Term As Chief Minister
Martin faced her first electoral test as leader at the 2001 election. At the time, the Country Liberal Party had held office for the 27 years since self-government, and the Australian Labor Party had never come particularly close to government. However, the ALP was coming off a particularly successful eighteen months, and Martin ran a skilled campaign. She was also able to take advantage of a number of gaffes made by Chief Minister Denis Burke, such as the decision to preference the One Nation Party over the ALP - which lost the CLP a number of votes in crucial Darwin seats. Despite this, most commentators were predicting a close result with the CLP returned. However, in a shock result, the ALP achieved majority government by one seat, and Martin became the first ALP and first female Chief Minister in the history of the Northern Territory.
As Chief Minister, Martin immediately set about making changes, repealing the territory's controversial mandatory sentencing laws, and introducing freedom of information legislation, which had been neglected during the CLP's 27-year rule.
Read more about this topic: Clare Martin
Famous quotes containing the words term, chief and/or minister:
“Orlando. Who stays it still withal?
Rosalind. With lawyers in the vacation; for they sleep
between term and term, and then they perceive not how Time
moves.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness.”
—Eric Hoffer (1902–1983)
“[T]he minister preached a sermon on Jonah and the whale, at the end of which an old chief arose and declared, “We have heard several of the white people talk and lie; we know they will lie, but this is the biggest lie we ever heard.””
—Administration in the State of Miss, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)