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Chansey Paech

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The Honourable
Chansey Paech
MLA
20th Deputy Chief Minister of the Northern Territory
In office
21 December 2023 – 28 August 2024
Chief MinisterEva Lawler
Preceded byNicole Manison
Succeeded byGerard Maley
Attorney-General of the Northern Territory
In office
23 May 2022 – 28 August 2024
Chief MinisterNatasha Fyles
Eva Lawler
Preceded bySelena Uibo
Succeeded byGerard Maley
12th Speaker of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly
In office
23 June 2020 – 7 September 2020
Preceded byKezia Purick
Succeeded byNgaree Ah Kit
Member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly
for Gwoja
Incumbent
Assumed office
22 August 2020
Preceded byNew seat
Member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly
for Namatjira
In office
27 August 2016 – 22 August 2020
Preceded byAlison Anderson
Succeeded byBill Yan
Personal details
Born
Chanston James Paech

November 1987
Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia
Political partyLabor Party

Chanston James "Chansey" Paech (/ˈtʃænzi peɪk/, CHAN-zee PAYK; born 1987) is an Australian politician. He is a Labor Party member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly since 2016, representing the electorate of Namatjira until 2020 and Gwoja thereafter. He is of Arrente, Arabana and Gurindji descent.[1]

Early life and education

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Chanston James Paech was born in 1987 in Alice Springs, in the Northern Territory of Australia. His mother is Aboriginal, of the Arrernte and Gurindji peoples, and his father of German descent. [2]

He is the great-great grandson of Central Australian pioneer, Topsy Smith, and the great-great nephew of bushman Walter Smith.[3] Paech is the only openly gay male MP in the NT Legislative Assembly, and before entering politics, he was a prominent LGBT rights activist.[citation needed]

Paech was educated in Alice Springs and participated in many youth programs, including the inaugural National Indigenous Youth Parliament.[citation needed] He went on to study at Charles Darwin University in the fields of environmental and land management, conservation, and horticulture.[citation needed]

Early career

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Paech was elected to the Alice Springs Town Council in 2012.[4]

Policies

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Justice

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Paech was sworn in as the Northern Territory Attorney General in May 2022 and committed to overhauling the Northern Territory's Justice and Correctional systems, in October 2022 Paech introduced a suite of laws raising the age of criminal responsibility and reforming adult mandatory sentencing.[5]

Paech also introduced a suite of amendments to the Northern Territory's anti-discrimination laws to give better protections for vulnerable people and minority groups. [6]

In February 2022, Paech, having responsibility for the Northern Territory's sacred sites legislation, tabled a decision in Northern Territory parliament to reject an application to expand the controversial McArthur River mine.[7]

Housing

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In the Gunner Ministry Paech was sworn in as the Minister for Remote Housing, Homelands and Town Camps. He opposed the federal Morrison Government for failures to deliver remote housing on homelands and town camps.[8]

Views

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Paech has condemned the Northern Territory Emergency Response, commonly known as the Intervention, and the succeeding Stronger Futures policy.[9]

Politics

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Northern Territory Legislative Assembly
Years Term Electoral division Party
2016–2020 13th Namatjira Labor
2020–present 14th Gwoja Labor

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.[10] 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.[11] The ABC's election analyst Antony Green believed that Anderson's endorsement made Namatjira "a certain Labor gain."[12]

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. He was subsequently made Deputy Speaker and Chairman of Committees.[13]

Paech is the first openly gay Indigenous MP in Australia.[14] 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."[15] 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."[15][2]

In June 2020, Paech was elected Speaker of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly, making him the first Aboriginal and openly gay speaker of an Australian Parliament,[16] replacing Kezia Purick, who resigned after findings of corrupt conduct against her by the Northern Territory Independent Commissioner Against Corruption. Ahead of the 2020 Territory election, a redistribution erased Paech's majority in Namatjira and made it a notional CLP seat. Paech believed this made Namatjira impossible to hold and ran for re-election in neighbouring Gwoja, winning easily.[17]

He resigned as Speaker in September 2020 to join the Gunner Ministry as Minister for Local Government; Minister for Central Australia Economic Reconstruction; Minister for Remote Housing and Town Camps; Minister for Indigenous Essential Services; and Minister for Arts and Culture.[citation needed]

In May 2022, Paech was sworn in as the Northern Territory Attorney General; Leader of Government Business; Minister for Racing, Gaming and Licensing; Minister for Arts and Culture and Minister for Local Government[18] in the Fyles Ministry.

Paech is a member of the Labor Party's Left faction.[citation needed]

References

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  1. ^ Winsor, Ben (25 October 2016). "Chansey Paech is Australia's first gay, Indigenous parliamentarian". Special Broadcasting Service. Retrieved 6 May 2017.[permanent dead link‍]
  2. ^ a b Winsor, Ben (19 October 2016). "Full Text: Chansey Paech's maiden speech to parliament". Special Broadcasting Service. Retrieved 6 May 2017.
  3. ^ "Walking Through Time: The Ghans Return ". Alice Springs News. 14 August 2002. Retrieved 3 January 2017.
  4. ^ Brash, Stewart (31 March 2012). "Damien Ryan re-elected as Alice Springs Mayor". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. ABC Alice Springs. Retrieved 28 August 2016.
  5. ^ "'Watershed moment': Northern Territory raises age of criminal responsibility". ABC News. 12 October 2022. Retrieved 7 March 2023.
  6. ^ "NT passes new anti-discrimination laws after hours of debate and amid fierce criticism". ABC News. 22 November 2022. Retrieved 7 March 2023.
  7. ^ Kurmelovs, Royce; Allam, Lorena (16 February 2022). "NT government rejects Glencore bid to build toxic dump near sacred site". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 7 March 2023.
  8. ^ "Homelands residents living in tents while governments haggle over responsibility for new houses". ABC News. 3 October 2021. Retrieved 7 March 2023.
  9. ^ "'Legacy of bad policy': Race-based policies taken off the table". NT News.
  10. ^ "Electorate: Namatjira". ABC News. Retrieved 28 August 2016.
  11. ^ Bardon, Jane (11 August 2016). "NT election: CLP facing uphill battle in bush electorates". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 12 August 2016.
  12. ^ Green, Antony. NT election preview. ABC News, 2016-08-08.
  13. ^ "List of Members" (PDF). Retrieved 18 March 2017.
  14. ^ "Meet The First Gay Aboriginal Politician Elected To An Australian Parliament". Buzzfeed. 5 September 2016. Retrieved 5 September 2016.
  15. ^ a b Davidson, Helen (19 October 2016). "'I am young, I am gay, I am black,' says Chansey Paech to NT parliament". Guardian Australia. Retrieved 20 October 2016.
  16. ^ Australians first Aboriginal and openly gay speaker of an Australian Parliament
  17. ^ "Chansey Paech elected first Indigenous Speaker of an Australian Parliament". ABC News. 24 June 2020. Retrieved 21 July 2020.
  18. ^ "Winners and losers as Natasha Fyles reveals her first Northern Territory cabinet". ABC News. 23 May 2022. Retrieved 7 March 2023.
Northern Territory Legislative Assembly
Preceded by Member for Namatjira
2016–2020 		Succeeded by
New seat Member for Gwoja
2020–present 		Incumbent
Preceded by Speaker of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly
2020 - 2020 		Succeeded by
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