Sue Carter

Susan Jill Carter is an Australian politician. She was a Country Liberal Party member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly from 2000 to 2005, representing the central Darwin electorate of Port Darwin. After winning a by-election in the then-safe CLP seat, Carter served in the shadow ministry under Opposition Leaders Terry Mills and Denis Burke before being unexpectedly defeated at the 2005 election.

Biography

Carter spent her childhood living in a number of locations across Australia, due to her father's position in the Royal Australian Air Force. She studied nursing, and subsequently moved to Darwin in 1979, gaining a position at the hospital there. She studied teaching at the Northern Territory University some years later, and went on to work as an adult educator, teaching in health-related areas in both Darwin and Katherine. Carter later served as Convenor of the Northern Territory Women's Advisory Council to the Chief Minister, Marshall Perron from 1993 to 1995, before going on to work as an investigator for the Health and Community Services Complaints Commission.

In February 2000, recently dumped Country Liberal Party Chief Minister Shane Stone abruptly quit parliament, sparking a by-election in his safe CLP seat of Port Darwin. Carter managed to gain CLP pre-selection to contest the seat, and campaigned largely on the issue of mandatory sentencing. She was easily elected, polling nearly double the number of votes of the Australian Labor Party candidate. She was appointed as Deputy Speaker upon entering parliament, and served out the remainder of her term in that role.

Carter faced re-election barely over a year later, and had little difficulty being re-elected, despite the decision of long-serving CLP member Nick Dondas to run against her as an independent, which cost Carter a sizable portion of her vote. She was appointed as the party whip after the election, but in December 2002, found herself suddenly promoted to the senior ministry, as Shadow Minister for Health, Senior Territorians, Arts and Museums. In this role, she stepped up the CLP's attacks on Health Minister Jane Aagaard - who was axed not long afterwards. Though she maintained a low media profile, she was well-regarded by some in the party, with CLP stalwart Grant Tambling claiming in his resignation speech that Carter was one of a small group of MPs who were "the future of the party".

It was rumored in the lead-up to the 2005 election that Carter could face a challenge to her pre-selection, but when this did not occur, she was widely expected to win another term, due to Port Darwin generally being thought of as a safe CLP seat. However, on election day, there was an unprecedented swing to the opposition Australian Labor Party across the Territory, and while the result was so close that a result was not known for several days, Port Darwin fell to the ALP for the first time in its history, with Carter being defeated by ALP candidate Kerry Sacilotto.

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