territory politics lies in a combination of embedded Indigeneity and settler ideologies of development.