Ministerial Career
Braham's five years as a backbencher and Speaker had generally been uneventful, but her term as a minister saw mixed results. She was quite as Minister for Central Australia, maintaining a high profile and playing a role in negotiations surrounding the construction of the Adelaide-Darwin railway, overseeing the initiation of "Alice in 10", a major urban renewal project in Alice Springs, and agitating successfully for the construction of a convention centre in Alice Springs, among other achievements.
This contrasted with difficulties in both of her other portfolios - housing, where she found herself under attack over the state of public housing in the Territory, and Aboriginal development, where she struggled to deal with the substandard living conditions in many remote indigenous communities. There were also some concerns hanging over her performance in Central Australia, however, with the Alice Springs News once labelling her the "Minister for Official Openings", and suggesting that she was proving ineffective.
Read more about this topic: Loraine Braham
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