Editing Natasha Stott Despoja (section)

===Leader of the Democrats===
The passage of the GST was not popular among the Democrats membership. Unlike other parties, the members directly elected the party leader and a spill could be called at any time with 100 signatures. Meg Lees had been subject to such a challenge before but was re-elected unopposed as no other senator opted to run. By early 2001, the party's fortunes were declining. The state election in [[2001 Western Australian state election|Western Australia]] in February, where the Democrats lost both their seats in the upper house, was particularly damaging and prompted another spill campaign against Lees. Stott Despoja, who by this time was widely recognised and popular among voters, decided to run and was successful, winning 69% of votes.<ref name="Factor">{{cite book|last=Rogers|first=Alison|date=2004|title=The Natasha Factor|publisher=Lothian Books|isbn=0734406835}}</ref>

Stott Despoja became the leader of her party on 6 April 2001. From the beginning she faced difficulties in working with Lees, who viewed her run for the leadership as a betrayal. Other senators, including new deputy leader [[Aden Ridgeway]], remained sympathetic to Lees. In the [[2001 Australian federal election|2001 federal election]] in November, the Democrats recorded a fall in their Senate vote from 8.5% to 7.3% and returned four of the five senators up for election. The party also saw a marginal lift in its primary vote for the lower house from 5.1% to 5.4%. The substantial rise of the Greens vote to 4.9% in the Senate and their election of a second senator ignited further discussion about the fortunes of the Democrats.<ref name="Factor"/>

Throughout 2002, Stott Despoja struggled to keep the party together as senators publicly strayed from party positions and privately expressed a lack of confidence in her leadership. After the party bureaucracy opened an investigation into Meg Lees for allegedly damaging party unity, which Lees and her allies saw as part of a campaign by Stott Despoja to silence her, Lees left the party in July 2002. This was followed by a stand-off with [[Andrew Murray (Australian politician)|Andrew Murray]], who threatened to follow. After deciding to stay, Murray proposed a ten-point package to reform party structures and address the issues raised by Lees, designed to shift power from the leader. At a party room meeting on 21 August, all ten measures were passed four votes to three: Murray, Ridgeway, [[Lyn Allison]] and [[John Cherry (Australian politician)|John Cherry]] in favour, with Stott Despoja and her allies [[Andrew Bartlett]] and [[Brian Greig]] against. Understanding her position to be untenable after this defeat, Stott Despoja announced her resignation to the Senate. She had been leader for 16 and a half months.<ref name="Factor"/><ref>{{Cite news | title=Senator Cherry speaks about Natasha Stott Despoja | date=21 August 2002 | access-date=8 December 2006 | work=[[ABC News (Australian TV channel)|ABC News]] | url=http://www.abc.net.au/pm/stories/s655263.htm | url-status=live | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121103060506/http://www.abc.net.au/pm/stories/s655263.htm | archive-date=3 November 2012 | df=dmy-all }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Stott Despoja|first=Natasha|url=http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22chamber%2Fhansards%2F2002-08-21%2F0040%22|title=MATTERS OF PUBLIC INTEREST : Australian Democrats: Leadership|work=Hansard|publisher=Parliament of Australia website|location=Canberra|date=21 August 2002|access-date=12 August 2014|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121008064306/http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22chamber%2Fhansards%2F2002-08-21%2F0040%22|archive-date=8 October 2012}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news | title=Stott Despoja resigns leadership | date=21 August 2002 | access-date=2006-12-08 | work=[[ABC News (Australian TV channel)|ABC News]] | url=http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/stories/s655390.htm | url-status=live | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070203155548/http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/stories/s655390.htm | archive-date=3 February 2007 | df=dmy-all }}</ref>