Nova Maree Peris is an indigenous Australian athlete. She was born in Darwin and represented Australian Women's Hockey team at the 1996 Olympics and became the first Aboriginal woman to win a gold medal. In 1997, she switched to athletics and won double gold medals at the 1998 Commonwealth Games.
Julia Gillard wants her to run for Labor in the Northern Territory Senate this year. Nova was only admitted to the Labor Party a few days ago, a day after the PM announced she had ended the career of Senator Trish Crossin.
Trish Crossin
Ms Crossin is a 15 year Senate Labor veteran who had no idea the PM was planning her demise and although devastated, she will still seek pre-selection. She is a known Kevin Rudd supporter.
Nova's entry into the bloody arena of politics has caused bad feeling among many high profile indigenous political heavyweights, who feel they have been overlooked and are much more deserving than Nova. It looks like she will have a fight on her hands, mainly with her own people.
Allison Anderson
Allison Anderson, a former Labor politician, said Nova would be a "maid", fetching tea and changing sheets for the party.
Aboriginal boxer Tony Mundine approves of the move. "You can't go on continuing to say you are the champion of the indigenous people when you don't have an indigenous person sitting next to you in Parliament" he said. "For 112 years in the Federal Parliament, there has not been an indigenous person representing the Labor Party and for years, myself and many other people have been campaigning. It's about time that it happened."
So is Nova tough enough to stand up to bullies who will come at her from all sides? We'll just have to wait and see. Go Nova.
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