Clare Martin Totally Explained

Everything about Clare Martin totally explained

Clare Majella Martin (born 15 June 1952) is an Australian politician. A former journalist, she was elected to the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly in a shock by-election win in 1995. She was appointed Opposition Leader in 1999, and won a surprise victory at the 2001 territory election, becoming the first Australian Labor Party and first female Chief Minister of the Northern Territory. She resigned as Chief Minister on 26 November 2007.

Early life

Martin was one of ten children. Her uncle, Kevin Cairns, was a Liberal minister and MP in the McMahon government, but the family wasn't inclined towards his conservative politics.
After attending Loreto Normanhurst, Martin graduated from the University of Sydney in 1975 with a Bachelor of Arts degree, in which her major study was Music., Martin returned to work in 1990 to work on ABC Radio’s morning program. However in 2006, Martin rejected accusations by John Howard and Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister, Mal Brough that her government had been underfunding Aboriginal communities. . A summit between the Federal and the Territorian Governments was proposed by Mal Brough in May 2006, but this, along with any potential to improve funding, was snubbed by Martin.
Martin has been critical of the Federal Government's intervention in Aboriginal communities as announced in 2007. She opposes certain aspects of the intervention such as removal of the permit system. In response, the Federal Government has rejected the Territory's argument, saying it's essential to remove artificial barriers to Aboriginal townships that prevent the measures needed to improve living conditions for Indigenous children

Achievements

In the longer term, she oversaw the completion of the Adelaide-Darwin railway, which had begun under the Burke government, and vowed to resurrect the stalled statehood movement. She also managed to markedly boost the ALP's standing amongst the electorate, as seen in the 2003 Katherine by-election, which saw a major swing to the party.
By 2005, the Northern Territory, under Martin's leadership, had achieved the following:

the highest economic growth in Australia at 7.2 per cent
the lowest small business taxes
record population growth
the highest building approval rates
surging house prices and record levels of home ownership.
Property crime almost halved
Approval for $1 billion development of Darwin wharf precinct

As Chief Minister, Martin led the ALP to the 2005 election, which was their first as an incumbent government in the Territory. Martin campaigned largely on law and order issues. It was predicted that the ALP would win a relatively narrow victory. The final result gave 19 seats to the ALP, 4 to the opposition CLP and 2 to independents. The ALP won 6 new seats, including unseating the Opposition Leader, Denis Burke, in the most unexpected victory of all.
On 10 September 2007, Queensland Premier Peter Beattie announced he'd leave politics that week. This left Martin as Labor's longest-serving current state or territory leader, and as the longest-serving state or territory head of government in Australia, until she herself announced her resignation on 26 November 2007.

Resignation

On 26 November 2007, Clare Martin and her deputy Syd Stirling announced resignations at a media conference in Darwin. Northern Territory education minister Paul Henderson was elected as the new leader and chief minister by the ALP caucus.

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