Years Club 1972-1983 Port Adelaide (SANFL) | Name Chris Natt | |
Date of birth (1952-12-09) 9 December 1952 (age 63) | ||
Christopher William "Chris" Natt (born 9 December 1952) is a former Australian politician and Australian rules footballer with Port Adelaide in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL).
A ruckman, Natt played 216 games for Port Adelaide between 1972 and 1983. Following his retirement from football, Natt coached in South Australia before moving to the Northern Territory to take up the position of Chief Executive Officer of the Northern Territory Football League.
In 2005, Natt ran for the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly as the Australian Labor Party candidate in the Palmerston electorate of Drysdale at the 2005 Territory election. He faced extremely daunting odds on paper. Palmerston had long been reckoned as a Country Liberal Party stronghold; Labor had never won a Palmerston-based seat in the history of the Legislative Assembly. The sitting CLP member, Stephen Dunham, held it with a majority of 15.7 percent, making it the CLP's third-safest seat. However, in a result that no one even anticipated, Natt defeated Dunham after recording a two-party swing of 17.5% towards him. Even more surprisingly, Natt won enough votes on the first count to take the seat off the CLP without the need for preferences.
Following his election, Natt was immediately named to the cabinet as Minister for Mines and Energy. His tenure proved short-lived, however. A redistribution ahead of the 2008 Northern Territory election wiped out Natt's majority, making Drysdale a notional CLP seat. In that election, Drysdale reverted to form as Natt was heavily defeated by CLP challenger Ross Bohlin.
Natt's brother Greg also played football for Port Adelaide.