Clare Majella Martin (born 15 June 1952) is a former Australian journalist and politician. 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 Labor Party (ALP) and first female Chief Minister of the Northern Territory. At the 2005 election, she led Territory Labor to the second-largest majority government in the history of the Territory, before resigning 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 was not inclined towards his conservative politics. Martin's ancestry includes the Coughlin family, which also had NSW's first female statistician and the noted test cricketer Victor Trumper. The family was originally from County Offaly, Ireland, until the Cromwell invasion, then left County Cork in the 1850s just after the Great Famine. 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. Although the CLP won a bare majority of the two-party vote, Labor's gains in Darwin were enough to make Martin the first ALP and first female Chief Minister in the history of the Northern Territory. Martin herself was reelected with a healthy swing of 9.2 percent in Fannie Bay, turning it into a safe Labor seat in one stroke.

As Chief Minister, Martin immediately set about making changes, repealing the territory's controversial mandatory sentencing laws,

Aboriginal issues

Although Martin appointed Aboriginal Territorians to her cabinet, she has been criticised for not improving the lot of her Aboriginal constituents, who on average have a life expectancy well below that of white Australians. A respected commentator in The Bulletin suggested that she had gone slow on Aboriginal issues because she feared a white backlash that could have resulted in her government being toppled.

The life expectancy of the Northern Territory's Aboriginal citizens did not increase markedly during Martin's administration. Alcohol abuse continued to be a major issue in Aboriginal communities and third-world diseases like trachoma could be seen in remote Aboriginal townships. 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 territory governments was proposed by Mal Brough in May 2006, but this was snubbed by Martin.

Martin was critical of the Federal Government's intervention in Aboriginal communities as announced in 2007. She opposed certain aspects of the intervention such as removal of the permit system. In response, the Federal Government rejected the Territory's argument, saying it was 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 among 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. However, in a result that had not been predicted by any commentators or even the most optimistic Labor observers, Martin led the ALP to a smashing victory. The final result gave 19 seats to the ALP, 4 to the opposition CLP and 2 to independents. The ALP won six seats from the CLP, four of which they had never won before in any election. Two of them were in Palmerston, an area where Labor had never previously come close to winning. In the most unexpected victory of all, the ALP even managed to unseat the Opposition Leader and former Chief Minister, Burke, in his own Palmerston-area electorate. Labor won the second-largest majority government in the history of the Territory, bettered only by the CLP's near-sweep of the Legislative Assembly at the first elections, in 1974.

On 10 September 2007, Queensland Premier Peter Beattie announced he would 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 their resignations at a media conference in Darwin. Education Minister Paul Henderson was elected as the new leader and Chief Minister by the ALP caucus.

Post-political career

In 2008, Martin became chief executive officer of the Australian Council of Social Service, based in Sydney. In August 2010 she returned to the Northern Territory to become a Professorial Fellow in the Public and Social Policy Research Institute at Charles Darwin University.

In June 2019, she was appointed as an Officer of the Order of Australia for distinguished service to the people and Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory, and as a community advocate.

See also

  • List of female heads of government in Australia

References

  • VIDEO: Clare Martin talks at the Whitlam Institute about the GFC and the long-term unemployed on ABC Fora