December 8, 2023
This interview with Nova Peris was broadcast on National Indigenous Television News.
Peris discusses her interest in politics and reaction to yesterday’s announcement by Prime Minister Gillard that the ALP National Executive is to fast-track Peris’s preselection for the Northern Territory Senate election.
In what she described as a “captain’s pick”, Prime Minister Julia Gillard has backed former Olympian Nova Peris for ALP Senate preselection in the Northern Territory.
Trish Crossin has been dumped as Labor’s Northen Territory senator. A strong supporter of former leader Kevin Rudd, Crossin has been in the Senate for fifteen years.
At a joint press conference with Peris, Gillard said she had invited Peris to join the ALP and contest the NT Senate poll. “There has never been an indigenous Australian who has served as a federal Labor representative,” Gillard said. “I am determined that at the 2013 election we change that. I have asked the Federal National Executive of the Labor Party to work with me on achieving this.”