Martin joined the Young Liberals in 1960 during her first year at university. She served as state secretary in 1961 and vice-president in 1963, and had received life membership by the time she graduated.
Martin was elected to the Senate at the 1974 federal election, a double dissolution. She was ranked in fifth position on the joint ticket with the Country Party. In April 1975, Martin was chosen as the Liberal Party's assistant whip in the Senate. She was "a linchpin in keeping the Opposition senators in line" during the 1975 constitutional crisis, and retained the position after the Coalition won the 1975 federal election. She resigned as assistant whip in February 1977 after crossing the floor with nine other Liberal senators to oppose a procedural motion to expedite the government's constitutional amendment bills. Martin subsequently led the "No" campaign in Queensland against the simultaneous elections amendment, which was the only one of four not to pass. Her relationship with Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser deteriorated as a result and "destroyed her prospects for promotion while he remained party leader". Prior to the 1983 election, Martin offered to resign her place on the Liberal Senate ticket in favour of Neville Bonner, who had been demoted to the third position. Her offer was rejected and Bonner unsuccessfully stood as an independent. In the last years of the Fraser Government she had increasingly aligned herself with opposition to Fraser's leadership, supporting Andrew Peacock for the party leadership. Fraser resigned as leader after losing the 1983 election and was replaced by Peacock, who appointed Martin as Shadow Minister for Home Affairs and Administrative Services. She resigned from the Senate in November 1984 to seek a lower-house seat at the upcoming federal election, which followed an expansion in the number of House of Representatives seats. After her marriage the previous year she was known as Kathy Sullivan or Kathy Martin Sullivan.
House of Representatives (1984–2001)
At the 1984 election, Sullivan won the newly created Division of Moncrieff for the Liberal Party. She was the first woman to serve in both houses of federal parliament. She was also the first female Coalition MP to serve in the House since Kay Brownbill in 1969. Sullivan was not retained in Andrew Peacock's shadow ministry after the 1984 election. She returned as a shadow parliamentary secretary in 1993 under John Hewson, holding the position until Hewson lost the leadership the following year. She returned to her former position as a deputy whip later in 1994, holding the position until the 1996 election. Sullivan hoped to become Speaker of the House of Representatives when the Coalition won the 1996 federal election, but was defeated by Bob Halverson in an internal ballot. She was instead elected to the speaker's panel. Following a ministerial reshuffle, Sullivan was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Foreign Affairs in October 1997. She held the position until February 2000 when she announced her decision not to re-contest her seat at the 2001 federal election. She has been a vocal advocate for an increase in the number of women in parliament.
From 1965 to 1969 Sullivan was married to Donald Maher. In 1972, he was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of a Brisbane hotel manager; he was released in 1987. Sullivan re-married in 1975 to Jim Gray, continuing to use her maiden name in parliament. They divorced in 1978 and in 1983 she married Bob Sullivan, a former U.S. Marine. She was widowed in 2008.
