Nova Peris holds a press conference at Dripstone Cliffs, Northern Territory, supported by senior Larrakia man Robert Mills. Picture: Michael Franchi
JULIA Gillard's "captain's pick", who is expected to become the first indigenous woman to enter federal parliament at the September election, already has a string of firsts to her name.
She is the first athlete in Australia ever to win a gold medal at the Olympics in one event, and another in a different event at the Commonwealth Games. But when the Prime Minister invited her to represent the Northern Territory, a vast expanse of outback with the highest proportion of indigenous people in the country, it was not for her sporting achievement but for her knowledge of indigenous affairs -- at least according to Peris.
GRAPHIC: Parliamentary pathbreakers
"The Gillard government has put faith in me because of the work that I've done at the community level, and (because) I've got a great understanding of the problems that Aboriginal people are confronted with day in, day out," Peris said in Darwin on Tuesday.
Describing the Prime Minister's initial approach to her to run for Labor in the Senate, Peris told the ABC's Sara Everingham that Gillard's approach had everything to do with her community work.
""I thought, how amazing is this opportunity," she said.
However, Gillard's announcement last week that she would reach over the heads of Northern Territory Labor members to oust long-serving senator Trish Crossin and install Peris as a candidate sparked outrage. Senior Labor figures fumed at what they said was the Prime Minister's abuse of process, and questioned Peris's qualification for the post.
"Nova is a person who has never had anything to do with the Labor Party," says former deputy chief minister Syd Stirling. "Has she ever espoused Labor values?"
The announcement of Peris's Senate nomination came before she had even joined the party. "She's a gross opportunist and that is as cheap and sickening as it gets," Stirling continued.
While Peris's preselection was a formality Cross still contested it. As did former deputy chief minister Marion Scrymgour. They were joined by other indigenous Labor members in the Territory, former minister Karl Hampton andsometime candidate Des Rogers. They were making the point that Gillard ignored experienced indigenous Labor loyalists, rejecting the suggestion Gillard was forced to pick an outsider because the local party branch was incapable of choosing an indigenous candidate itself.
Norman Fry, former chief executive of the powerful Northern Land Council, described Peris as a "novice" while outspoken Aboriginal MP Alison Anderson, a former Labor minister who has since switched sides to join the conservative Country Liberals, accused Peris of not understanding the plight of Aboriginal people.
"She doesn't understand Aboriginal disadvantage or the plight of Aboriginal people," Anderson says. "She's a sportswoman; she should stick with hockey or running."
Peris rejects this, saying anyone who doubts her experience and commitment doesn't know her.
"I think quite often a lot of people, especially indigenous people, have said, 'oh, what has she done?'," she says. "You know, I go about my business, I don't seek media attention for the stuff that I've done at a community level."
Nova Maree Peris was born in Darwin in February 1971. Her mother, Joan Peris, is the daughter of a Stolen Generation woman from the Kimberley region of Western Australia; Joan Peris herself was raised on the Tiwi Islands mission. Nova's father, John Christopherson, is a traditional owner of part of the Cobourg Peninsula, about 350 km east of Darwin. Nova Peris also has family in the Oenpelli and Kakadu regions of Arnhem Land.
Peris went to school in Darwin and attended the city's Charles Darwin University. One of her schools, St John's Catholic College, now hosts the Nova Peris Girls' Academy, which she set up and which employs herself and her husband Scott Appleton under a federal government contract. Her eldest daughter, Jessica Peris, 22, is employed at the academy by St John's.
Peris was 10 when she became seriously interested in her Aboriginal heritage, prompted by stories from her Stolen Generation grandmother, the daughter of a full-blood Aboriginal woman and a white Irishman her grandmother never knew.
"For the first two years of her life, when the police and Native Affairs were coming around, her mother would rub charcoal on her to make her skin look blacker. And then, one day, she got caught," Peris told Andrew Denton in an interview.
At the age of 18 she fell pregnant to her first partner, footballer Sean Kneebone, and gave birth to Jessica. Young motherhood delayed her sporting dreams until the age of 21, when she surprised everyone by packing up her life and moving to Perth. From there, and with a child in tow, she rose to sporting stardom, winning one gold medal with the Australian Women's Hockey team at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, and another for running at the 1998 Commonwealth games. She went on to represent Australia at the 1999 World Athletics Championships and 2000 Olympics in Sydney.
The Senate nomination sparked a flood of rumours about her background, particularly surrounding allegations she mishandled funds during her time with the Northern Territory Education Department in 2011. Peris has denied wrongdoing and denied all knowledge of an investigation, although The Australian has confirmed one was conducted following an anonymous complaint. At a press conference this week, she gave permission for her employment records to be released to prove she was telling the truth, although the NT government has so far declined to do so.
In the corridors of Canberra and Darwin, a whispering campaign, emanating largely from her own party, claimed she had been sacked from posts and engaged in undignified behaviour.
None of the direct allegations so far investigated by The Australian has been substantiated. Peris admitted to the Sunday Telegraph she was pulled over for low-range drink driving in Canberra in 2008, but the magistrate did not record a conviction.
Friends have since spoken out in support of her candidacy, arguing she is a driven person who will learn on the job.
"She's respectful to her elders, and to other families and community members, but there's no doubt that she's also a very serious and driven individual," says former MP Matthew Bonson.
In a statement released by Peris, other prominent figures such as educationalist Chris Sarra, Olympian Cathy Freeman, and Larrakia traditional owner Robert Mills added their support.
Former champion AFL footballer Michael Long described her as an "inspiration to Aboriginal women around Australia". Prominent national indigenous figures including Warren Mundine, Aden Ridgeway and Tom Calma have also spoken out in her support.
However, others are sceptical. Former Northern Land Council chief Kim Hill, himself a former senate Labor nominee, says others should have been considered.
"Are there other Aboriginal people in the NT who could've been much better? Yes," Hill says.
A senior member of the First Nations Political Party, who asked not to be named due to family connections, predicted Peris would benefit from votes drawn by her "very large" pool of relatives but warns she lacks experience and maturity in Aboriginal politics and is likely to struggle. According to Territory government minister, indigenous MP Adam Giles,Peris is a token candidate who would become a "pet Aborigine" in parliament.
"People want representatives based on merit, not on race," Giles says. "I think it is quite obvious to everyone that Julia Gillard has picked Nova based on her race rather than on her merit -- and I'm not reflecting on Nova."
The criticism is based on Peris's perceived lack of experience of life on remote communities and in Aboriginal politics. Giles's Country Liberal government won a sweeping victory over Labor last year by fielding local, traditional candidates who grew up in the bush. The CLP's victory made Aborigines key swing voters for the first time in a major election, and it is certain Labor will hope Peris can win some of them back to help prop up support for front-bencher Warren Snowdon, who sits on a margin of less than four per cent in his vast federal electorate of Lingiari.
But Peris bridles at suggestions she is not connected to the bush.
"People think I'm an urban Aborigine. Sure I'm an urban Aborigine, but I'm connected to people in Arnhem Land, West Kimberley," she says. "Just because I live in a house doesn't mean I have a lesser understanding."
Peris points to her community work and family connections as justification. Shortly after the end of her competitive sporting career, she married sprinter Daniel Batman, the father of her two children, Destiny and Jack. The pair divorced in 2010 and Batman was killed in a car crash outside Darwin last year. In the past 15 years, Peris has been involved in community work including advocacy campaigns for domestic violence, youth, depression and youth suicide; she has worked for several federal departments and, between 2006 and 2008, travelled to 104 communities across the country as part of a commonwealth program of Aboriginal health checks.
She was a "treaty ambassador" for the defunct Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, and has represented the World Health Organisation and Reconciliation Australia.
A search of the ASIC register reveals she has served as director of a range of companies, including Peris Enterprises -- an organisation described on a now-removed website under her name as "her consulting company committed to implementing culturally sensitive communication strategies and event management for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities". Peris Enterprises received over $1.2 million in Department of Health and Ageing contracts in 2006 and 2007.
She is presently a director of Nova Peris Enterprises, Indigenous Community Volunteers and Crime Stoppers NT, according to ASIC records.
Since returning to the Territory two years ago, Peris has worked with the local education department establishing three "academies" that run intensive mentoring programs aimed at keeping indigenous girls engaged with school. The principal of St John's Catholic College, which hosts the Nova Peris Girls' Academy -- one of the three -- says the successful program has supported about 80 girls over the past 12 months. Tony Frawley, CEO of the AFL in the Territory, says Peris did a "terrific" job when briefly employed to do promotional work. And a spokesman for Noel Pearson, director of the Cape York Institute for Policy and Leadership, also threw his support behind her. "She is an extraordinary person and she will do a good job and pick up experience along the way," he says.
Nevertheless, it's clear that with many rank and file members of the NT Labor party alienated, Peris will have to work hard to build bridges if she is to run an effective campaign.
Asked about her political ambitions in 2003, Peris said she was keeping her options open and suggested she might some day like to replace Crossin. A decade later, while she is likely to win her seat, Peris faces the prospect of years in opposition if Labor's poll numbers don't improve.
Acknowledging her preselection defeat earlier this week, Crossin called on the Prime Minister to move swiftly towards financially compensating members of the Stolen Generation and their families in the NT, asking Peris to take up the cause.
"There is now a precedent in three other states," Crossin said.
Peris describes the issue as "complicated and very personal, and says she needs more time to consider it. However, she would like to see compensation for Stolen Generation members considered as part of Gillard's newly-established royal commission into sexual abuse.
In her words: "I understand that two thirds of the NT are thinking 'there's an Aboriginal person who has been put up for the senate, but does she have an understanding of the issues?'
"I'm asking Territorians to give me a chance. I know I've got a lot of work to do, but I'm passionate and I wouldn't have taken the role on if I thought I was an unsuitable person to do it."
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