John Elferink
Johan Wessel Elferink is an Australian politician. He is a former member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly for the Country Liberal Party.
Early life
Elferink was born in the Netherlands and moved to Australia with his parents and older siblings as a three-year-old in 1968. 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 Sergeant, and served in both Darwin and Alice Springs. Elferink's career in the NT Police Force was not without incident. In an article in the NT News, he admitted turning up to work so drunk he couldn't fill in routine forms and to crawling round the Darwin Casino roof space.
While in the police force, he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from Monash University in 1997, completing the course by distance education. In 2008 Elferink graduated with a Bachelor of Laws from the University of New England. He was admitted to the bar in October 2009.
Political career
In 1997, Elferink won Country Liberal preselection for the rural electorate of MacDonnell after incumbent Labor member Neil Bell announced his retirement. On paper, Elferink faced daunting odds; the ALP held the seat with a majority of 16 points. However, the ALP preselected union organiser Mark Wheeler, thus prompting indigenous leader Kenneth Lechleitner to run as an independent and direct his preferences to the CLP.Elferink picked up enough of Leichleitner's preferences to take the seat on a swing of 18.7 percent. Although a redistribution ahead of the 2001 election erased Elferink's majority and made Macdonnell a notional Labor seat, Elferink was re-elected even as a massive swing to Labor across the Territory allowed it to win government for the first time. He served in the Shadow Ministry under Opposition Leaders Denis Burke and Terry Mills.