Loraine Braham

{{Short description|Australian politician (1938–2026)|bot=PearBOT 5}} {{Use Australian English|date=February 2018}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2022}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = | name = | honorific_suffix = | image = Loraine Margaret Braham, MLA.jpg | alt = | caption = Braham in 2001 | office = Speaker of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly | term_start = 25 November 1997 | term_end = 15 February 1999 | predecessor = Terry McCarthy | successor = Terry McCarthy | term_start1 = 16 October 2001 | term_end1 = 28 June 2005 | predecessor1 = Terry McCarthy | successor1 = Jane Aagaard | constituency_AM2 = Braitling | assembly2 = Northern Territory Legislative | term_start2 = 4 June 1994 | term_end2 = 8 August 2008 | predecessor2 = Roger Vale | successor2 = Adam Giles | birth_name = <!-- only use if different from name --> | birth_date = {{Birth date|df=y|1938|8|21}} | birth_place = Bendigo, Victoria, Australia | death_date = {{Death date and age|df=y|2026|1|8|1938|8|21}} | death_place = Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia | party = Independent (2001–2008) | other_party = Country Liberal (1994–2001) | spouse = | alma_mater = Melbourne Teachers' College<br />Northern Territory University | occupation = Teacher }}

'''Loraine Margaret Braham''' (21 August 1938 – 8 January 2026) was an Australian politician.<ref name=abce>{{cite web|url=http://www.abc.net.au/elections/nt/2005/guide/brai.htm|title=2005 Northern Territory Election Braitling|date=28 June 2005|author=Antony Green|publisher=ABC News|accessdate=31 January 2010}}</ref> She was a member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly from 1994 to 2008, representing the electorate of Braitling.<ref name=abce/> 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.<ref name=abce/> She was the Speaker of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly from 1997 to 1999 and again from 2001 to 2005.<ref name=abce/> Braham also served as a minister in the Stone government from 1999 to 2000.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.alicespringsnews.com.au/0716.html|title=Janganpa: More than an Art Centre|work=Alice Springs News|date=19 April 2000|author= Kieran Finnane|author-link= Kieran Finnane|accessdate=31 January 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=http://epress.anu.edu.au/caepr_series/no_29/pdf/whole_book.pdf|title=Contested Governance Culture, power and institutions in Indigenous Australia|year=2008 |page=287|publisher=ANU Press |doi=10.22459/CAEPR29.08.2008 |isbn=9781921536045 |accessdate=31 January 2010|editor-last1=Hunt |editor-last2=Smith |editor-last3=Garling |editor-last4=Sanders |editor-first1=Janet |editor-first2=Diane |editor-first3=Stephanie |editor-first4=Will |doi-access=free }}</ref>

==Early years== Braham was born in Bendigo, Victoria. She 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 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 opal 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 Town Council from 1988 to 1994 and completed a Graduate Diploma in Public Sector Executive Management at the Northern Territory University.

==From teacher to speaker== {{NT parlbox header}} {{NT parlbox|term=7th|start={{NT election link|1994}}|end=1997|party=Country Liberal Party|electorate=Braitling}} {{NT parlbox|term=8th|start={{NT election link|1997}}|end=2001|party=Country Liberal Party|electorate=Braitling}} {{NT parlbox|term=9th|start={{NT election link|2001}}|end=2005|party=Independent politician|electorate=Braitling}} {{NT parlbox|term=10th|start={{NT election link|2005}}|end=2008|party=Independent politician|electorate=Braitling}} |}

In 1994, long-serving Country Liberal Party minister Roger Vale announced his resignation as the member for the electorate of Braitling. Braham nominated for the preselection contest to decide his replacement. She had some difficulty in winning preselection, at one point seeking the advice of the 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 rumoured that Braham's opposition had played a part in his downfall. Stone was replaced as chief minister by Denis Burke. Within a week of Burke taking over, he promoted Braham to cabinet as Minister for Local Government, Minister for Housing, Minister for Aboriginal Development and Minister for Central Australia, replacing Eric Poole in the ministry. Terry McCarthy succeeded her as speaker.

==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 prominent 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. She found herself under attack over the state of public housing in the Territory, and 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 again. She was initially preselected by the Alice Springs branch of the Country Liberal Party for a third term in Braitling. However, the other decisions of the branch proved to be quite controversial—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.<ref name=nolk>{{cite web|url=http://www.alicespringsnews.com.au/0802.html|publisher=Alice Springs News|title=Night of the Long Knives: Inside Story|date=14 February 2001|accessdate=31 January 2010}}</ref>

The fallout from Elferink's letter was immense. On 25 November 2000, the CLP'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. Peter Harvey, who had previously been chosen over Carney in Araluen, replaced Braham as CLP candidate in Braitling. In one sudden twist, Braham's career in the legislature appeared to be over.<ref name=nolk/><ref name=dolk>{{cite web|url=http://www.alicespringsnews.com.au/0748.html|date=29 November 2000|publisher=Alice Springs News|title=Country Liberal Party: Day of the Long Knives|author=Erwin Chlanda|accessdate=31 January 2010}}</ref> While the CLP had dropped sitting MLAs before, Braham was the first sitting CLP minister to lose her preselection.<ref name=imb>{{cite web|url=http://www.alicespringsnews.com.au/0748.html|date=29 November 2000|publisher=Alice Springs News|title=Independent: Maybe Says Braham|accessdate=31 January 2010}}</ref>

Burke initially refused to comment on whether Braham would remain in the ministry while serving out her term. However, he sacked Braham from cabinet three days later, with her portfolios being given to backbencher Richard Lim.<ref name=imb/> Speculation then turned to Braham's future; specifically, whether she would contest the seat as an independent.<ref name=imb/> She left the question open for more than two months, until Burke set a deadline—unless Braham announced her intentions by 7 February 2001, she would be banned from the CLP party room.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.alicespringsnews.com.au/0801.html|title=Comment: Getting the Town Going?|publisher=Alice Springs News|date=7 February 2001|accessdate=31 January 2010}}</ref> On the day of the deadline, Braham resigned from the CLP, and announced that she would serve out her term as an independent. While it was briefly suggested that Braham would still retire 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.<ref name=bgfi>{{cite web|url=http://www.alicespringsnews.com.au/0802.html|publisher=Alice Springs News|title=Braitling: Grappling for Issues|author=Erwin Chlanda|date=14 February 2001|accessdate=31 January 2010}}</ref>

==Turning independent== Though she no longer represented the Country Liberal Party, Braham remained an active strongly social conservative voice in the Assembly,<ref name=emttsib>{{cite web|url=http://www.alicespringsnews.com.au/0805.html|publisher=Alice Springs News|title=Eddie may Tip the Scales in Braitling|author=Erwin Chlanda|date=7 March 2001|accessdate=31 January 2010}}</ref> as was illustrated when she vocally opposed the holding of a gay and lesbian festival in Alice Springs.<ref name=emttsib2>{{cite web|url=http://www.alicespringsnews.com.au/0805.html|publisher=Alice Springs News|title=Gay Fest Furore|author=Nick Shepley|date=7 March 2001|accessdate=31 January 2010}}</ref> 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.<ref name=cracking>{{cite web|url=http://www.alicespringsnews.com.au/0804.html|publisher=Alice Springs News|title=Much scratching of heads as pollies get cracking for Territory election|author=Meredith Campbell|date=28 February 2001|accessdate=31 January 2010}}</ref> She was also strongly critical of both parties for, she claimed, neglecting areas south of the Berrimah Line.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.alicespringsnews.com.au/0828.html|publisher=Alice Springs News|title=Now It's the Voters Call!|author=Erwin Chlanda|date=15 August 2001|accessdate=31 January 2010}}</ref>

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 Labor Party.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://australianpolitics.com/news/2001/01-08-18c.shtml|title=Labor Edging Close To Government in Northern Territory; CLP Loses 7 Seats in Large Swing; Hung Parliament Still Possible|date=18 August 2001|accessdate=31 January 2010}}</ref>

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. Had this situation arisen, it was widely expected that Braham would nevertheless have supported the CLP, despite her anger at being turfed by her own party. However, the point was made moot when ALP candidate Matthew Bonson won an extremely narrow victory in Millner, allowing the ALP to win government by one seat. While Bonson's win meant that Labor could have appointed one of its MPs as speaker, new chief minister Clare Martin chose to offer Braham the position, which Braham accepted.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_go1877/is_2_48/ai_n7046689/pg_4/?tag=content;col1|title=Northern Territory: July to December 2001|date=June 2002|author=David Clement|author2=Bill Wilson|work=The Australian Journal of Politics and History|accessdate=31 January 2010}}</ref>

==Re-emergence as an independent== Braham's second term as speaker was only marginally more eventful than her first. As both an Alice Springs MLA 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<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.abc.net.au/stateline/nt/content/2003/s846067.htm|work=Northern Territory Stateline|title=Transcript Parliament in Alice Springs|author=Mark Bowling|date=2 May 2003|accessdate=31 January 2010}}</ref> she had agitated for five years earlier—though she attracted some attention by calling for the resignations of MLAs Chris Burns and John Elferink after a highly publicised clash in the assembly during the Alice Springs sittings. She suspended them both in 2005 as well.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200502/s1305797.htm|date=18 February 2005|publisher=ABC News|location=Australia|title=MP remarks reignite behaviour debate|accessdate=31 January 2010}}</ref> She also helped arrange a second round of Alice Springs sittings in 2005.<ref name=centra>{{cite web|url=http://www.anzacatt.org.au/prod/anzacatt/anzacatt.nsf/ca3cb73640e4b7d4ca2567ee0016638b/fc817d74f8b59579ca257059001deb7b/$FILE/Parliament%20Matters%20issue%2014.pdf|title=Centralian Regional Sitting|number=14|date=August 2005|page=27|work=Parliament Matters: The Half Yearly ANZACATT Bulletin|accessdate=31 January 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091023194138/http://www.anzacatt.org.au/prod/anzacatt/anzacatt.nsf/ca3cb73640e4b7d4ca2567ee0016638b/fc817d74f8b59579ca257059001deb7b/$FILE/Parliament%20Matters%20issue%2014.pdf|archive-date=23 October 2009|url-status=dead}}</ref> While these were generally acclaimed as being successful,<ref name=centra/> she 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2004/03/18/1068582.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080419133856/http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2004/03/18/1068582.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=19 April 2008|title=MP defends banning disabled art exhibition in NT|date=18 March 2004|publisher=ABC News|accessdate=31 January 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.visualarts.net.au/files/NAVAQuarterly%28segment%29.pdf|title=Banned!|page=7|work=NAVA Quarterly|publisher=National Association for the Visual Arts|date=December 2005}}</ref>

Her second stint as speaker meant that although she was now an independent MLA, 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 few occasions, she temporarily stood down as speaker to speak as a regular member or move legislation, as seen in her 2002 Private Member's Bill concerning container deposit legislation{{Citation needed|date=January 2010}} 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).{{Citation needed|date=January 2010}}

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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.abc.net.au/elections/nt/2005/guide/brai.htm|title=Braitling (Key Seat)|work=Northern Territory Election 2005|date=28 June 2005|author=Antony Green|accessdate=31 January 2010}}</ref> 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 suffered a swing of 4.6 percent.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.abc.net.au/elections/nt/2005/results/brai.htm|title=Electorate Results Braitling|work=2005 Northern Territory Election Electorate Results|accessdate=31 January 2010}}</ref> While she had not expressed a preference either way 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 Labor winning a comprehensive victory, it had little incentive to keep an independent in the speaker's chair. Accordingly, Labor nominated former minister Jane Aagaard for the position instead.

==Personal life and death== Braham had two children, a son and a daughter. She was married to husband Graeme for 41 years but was widowed in October 2003 when he died unexpectedly of a heart attack.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2003/10/13/965425.htm|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120716115744/http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2003/10/13/965425.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=16 July 2012|title=Preselection process postponed|website=Australian Broadcasting Corporation |date=13 October 2003|accessdate=31 January 2010}}</ref>

She hosted a weekly radio program called ''Share Your Story'' on 8CCC.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://8ccc.com.au/about/the-people/the-presenters/loraine-braham/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090803014245/http://8ccc.com.au/about/the-people/the-presenters/loraine-braham/|url-status=dead|archive-date=3 August 2009|title=Loraine Braham|accessdate=31 January 2010}}</ref>

Braham died on 8 January 2026 at the age of 87.<ref>[https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-01-08/loraine-braham-northern-territory-politician-dies-aged-87/106211014 Loraine Braham, trailblazing Northern Territory politician dies, aged 87]</ref><ref name="ntnews">{{cite news |title=Former NT speaker remembered for her commitment to Alice Springs |url=https://www.ntnews.com.au/business/northern-territory/former-nt-speaker-loraine-braham-remembered-for-her-commitment-to-central-australia/news-story/d6cf715d5d4ea62cfb8b295a88b0f940 |access-date=11 January 2026 |work=NT News |date=8 January 2026}}</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

{{s-start}} {{s-off}} {{succession box | before=Terry McCarthy | title=Speaker of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly | years=1997–1999 | after=Terry McCarthy}} {{succession box | before=Terry McCarthy | title=Speaker of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly | years=2001–2005 | after=Jane Aagaard}} {{s-par|au-nt}} {{succession box | before=Roger Vale| title=Member for Braitling| years=1994–2008 | after=Adam Giles}} {{s-end}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Braham, Loraine}} Category:1938 births Category:2026 deaths Category:Country Liberal Party members of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly Category:Independent members of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly Category:Members of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly Category:Speakers of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly Category:Charles Darwin University alumni Category:21st-century Australian politicians Category:21st-century Australian women politicians Category:Women members of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly