When Marshall Perron left school at 14 not even his mum imagined that he would one day make world history.

The third-generation Territorian went on to enjoy a stellar 21-year career as a conservative politician – with even Labor acknowledging that he was good at the job – including seven years as Chief Minister.

And driven by compassion and the awful memory of watching his mother die, he introduced the first euthanasia law in the world, only for it to be overturned by his political allies in Canberra.

Marshall was always a somewhat reluctant politician, a man who could take it or leave it – he did much to help develop the Territory, but always seemed happier fixing his hot rod cars than in the theatre known as parliament.

And maybe that was his greatest strength.

He resigned on the day in 1995 when his private member’s bill, Rights of the Terminally Ill, was debated – and passed 15-10 after a free vote – prompting Who Weekly to call him a “strange fish”, although the magazine more kindly also lauded him as a “rebel with a cause”.

“I always said that if it came down to making a choice between being a politician just for the sake of it and knowing the right time to walk away I wouldn’t think twice.

“I always said that when the time comes to go, the next day I would go fishing. I’ve never been overly ambitious for myself.”

Marshall is proud of his Territory pioneer heritage – his grandmother, Jessie Litchfield, arrived in Darwin
in 1907. She was an author, journalist, photographer and newspaper editor, and campaigned for Territory development all her life.

She once campaigned in an election across the vastness of the NT in a taxi.

Her grandson was conceived in Darwin but born in Perth after his pregnant mother was evacuated in 1941 because of Japanese bombing raids.

“I blame the Japanese for denying me my Territorian birthright,” he says.

Marshall’s parents split up when he was only four and he was raised mostly by his single mum.

His father Keith was an entrepreneur who built an earthmoving business with his brother Stan, who went on to become a billionaire, and his mother Christabel raised her two sons while working as a shop assistant until remarrying and having two more children.

“I missed not having a father when other kids referred to theirs.”

He later determinedly forged a strong relationship with his own son, Bryce.

Marshall went to Darwin Primary and Darwin High for most of the first year before going to live for a short, unhappy time with his father in Perth where he attended Kent Street High for just one term.

“I did so badly that my dad said I may as well go to work. I willingly did. I was not good at school – I’m not sure why. I just did not concentrate on learning.”

Everyday life in those early years was carefree.

“Darwin in the late forties and fifties was pretty primitive and I was given great freedom to do what I wanted. ‘Be home before the sun goes down,’ was mother’s requirement.

He did a range of jobs after leaving school – farmhand, delivery boy, office boy, labourer, painter’s
offsider and taxi driver.

Marshall became a tally clerk at Darwin Port and built his way up to being the manager.

He married Cherry, a former Qantas secretary, in 1968.

Marshall admits that he knew little about politics when he was asked to stand for the Country Liberal Party at the 1974 election, a few months before Cyclone Tracy flattened Darwin.

“I sat in the Legislative Council listening to debates across the chamber and somewhat naively told myself, ‘If that is all there is to it, I could do that’.

“I joined the CLP as I associated the ALP with the unions – the outrageous behaviour of the WWF and seamen’s unions over many years turned me into a believer in capitalism.”

He won the seat of Stuart Park by just six votes and went on to win six more times, the last four in Fannie Bay.

When the Territory was granted Self Government in July 1978, Marshall, still only 36, became Deputy Leader and the first Treasurer, handling a budget of $350,000. When he left office 17 years later the annual budget was more than $2 billion.

He held nearly every ministerial portfolio in government at one time or another and played a key role in negotiating the self-government agreement with the Federal Government.

Always a strong supporter of strengthening economic and social ties with South East Asia, he led the first Territory trade mission there in 1978.

Marshall was elected Chief Minister in July 1988 and led the CLP to an overwhelming victory in the October 1990 election, with a swing to government of more than 11 percent. In his last election in 1994, he again increased his government’s majority in parliament.

It is said that his grassroots popularity was so great that the elections became almost presidential: Perron versus the rest.

Marshall resisted pressure from CLP colleagues to stand for Chief Minister at least twice before finally relenting.

He is credited with bringing stability back to the Government after three Chief Ministers in four years.

As Attorney-General in 1984, he announced the release of Lindy Chamberlain and the establishment of a royal commission into her conviction for the murder of baby Azaria.

There was a liberal tinge to the man accused by some southerners of being a racist and a redneck. For instance, he forged Living with Alcohol, which penalised the sale of takeaway heavy beers and used the money to support alcohol abuse programs, and created a strategy to combat domestic violence, which is prevalent in the Indigenous community.

But he will undoubtedly be remembered not so much for his political triumphs and trials as his tireless campaign for euthanasia.

Four people used the provisions of his voluntary assisted dying law before it was overturned at the instigation of religious conservatives in Canberra.

Ancestry.com says Marshall has been dead for more than 30 years. But he is very much alive and still active in the voluntary euthanasia movement.

He is now 83 and lives with his wife on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland.

His prediction many years ago that laws allowing terminally ill patients to die with dignity would one day
be enacted throughout Australia is coming to pass. Ironically, today the only place in Australia without a voluntary assisted dying law is the NT.

Marshall Bruce Perron, the reluctant politician, was just decades ahead of his time. TQ