Loraine Braham

Loraine Margaret Braham (born 21 August 1938) is an Australian 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.

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 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.

In 1994, long-serving Country Liberal Party 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.

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