Loraine Braham - Turning Independent

Turning Independent

Though she no longer represented the Country Liberal Party, Braham remained an active strongly social conservative voice in the Assembly, as was illustrated when she vocally opposed the holding of a gay and lesbian festival in Alice Springs. However, it was not long before she also broke with her old party and began taking issue with a number of their decisions, such as when she accused the government of neglecting Alice Springs over sports funding. She was also strongly critical of both parties for, she claimed, neglecting areas south of the Berrimah Line.

From the moment Braham declared her intention to run for another term, most analysts tipped that she was in with a strong chance. Shortly before the election, prominent conservative publication The Bulletin suggested that Braham could have stopped campaigning six months before and still been easily re-elected. The eventual result was not as decisive, with Braham narrowly finishing second on first-preference votes of 34%, but she was easily elected on the preferences of the Australian Labor Party.

There was initially some likelihood of a hung parliament, which would have meant that an ALP government would need the support of either Braham or fellow independent Gerry Wood to form government, while the CLP would have needed the support of both. It was widely expected that, had this situation arisen, a still-angry Braham would nevertheless have supported her old party. However, the point was made moot when ALP candidate Matthew Bonson won an extremely narrow victory in Millner. While Bonson's win meant that the ALP now had a majority of their own, and could thus have appointed a member of the party as Speaker of the Assembly, new Chief Minister Clare Martin chose to offer Braham the position, and she quickly took up the offer.