Gamblers across Australia should be watching the Territory closely.

Key points: Scott Morrison and Bill Shorten have both visited the NT this week in a push to win the region's seats

Scott Morrison and Bill Shorten have both visited the NT this week in a push to win the region's seats The Coalition has used the Territory Labor Government and its handling of the NT economy as leverage to attack Bill Shorten's federal Labor

The Coalition has used the Territory Labor Government and its handling of the NT economy as leverage to attack Bill Shorten's federal Labor Regional towns across the Territory may vote against Labor in protest against high crime rates and a perceived inability to fix them

With there being no magic mare, no Winx set to steal the race across the wide and lowly populated area, the nation's major parties have revealed they are going to give the Northern Territory a serious run on May 18 — each aiming to capitalise on the other's perceived weaknesses and failings in the region.

There are just two Lower House seats in the NT up for grabs in the upcoming federal election — Solomon for Darwin and Palmerston, and the vast Lingiari covering everything south of the Berrimah Line.

While both NT seats are currently held comfortably by Labor, Lingiari on 8.2 per cent and Solomon on 6.1 per cent, nothing remains certain.

The ABC's election analyst Antony Green earlier this year released his outlook for "key seats" across the nation and, somewhat surprisingly, both Solomon and Lingiari featured prominently.

"Solomon was won by Labor's Luke Gosling at the 2016 election, an easy victory harnessing the Territory's then-unpopular Country Liberal Party (CLP)," he said.

"In 2019 it is the Territory's Labor Government having difficulties, and the CLP's Kathy Ganley will be hoping to capitalise."

Kathy Ganley and Luke Gosling will battle it out for the seat of Solomon. ( ABC News: Matt Garrick )

At the 2016 federal election, held little more than a month before a heated NT election, then-chief minister Adam Giles and his dysfunctional, scandal-prone cabinet were pinpointed as the culprits behind the defeat of former CLP MP for Solomon Natasha Griggs.

Now, with Darwin on the brink of recession and a public outcry against crime, the party destroyed at the polls three years ago has begun employing the same weapon of destruction against federal Labor, firing against Chief Minister Michael Gunner's NT Labor.

While it remains unclear whether the Coalition will hold onto marginal seats elsewhere in the nation, the need to gain others from Labor has never been more crucial.

Shorten blamed for NT's perceived shortfalls

When the federal election campaign rolled into the Top End this week, Prime Minister Scott Morrison spoke with tub-thumping bravado about why his team deserved to claw the two seats from Labor.

His campaign pitch was clear.

"The Gunner Labor Government is the worst government in the country. They really are," Mr Morrison said.

"If you can't manage money, they've demonstrated you can't run the Territory. Labor can't manage money and that's why they present a real risk at the federal level."

Opposition leader Bill Shorten speaks to the media in Darwin. ( ABC News: Nicholas Haggarty )

Federal Labor, conversely, had its own message to sell to Territorians to try to retain its ground.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten and his Deputy, Tanya Plibersek, tried this week to convince voters in Darwin and Alice Springs that the past two terms of Coalition Government had seen rampant financial mismanagement on a federal level.

"I think it's really dishonest of Scott Morrison to talk about how he's helping the Territory … I don't think Territorians buy it," Ms Plibersek said.

"He's cutting funding to schools and hospitals so he can give bigger tax breaks to multinational companies and people who are already wealthy. That's what his idea of managing the economy is."

The Coalition has also been going hard on social and commercial media attack advertisements, featuring the slogan: "Don't let Shorten do to Australia what Gunner has done to the NT".

The relationship between Mr Gunner's NT Government and the Coalition's Commonwealth has always been loaded, exploding in recent times due to debates over GST distribution, remote housing management and the priorities of infrastructure projects.

By the end of April 2019, it looks to have all but disintegrated.

PM Scott Morrison speaking to defence force members during a whirlwind trip to Darwin in April. ( ABC News: Adam Kennedy )

Pollies chasing Territory's electoral carrots

There are just four main horses running for the House of Representatives in the NT — ex-serviceman Mr Gosling and former deputy coroner Ms Ganley for Solomon, and stalwart Labor MP Warren Snowdon and CLP candidate and Alice Springs town councillor Jacinta Price for Lingiari.

Despite the Greens and other minor parties fielding entries, no third party or independent has enough of a profile or groundswell of support behind them to take home a spot in either the House or the Senate.

Traditionally, the two Senate seats on offer for the NT have been a shoo-in, with one going to Labor and the second to the CLP.

This year looks to be no different, with Katherine vet and first-time politician Sam McMahon looking to take one position for the CLP while former NT Government minister and journalist Malarndirri McCarthy is expected to retain the other for Labor.

Considering that the whole of the Territory is only worth a paltry two seats — not generally considered enough to change an election outcome — the level of firepower being thrown at the NT by both the Federal Government and Opposition in recent weeks is notable.

Mr Morrison has frequented the region twice so far since January, while Mr Shorten has upped his mileage to three visits.

In their orbit, a cavalcade of ministers and opposition MPs have also headed up to the red dust to spruik their wares, promising resource development and visible change for remote Indigenous Territorians.

Money has been pledged across the NT, from a $200 million cash splash for Kakadu National Park to major road funding commitments, a $14 education hub for Palmerston and $15 million for a weather radar station in Tennant Creek.

Many of the fresh commitments from the Coalition have been allocated across Lingiari — an electoral carrot the Liberals have been chasing for decades but which has remained, as yet, unattainable.

Bill Shorten has made three trips to the Territory so far during this election year. ( ABC News: Nicholas Haggarty )

Stakes are high for the Territory's future

The race for the sparse and cash-thirsty Lingiari seat, which takes in the complex NT towns of Katherine, Alice Springs and Tennant Creek, as well as remote communities stretching from the desert through to the Gulf of Carpentaria, could turn out to be one of the most interesting and unpredictable federal election battles.

Mr Snowdon, a veteran campaigner who has represented the area over nine prime ministerships, has consistently snared wins buoyed largely by remote Aboriginal voters in the bush.

"Lingiari has been held by [Mr] Snowdon since it was first contested in 2001, having represented the single Northern Territory seat back as far as 1987," said Antony Green.

While Mr Snowdon used to have the electorate down pat, a close call in 2013 was proof that change was in the making, when he was nearly popped with a knife's-edge margin by a nearly unknown CLP candidate, pastoralist Tina MacFarlane.

When Ms MacFarlane ran again in 2016 she tanked — and the incumbent warded off retirement for another term.

Alice Springs town councillor Jacinta Price could secure votes in the crime-riddled towns of Alice Springs and Katherine. ( ABC News: Adam Kennedy )

But now, with crime and alcohol-related issues rearing their heads and an increasing disdain for the NT Labor Government's apparent inability to fix them, he could be in trouble in the traditional CLP strongholds of Alice Springs and Katherine.

Ms Price, who is of Warlpiri and Celtic descent, is growing into her role as a new darling of the conservatives, and has been harnessing the discontent being harboured in regional towns over these issues.

"Throughout Lingiari, many of you have told me that community safety is a priority," she wrote on Facebook this week.

"As a parent and a caregiver it's a priority for me as well. I will tackle the tough issues like crime and social problems."

Ms Price was voted into her council position with a substantial margin in 2015, and may yet hold onto these numbers to pip Mr Snowdon at the post in the Red Centre federally — but given her divisive views on subjects like remote Aboriginal family violence, it remains unclear how she'll perform in Mr Snowdon's traditional stronghold of the bush.

Whatever the case, with just weeks to go and the odds narrowing, the stakes are high for the candidates in both Solomon and Lingiari — and the attention from the top brass is warranted.

Given the woes facing the Territory — crime, the ailing economy and entrenched Indigenous disadvantage — steering the Territory's future from a federal platform may never have been more pivotal than right now.