Medalist Poised to Be First Female Australia Aboriginal Lawmaker
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Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard selected Olympic gold medalist Nova Peris to run for parliament, clearing the way for the field hockey and track star to become the nation’s first female Aboriginal federal lawmaker.
Gillard today said she will ask her Labor Party’s national executive to endorse Peris’s candidacy for a Northern Territory Senate seat in elections set for this year. Labor, which has held one of the region’s two Senate seats since 1975, has never had an indigenous member of parliament.