Loraine Braham - From Teacher To Speaker

From Teacher To Speaker

In 1994, long-serving Country Liberal Party minister Roger Vale announced his resignation as the member for the electorate of Braitling, and Braham decided to nominate in the preselection contest to decide his replacement. She had some difficulty in winning pre-selection, at one point seeking the advice of soon-to-be Chief Minister Shane Stone, but eventually prevailed. As Braitling has usually been a very safe seat for the CLP, Braham was easily elected, and subsequently became the first woman ever to be elected to the Assembly from Central Australia.

Braham served out a relatively uneventful first term as a backbencher, but when she attempted to recontest her seat at the 1997 election, she faced an unexpected preselection challenge from local policeman John Elferink. She prevailed, however, and Elferink was given MacDonnell as consolation. She found herself promoted to her first parliamentary appointment immediately after the election, when Stone nominated her as the first ever female Speaker of the Assembly.

Braham's first term as Speaker was not particularly eventful, although some of her rulings from the chair caused a significant falling out with Stone. When Stone faced a leadership crisis in February 1999 and subsequently resigned, it was widely rumored that Braham's opposition had played a part in his downfall. Stone was replaced as Chief Minister by Denis Burke, and within a week of his taking over, Braham was replaced as Speaker, and instead appointed as Minister for Local Government, Minister for Housing, Minister for Aboriginal Development and Minister for Central Australia, replacing Eric Poole in the ministry.