Chansey Paech

Chanston (Chansey) Paech
MLA
Member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly
for Namatjira
Preceded by Alison Anderson
Personal details
Born Alice Springs
Nationality Aboriginal
Political party Australian Labor Party

Chanston James "Chansey" Paech MLA is an Australian politician. He is a Labor member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly since 2016, representing the electorate of Namatjira. He is of Aranda and Gurindji descent.

Early life and career

Paech grew up in Alice Springs.[1] He was elected to the Alice Springs Town Council in 2012.[2]


Paech completed his secondary education at Anzac Hill High, Alice Springs , Northern Territory. He later studied at Charles Darwin university in the field of land management and horticulture production.

Paech has a long standing relationships with the Aboriginal and community controlled sectors in the Central Australian community.

Politics

Paech was preselected as the Labor candidate for Namatjira for the 2016 Territory election. The seat's incumbent since 2005 (dating to when the seat was known as MacDonnell), independent Alison Anderson, was retiring after three terms. On paper, Paech faced daunting odds. The seat had a notional Country Liberal Party majority of 20.8 percent, and a redistribution had seemingly consolidated the CLP's hold on the seat by pushing it into Alice Springs.[3] However, Anderson, who had served under four banners during her tenure (Labor, CLP, independent, Palmer United and independent again) endorsed Paech as her successor; she is a longtime indigenous activist, and retained substantial goodwill in the area.[4] The ABC's Antony Green believed that Anderson's endorsement made Namatjira "a certain Labor gain."[5]

Paech won the seat resoundingly, taking 59 percent of the two-party vote on a swing of over 29 percent, the second-largest swing of the election--enough to revert Namatjira to its traditional status as a safe Labor seat.

Paech is the first openly gay indigenous MP in Australia.[6] He gave his maiden parliamentary speech on 19 October 2016, in which he said he entered the chamber "eternally proud of who I am and where I come from ... I am young, I am gay, I am black; a true-blue Territorian. I am a proud face of the diversity and future of the great Australian Labor party."[7] He added: "I look forward to the day when this country will recognise my rights as equal rights, when I too can marry in my country, on my country, as a recognised first Australian."[7]

References

  1. ↑ "Chansey Paech - Namatjira". Territory Labor. Retrieved 28 August 2016.
  2. ↑ Brash, Stewart (31 March 2012). "Damien Ryan re-elected as Alice Springs Mayor". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. ABC Alice Springs. Retrieved 28 August 2016.
  3. ↑ "Electorate: Namatjira". ABC News. Retrieved 28 August 2016.
  4. ↑ Bardon, Jane (11 August 2016). "CLP facing uphill battle in bush electorates". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 12 August 2016.
  5. ↑ Green, Antony. NT election preview. ABC News, 2016-08-08.
  6. ↑ "Meet The First Gay Aboriginal Politician Elected To An Australian Parliament". Buzzfeed. 5 September 2016. Retrieved 5 September 2016.
  7. 1 2 Davidson, Helen (19 October 2016). "'I am young, I am gay, I am black,' says Chansey Paech to NT parliament". The Guardian.
Northern Territory Legislative Assembly
Preceded by
Alison Anderson		 Member for Namatjira
2016–present 		Incumbent
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