Loraine Braham
Encyclopedia
Loraine Margaret Braham is an Australia
n politician. She was a member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly
from 1994 to 2008, representing the electorate of Braitling
. She was initially elected as a representative of the Country Liberal Party
, serving in that role from 1994 until 2001, but retained her seat as an independent after being disendorsed before the 2001 election
. She was the Speaker of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly
from 1997 to 1999 and again from 2001 to 2005. Braham also served as a minister in the Stone
government from 1999 to 2000.
mining in Andamooka
, South Australia
, they settled in Alice Springs
. Braham continued working as a teacher for many years, culminating in an eight-year stint as the principal of the Braitling School. While continuing as principal, she also served as an alderman on the Alice Springs Council from 1988 to 1994, and completed a Graduate Diploma in Public Sector Executive Management at the Northern Territory University.
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.
, 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.
John Elferink
was dropped, and prominent Araluen
hopeful Jodeen Carney
was overlooked. As a result, Elferink wrote a letter to the party's Central Council complaining about the situation, reportedly suggesting that Braham had used proxy votes to stack the Alice Springs branch pre-selection committee, and that five delegates, instead of being elected, had been appointed by Stuart
branch president, MP aspirant and Braham staffer Tony Bohning.
The fallout from Elferink's letter was immense. On November 25, 2000, the Country Liberal Party's Central Council held a closed-doors meeting, and in a very rare move that was dubbed "the Night of the Long Knives" by the Alice Springs News, overruled most of the Alice Springs branch's preselection decisions. Amidst a swath of other changes, the Council reinstated Elferink, selected Carney for Araluen, and overturned Braham's preselection, giving the seat to Peter Harvey
, who had previously been chosen over Carney in Araluen. In one sudden twist, Braham's career as a representative of the Country Liberal Party was over. While the CLP had dropped sitting MPs before, it was the first time in their history that they had dropped a sitting minister.
Chief Minister Burke initially refused to comment on whether Braham would remain in the ministry while serving out her term, but she was dropped three days later, with her portfolios being given to backbencher Dr Richard Lim
. Speculation then turned to Braham's future; specifically, whether she would contest the seat as an independent. She left the question open for more than two months, until Burke set a deadline; Braham would have to announce her intentions by February 7, 2001, or be banned from meetings of the parliamentary party. On the day of the deadline, Braham resigned from the party, and announced that she would serve out her term as an independent. While it was briefly suggested that Braham may still resign at the election, potentially making way for Alice Springs Mayor Fran Kilgariff to run as an independent, it soon became clear that Braham intended to attempt to retain her seat.
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.
and John Elferink
after a highly publicised clash in the Assembly during the Alice Springs sittings. She suspended them both in 2005 as well. She also helped arrange a second round of Alice Springs sittings in 2005. While these were generally acclaimed as being successful, she has also attracted some criticism for her actions as Speaker - most notably when she angered disabled groups by overriding previous arrangements and banning a nude art exhibition dealing with disabled people that was due to be held at Parliament House
.
Braham's second stint as Speaker meant that although she was now an independent MP, she was still bound by convention to refrain from debate on most political issues and could not vote in the Assembly except in the extremely rare event of a tie. On a small number of occasions, she temporarily stood down as Speaker in order to speak as a regular member or move legislation, as seen in her 2002 Private Member's Bill
concerning container deposit legislation
and again in March 2005, when she used parliamentary privilege
to claim that the head of the Alice Springs hospital had been appointed in breach of regulations (which she was later forced to retract).
Braham ran for another term in parliament at the 2005 election
, facing the new endorsed CLP candidate, former councillor and local party figure Michael Jones. Braham had been widely tipped to win another term, but ended up facing a much stronger challenge than most had predicted; the result was not known for several days after the election, and while Braham was eventually declared the winner, she now has a much smaller margin than in 2001. While she had not expressed a preference either way as to whether she wanted to remain Speaker (in contrast to Deputy Speaker Gerry Wood
, who had made clear that he wanted to retain the position), it was widely expected that Braham would continue in office after the election if she retained her seat. However, with the government achieving a much larger majority at the election, there was little incentive for them to maintain an independent as Speaker, and the government nominated former minister Jane Aagaard
for the position instead.
Braham has two children, one son and one daughter. She was married to husband Graeme for 41 years, but was widowed in October 2003 when he died unexpectedly of a heart attack
.
Braham hosts a weekly radio program called "Share Your Story" on 8CCC.
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n politician. She was a member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly
Northern Territory Legislative Assembly
The Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory is the unicameral parliament of the Northern Territory in Australia. It sits in Parliament House, located on State Square, close to the centre of the city of Darwin.-History:...
from 1994 to 2008, representing the electorate of Braitling
Electoral division of Braitling
Braitling is an electoral division of the Legislative Assembly in Australia's Northern Territory. It was created in 1983, when the electorate of Alice Springs was abolished as part of an enlargement of the Assembly. Braitling is an almost entirely urban electorate, covering 31.6 km² in...
. She was initially elected as a representative of the Country Liberal Party
Country Liberal Party
The Northern Territory Country Liberal Party is a Northern Territory political party affiliated with both the National and Liberal parties...
, serving in that role from 1994 until 2001, but retained her seat as an independent after being disendorsed before the 2001 election
Northern Territory legislative election, 2001
A general election was held in the Northern Territory, Australia, on 18 August 2001. The centre-left Australian Labor Party , led by Clare Martin, won a surprising victory over the then-majority Country Liberal Party . Before this, the CLP had held 18 out the 25 seats in theNorthern Territory...
. She was the Speaker of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly
Speaker of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly
The Speaker of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly is the presiding officer in the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly. Though the office had existed since the creation of the Assembly in 1974, it was given greater legislative force when the roles and functions of the office were...
from 1997 to 1999 and again from 2001 to 2005. Braham also served as a minister in the Stone
Shane Stone
Shane Leslie Stone AC, QC is an Australian political figure. From 26 May 1995 to 8 February 1999 he was Chief Minister of the Northern Territory, representing the Country Liberal Party.-Biography:Stone was born in Bendigo, Victoria...
government from 1999 to 2000.
Early years
Braham was born in Victoria, and initially trained as an infant teacher, graduating from the Melbourne Teachers College in 1958. She subsequently spent four years teaching in Melbourne, during which time she married her late husband, Graeme, in 1960. When he finished his military service in 1962, they decided to leave Melbourne and move north. After a short period spent opalOpal
Opal is an amorphous form of silica related to quartz, a mineraloid form, not a mineral. 3% to 21% of the total weight is water, but the content is usually between 6% to 10%. It is deposited at a relatively low temperature and may occur in the fissures of almost any kind of rock, being most...
mining in Andamooka
Andamooka, South Australia
Andamooka is a town located approximately 600 km north of Adelaide in the South Australian outback. Opal was discovered in the region in the late 1920s, and the town developed out of the scattered miners' camps which established in the area...
, South Australia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
, they settled in Alice Springs
Alice Springs, Northern Territory
Alice Springs is the second largest town in the Northern Territory of Australia. Popularly known as "the Alice" or simply "Alice", Alice Springs is situated in the geographic centre of Australia near the southern border of the Northern Territory...
. Braham continued working as a teacher for many years, culminating in an eight-year stint as the principal of the Braitling School. While continuing as principal, she also served as an alderman on the Alice Springs Council from 1988 to 1994, and completed a Graduate Diploma in Public Sector Executive Management at the Northern Territory University.
From teacher to Speaker
In 1994, long-serving Country Liberal PartyCountry Liberal Party
The Northern Territory Country Liberal Party is a Northern Territory political party affiliated with both the National and Liberal parties...
minister Roger Vale
Roger Vale
Roger William Stanley Vale was an Australian politician. He was a Country Liberal Party member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly from 1974 to 1994, representing Stuart from until 1983 and Braitling thereafter....
announced his resignation as the member for the electorate of Braitling
Electoral division of Braitling
Braitling is an electoral division of the Legislative Assembly in Australia's Northern Territory. It was created in 1983, when the electorate of Alice Springs was abolished as part of an enlargement of the Assembly. Braitling is an almost entirely urban electorate, covering 31.6 km² in...
, 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
Chief Minister of the Northern Territory
The Chief Minister of the Northern Territory is appointed by the Administrator, who in normal circumstances will appoint the head of whatever party holds the majority of seats in the legislature of the territory...
Shane Stone
Shane Stone
Shane Leslie Stone AC, QC is an Australian political figure. From 26 May 1995 to 8 February 1999 he was Chief Minister of the Northern Territory, representing the Country Liberal Party.-Biography:Stone was born in Bendigo, Victoria...
, 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
Central Australia
Central Australia/Alice Springs Region is one of the five regions in the Northern Territory. The term Central Australia is used to describe an area centred on Alice Springs in Australia. It is sometimes referred to as Centralia; likewise the people of the area are sometimes called Centralians...
.
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
John Elferink
Johan Wessel Elferink is an Australian politician.He was a Country Liberal Party member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly from 1997 to 2005, representing the rural electorate of MacDonnell...
. She prevailed, however, and Elferink was given MacDonnell
Electoral division of MacDonnell
MacDonnell is an electoral division of the Legislative Assembly in Australia's Northern Territory. It was first created in 1974, and derives its name from the nearby MacDonnell Ranges. MacDonnell is an almost entirely rural electorate, covering 333398.61 km², and taking in the resort town of...
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
Speaker of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly
The Speaker of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly is the presiding officer in the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly. Though the office had existed since the creation of the Assembly in 1974, it was given greater legislative force when the roles and functions of the office were...
.
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
Eric Poole (Australian politician)
Eric Houguet Poole is a former Australian politician. He was the Country Liberal Party member for Araluen in the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly from 1986 to 2001.-References:...
in the ministry.
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 railwayAdelaide-Darwin railway
The Adelaide–Darwin railway is a north-south transcontinental railway in Australia, between the cities of Adelaide, South Australia and Darwin, Northern Territory...
, 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
Public housing
Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is owned by a government authority, which may be central or local. Social housing is an umbrella term referring to rental housing which may be owned and managed by the state, by non-profit organizations, or by a combination of the...
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.
Axing from the Country Liberal Party
With the 2001 election on the distant horizon, Braham made clear her intention to run for another term, and was initially preselected by the Alice Springs branch of the Country Liberal Party as the party's candidate for Braitling. However, the other decisions of the branch proved to be quite controversial - while Braham survived, sitting member for MacDonnellElectoral division of MacDonnell
MacDonnell is an electoral division of the Legislative Assembly in Australia's Northern Territory. It was first created in 1974, and derives its name from the nearby MacDonnell Ranges. MacDonnell is an almost entirely rural electorate, covering 333398.61 km², and taking in the resort town of...
John Elferink
John Elferink
Johan Wessel Elferink is an Australian politician.He was a Country Liberal Party member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly from 1997 to 2005, representing the rural electorate of MacDonnell...
was dropped, and prominent Araluen
Electoral division of Araluen
Araluen is an electoral division of the Legislative Assembly in Australia's Northern Territory. It was first created in 1983, replacing the electorate of Alice Springs, which had been abolished as part of the enlargement of the Assembly...
hopeful Jodeen Carney
Jodeen Carney
Jodeen Terese Carney is an Australian politician. She was a Country Liberal Party member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly from September 2001 to September 2010, representing the Alice Springs-based electorate of Araluen...
was overlooked. As a result, Elferink wrote a letter to the party's Central Council complaining about the situation, reportedly suggesting that Braham had used proxy votes to stack the Alice Springs branch pre-selection committee, and that five delegates, instead of being elected, had been appointed by Stuart
Electoral division of Stuart
Stuart is an electoral division of the Legislative Assembly in Australia's Northern Territory. Named after explorer John McDouall Stuart, it was initially created in 1947 as one of the five inaugural electoral divisions of the Northern Territory Legislative Council...
branch president, MP aspirant and Braham staffer Tony Bohning.
The fallout from Elferink's letter was immense. On November 25, 2000, the Country Liberal Party's Central Council held a closed-doors meeting, and in a very rare move that was dubbed "the Night of the Long Knives" by the Alice Springs News, overruled most of the Alice Springs branch's preselection decisions. Amidst a swath of other changes, the Council reinstated Elferink, selected Carney for Araluen, and overturned Braham's preselection, giving the seat to Peter Harvey
Peter Harvey
Peter Harvey is an award-winning Australian television journalist.He has been with the Nine Network since 1975 and currently he presents the mailbag segment on 60 Minutes as well as being a reporter on Nine News and a regular contributor on Today.Harvey studied his journalism cadetship with the...
, who had previously been chosen over Carney in Araluen. In one sudden twist, Braham's career as a representative of the Country Liberal Party was over. While the CLP had dropped sitting MPs before, it was the first time in their history that they had dropped a sitting minister.
Chief Minister Burke initially refused to comment on whether Braham would remain in the ministry while serving out her term, but she was dropped three days later, with her portfolios being given to backbencher Dr Richard Lim
Richard Lim
Richard Soon Huat Lim is a former Australian politician. He was the Country Liberal Party member for Greatorex in the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly from 1994 until his resignation in 2007....
. Speculation then turned to Braham's future; specifically, whether she would contest the seat as an independent. She left the question open for more than two months, until Burke set a deadline; Braham would have to announce her intentions by February 7, 2001, or be banned from meetings of the parliamentary party. On the day of the deadline, Braham resigned from the party, and announced that she would serve out her term as an independent. While it was briefly suggested that Braham may still resign at the election, potentially making way for Alice Springs Mayor Fran Kilgariff to run as an independent, it soon became clear that Braham intended to attempt to retain her seat.
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
The Bulletin
The Bulletin was an Australian weekly magazine that was published in Sydney from 1880 until January 2008. It was influential in Australian culture and politics from about 1890 until World War I, the period when it was identified with the "Bulletin school" of Australian literature. Its influence...
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
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...
.
There was initially some likelihood of a hung parliament
Hung parliament
In a two-party parliamentary system of government, a hung parliament occurs when neither major political party has an absolute majority of seats in the parliament . It is also less commonly known as a balanced parliament or a legislature under no overall control...
, which would have meant that an ALP government would need the support of either Braham or fellow independent Gerry Wood
Gerry Wood
Gerard Vincent "Gerry" Wood is an Australian politician. A former mayor of the Northern Territory shire of Litchfield, he has been an independent member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly since 2001, representing the electorate of Nelson....
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
Matthew Bonson
Matthew Thomas Bonson is a former Australian politician. He was a Labor member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly, representing the seat of Millner from 2001 to 2008. Prior to his election, he worked as a local solicitor...
won an extremely narrow victory in Millner
Electoral division of Millner
Millner was an electoral division of the Legislative Assembly in Australia's Northern Territory. One of the Legislative Assembly's original electorates, it was first contested at the first election in 1974. It was named after James Millner, a Doctor and early Australian explorer of the Northern...
. 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
Clare Martin
Clare Majella Martin is a former Australian politician. She is the current CEO of the Australian Council of Social Service . A former journalist, she was elected to the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly in a shock by-election win in 1995...
chose to offer Braham the position, and she quickly took up the offer.
Re-emergence as an independent
Braham's second term as Speaker was only marginally more eventful than her first. As both an Alice Springs MP and as Speaker, Braham was instrumental in arranging the first ever sitting of the Assembly in Alice Springs in 2003, which was held in the Convention Centre she had agitated for five years earlier - though she attracted some attention by calling for the resignations of MPs Chris BurnsChris Burns (politician)
Christopher Bruce "Chris" Burns is an Australian politician. He is a Labor member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly. He has held his seat of Johnston since its creation at the 2001 election on 18 August 2001. He has been a Minister since November 2002 and has held a number of portfolios...
and John Elferink
John Elferink
Johan Wessel Elferink is an Australian politician.He was a Country Liberal Party member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly from 1997 to 2005, representing the rural electorate of MacDonnell...
after a highly publicised clash in the Assembly during the Alice Springs sittings. She suspended them both in 2005 as well. She also helped arrange a second round of Alice Springs sittings in 2005. While these were generally acclaimed as being successful, she has also attracted some criticism for her actions as Speaker - most notably when she angered disabled groups by overriding previous arrangements and banning a nude art exhibition dealing with disabled people that was due to be held at Parliament House
Parliament House, Darwin
Parliament House in Darwin is Australia's newest Parliament Building, it has been the seat of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly since 1994. Parliament House is located on State Square in the centre of Darwin, which is also the administrative centre of the Northern Territory law and...
.
Braham's second stint as Speaker meant that although she was now an independent MP, she was still bound by convention to refrain from debate on most political issues and could not vote in the Assembly except in the extremely rare event of a tie. On a small number of occasions, she temporarily stood down as Speaker in order to speak as a regular member or move legislation, as seen in her 2002 Private Member's Bill
Private Member's Bill
A member of parliament’s legislative motion, called a private member's bill or a member's bill in some parliaments, is a proposed law introduced by a member of a legislature. In most countries with a parliamentary system, most bills are proposed by the government, not by individual members of the...
concerning container deposit legislation
Container deposit legislation
Container-deposit legislation is any law that requires collection of a monetary deposit on soft-drink, juice, milk, water, alcoholic-beverage, and/or other containers at the point of sale...
and again in March 2005, when she used parliamentary privilege
Parliamentary privilege
Parliamentary privilege is a legal immunity enjoyed by members of certain legislatures, in which legislators are granted protection against civil or criminal liability for actions done or statements made related to one's duties as a legislator. It is common in countries whose constitutions are...
to claim that the head of the Alice Springs hospital had been appointed in breach of regulations (which she was later forced to retract).
Braham ran for another term in parliament at the 2005 election
Northern Territory legislative election, 2005
A general election was held in the Northern Territory, Australia, on 18 June 2005. The centre-left Australian Labor Party, led by Chief Minister Clare Martin, won a second term with a landslide victory, winning six of the ten seats held by the opposition Country Liberal Party in the 25-member...
, facing the new endorsed CLP candidate, former councillor and local party figure Michael Jones. Braham had been widely tipped to win another term, but ended up facing a much stronger challenge than most had predicted; the result was not known for several days after the election, and while Braham was eventually declared the winner, she now has a much smaller margin than in 2001. While she had not expressed a preference either way as to whether she wanted to remain Speaker (in contrast to Deputy Speaker Gerry Wood
Gerry Wood
Gerard Vincent "Gerry" Wood is an Australian politician. A former mayor of the Northern Territory shire of Litchfield, he has been an independent member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly since 2001, representing the electorate of Nelson....
, who had made clear that he wanted to retain the position), it was widely expected that Braham would continue in office after the election if she retained her seat. However, with the government achieving a much larger majority at the election, there was little incentive for them to maintain an independent as Speaker, and the government nominated former minister Jane Aagaard
Jane Aagaard
Jane Lesley Aagaard is an Australian politician. She has been an Australian Labor Party member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly since 2001, representing the Darwin-based electorate of Nightcliff. She has been the Speaker of the Assembly since June 2005...
for the position instead.
Braham has two children, one son and one daughter. She was married to husband Graeme for 41 years, but was widowed in October 2003 when he died unexpectedly of a heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
.
Braham hosts a weekly radio program called "Share Your Story" on 8CCC.