Thursday, February 7, 2013

Nova Peris, Labor Senate Candidate for the Northern Territory.

Endorsed by Prime Minister, Julia Gillard for the number 1 spot on the Australian Labor Party1 senate ticket in the Northern Territory.2 3 As Chris Uhlmann said: “Julia Gillard planned a much brighter beginning to 2013, moving to fill an embarrassing void in her party's federal history.”4 In Julia Gillard's words: “we have never been able to count amongst our number an Indigenous Australian”.4 This is widely believed to assure Nova Peris is elected as the first “indigenous woman in the Federal Parliament”.5 Look at the picture, she doesn't look like an Australian Aboriginal, though dark skinned, she's got the nose of a Caucasian.

  • In 1996 she was part of the hockey team which won gold at the Atlanta Olympics.6
  • In 1997 she was named young Australian of the year and awarded the Order of Australia Medal.6
  • In 1998 she won gold medals for the 200 metre sprint and as part of the 100 metre relay team at the Commonwealth Games.6

“Since retiring as an athlete, Peris, who is 41 and a mother of three, has been an Aboriginal activist with a stated passion for health and education” and was a treaty ambassador for the former Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission.6 She worked for the Northern Territory Education department in the period leading up to November 2011.7

The Australian Broadcasting Commission attributed to Nova Peris:

"During the time I worked with the department - setting up three girls' academies - I put my own furniture, including two lounge suites, a coffee table, a fridge, a microwave and a rug into two of the academies.
"After finishing work with the department in November 2011, I was asked by the department to remove my furniture, which was replaced by new furniture purchased by the department. 
"No furniture owned by the department was ever taken by me from the academies."7
The Northern Territory government confirmed that she was cleared, by a high level investigation, of an anonymous allegation that she had used public money to purchase furniture for her home.8

One of the academies is the “Nova Peris Girls Academy” at St John's Catholic College, Darwin (Northern Territory, Australia) and supports many young women from aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory.9 6

Nova was involved with Peris Enterprises Pty. Ltd. For which she has been described as no more than a well paid spruiker.10

Nova Peris says (in my words) that the big difference between sports and politics is that you're more in control on the sport fields.11

The big question is: Will we vote for her?
1On 5 February 2013, I did a web search on “Nova Peris” on alp.org.au and got no hits.
3Sara Everingham 2013, Nova Peris endorsed, http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-01-29/nova-peris-endorsed/4489990.
47.30 Report 25 January 2013, Nova Peris nomination-gets ALP members talking, http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-01-25/nova-peris-nomination-gets-alp-members-talking/4485084?section=act.
8Samantha Maiden Gemma Jones 2013, Nova admits being over limit but says critics are too, http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/national/nova-admits-being-over-limit-but-says-critics-are-too/story-fndo28a5-1226562570723.
11Michael Gordon 2013, Ready, set go: Nova Peris happy to take the baton, http://www.watoday.com.au/opinion/politics/ready-set-go-nova-peris-happy-to-take-the-baton-20130122-2d5as.html.
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)