Editing Clare Martin (section)

===Achievements===
In the longer term, she oversaw the completion of the [[the Ghan|Adelaide-Darwin railway]], which had begun under the [[Denis Burke (Australian politician)|Burke government]], and vowed to resurrect the stalled statehood movement.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.abc.net.au/stateline/nt/content/2003/s862748.htm |title=Stateline Northern Territory |website=[[Australian Broadcasting Corporation]] |access-date=16 July 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060521201247/http://www.abc.net.au/stateline/nt/content/2003/s862748.htm |archive-date=21 May 2006 |url-status=dead  }}</ref> 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<ref name="smh">{{cite news| url=http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/The-race-is-on/2005/06/16/1118869048130.html | work=The Sydney Morning Herald | title=The race is on | date=17 June 2005}}</ref>

As Chief Minister, Martin led the ALP to the [[2005 Northern Territory legislative election|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, Northern Territory|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 of the Northern Territory|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, [[Premier of Queensland|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.