During the federal election drama, an important marker passed unnoticed: August 12 was the halfway point in the Henderson Government's term in office.

It means the next day of reckoning for the Northern Territory's political parties is now less than two years away.

But a booth-by-booth analysis of federal election results in the seat of Lingiari offers uncomfortable reading for both Territory Labor and the Country Liberals.

In some communities, Labor's primary vote dropped by more than 50 per cent. Around Santa Teresa and Amoonguna in Central Australia, Labor saw a 68 per cent swing against it.

Even in jail, the tide turned against Labor.

Although many more prisoners voted in this election than in 2007, the Alice Springs Correctional Facility booth showed less than 49 per cent of inmates put a "1" in the box next to Labor.

The Country Liberals, on the other hand, had a swing towards them behind bars, picking up 33 per cent of primary votes. All the publicity about Country Liberals candidate Leo Abbott breaching a domestic violence order didn't seem to deter prisoners.

But worryingly for the Territory Opposition, even the people who swung away from Labor did not necessarily vote for the Country Liberals in many of the remote booths. Some went with the Greens or independents.

For Labor, these results are a sign that perhaps for the first time, Indigenous votes in the bush really are up for grabs.

For the Country Liberals, it's a clear message that they have a lot of convincing to do before people in remote communities see them as a viable alternative.

Winning over those voters is important in the long term. The birth rates and demographics of the Territory's remote communities mean the Indigenous vote is going to become more and more important in the future.

It is hard for the major parties to know exactly why people in the Territory's remote communities shifted their votes but the intervention does seem to be a major factor.

In the 2007 election, people voting against the intervention shunned the Coalition. But with many of the intervention's most controversial elements still in place during Labor's first term, some voters chose not to vote for either major party.

Other issues, like the proposed Muckaty Station nuclear waste dump, seemed to have an effect.

In Tennant Creek, near where the facility would be built, Labor had a 24 per cent swing away from it in primary votes, while the Greens, who are opposed to the dump, achieved a swing of 29 per cent. On a two-party preferred basis, Labor still won the booth.

It's important for both parties that they work out what went wrong or right - and why - if they are to win in 2012.