Preceded by Alison Anderson Political party Australian Labor Party | Nationality Aboriginal Party Australian Labor Party | |
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Chanston James "Chansey" Paech MLA is an Australian politician. He is an Australian Labor Party member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly since 2016, representing the electorate of Namatjira. He is of Aranda and Gurindji descent.
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Early life and career
Paech grew up in Alice Springs. He was elected to the Alice Springs Town Council in 2012.
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. He is the great-grandson of legendary bushman Walter Smith.
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. 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. The ABC's Antony Green believed that Anderson's endorsement made Namatjira "a certain Labor gain."
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. 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." 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."