Preceded by Jo Vallentine Name Christabel Chamarette Nationality Indian Australian Role Former Australian Senator | Political party Greens WA Party Australian Greens Occupation Community worker Resigned June 30, 1996 | |
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Born 1 May 1948 (age 75)
Hyderabad, India ( 1948-05-01 ) Previous office Australian Senator (1992–1996) Books Residential Placement of Intra-familial Adolescent Sex Offenders | ||
Green Gathering '95 - Australian Green Senator Chamarette
Christabel Marguerite Alain Chamarette, sometimes Christabel Bridge (born 1 May 1948) was a Greens Senator for Western Australia from 1992 to 1996.
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Personal life
Born in Hyderabad, India in 1948, Chamarette is of Anglo-Indian and French Huguenot ancestry. She has worked as a community worker in Bangladesh and later as a clinical psychologist at Fremantle Prison, after gaining a Bachelor, and later a Masters, in Psychology from the University of Western Australia. She also has a Certificate of Tropical Community Medicine and Hygiene from the University of Liverpool.
In 1998, Chamarette led an eight-week discussion group called "Conversations for the 21st Century", while working as a psychologist with child sexual abuse cases and completing a doctorate on the psychopathology of politics. She has been a member of the Anglican Social Responsibilities Commission, the Aboriginal Driver Training Programme, the Psychologists for the Prevention of War and the Christian Justice Association.
Politics
Chamarette was appointed to the Senate in 1992, following the resignation of Jo Vallentine. In 1995, she proposed an Export Control Amendment Bill that would ban woodchip exports from old-growth forests. She was opposed to privatising Telstra and delayed the Mabo legislation by demanding the inclusion of mineral rights in the compensation package for native title holders.
She was defeated at the 1996 general election; her term ending several months later on 30 June 1996. Chamarette said that when working in the Senate, she thought it was the most important work of her life, but she now refers to it as simply "useful experience".
After politics
After leaving politics, Chamarette was Clinical Director of SafeCare, formerly the Sexual Assault in Families Program, from 1997 to 2008.
She was an expert consultant to the Department of Justice and was appointed to the Western Australian parole board in 2002. She was one of four members who resigned in 2005 in protest against the State Government's response to the Mahoney inquiry.
She is currently in private practice which involves individual and group therapy, supervision and teaching. She is also a single expert witness appointed by the Family Court of Western Australia and a supervisor/consultant to Acacia Prison.