Backlash as Gillard pushes Aboriginal star in Senate

Source:AFP Published: 2013-1-23 23:03:01

Moves to ensure the election of the first Aboriginal woman to Australia's parliament met with a backlash Wednesday, with one politician saying Olympian Nova Peris would be a "maid" for the government.

Australia's Prime Minister Julia Gillard has endorsed the gold medalist as her preferred Labor Party candidate for the federal Senate in the Northern Territory in national elections due this year. If pre-selected, Peris is almost certain to be elected.

Gillard's decision has ruffled feathers within the Labor Party, which in 2010 was riven by bitter infighting when Gillard deposed then-prime minister Kevin Rudd in a sudden coup.

Labor's long-serving Northern Territory Senator Trish Crossin, whom Peris will be replacing, said she was shocked that local party members would not be able to choose who would represent them.

And the often outspoken Labor politician Doug Cameron described Gillard's move as a "pretty brutal exercise of political power."

Alison Anderson, an indigenous Northern Territory politician with the Country Liberal Party, said Gillard had been shamed into pre-selecting an indigenous candidate and compared the politically inexperienced Peris to a "maid" inside Labor's house.

Anderson said Territorians were not familiar with Peris, who won gold in hockey at the 1996 Atlanta Games before switching to athletics to win gold in the 200m and 4x100m relay at the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur in 1998.

Gillard responded by saying she wanted Labor to have an indigenous person serve in its federal caucus.

"I knew it would be controversial," she said. "I chose to do it this way because the outcome was important."

AFP



Posted in: Asia-Pacific

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