Australia’s first every openly gay, Indigenous MP, Chansey Paech appeared in the Northern Territory parliament yesterday to give a historic speech.
At 28-years-old Paech has been elected as the member for Namatjira – an area which is named after legendary Aboriginal artist Albert Namatjira and is bounded by the Queensland, South Australia and West Australia borders and extends across the Northern Territory to the north of Alice Springs.
During the 13th Parliament of the Northern Territory the Labor member acknowledged the significance of his appointment:
“Madam Speaker, I am young, I am gay, I am black, a true blue Territorian.
I am a Centralian man, I am the nation’s first openly gay, Indigenous parliamentarian.
I am eternally proud of who I am and where I come from, I own it and wear it with pride.”
Mr Paech also used the speech to talk about the importance of marriage equality, as well as reforms around same-sex adoption in the Territory.
The parliamentarian said he was committed to seeing improvements to roads in the bush and wanted to help Aboriginal communities flourish economically.
While talking to the SBS about his road to the NT parliament, Mr Paech said many thought his openness about his sexuality would turn off country voters but while campaigning in rural communities he discovered they simply didn’t care.
Paech told SBS:
“My sexuality was completely irrelevant to the people in the electorate. They were focussed on issues which actually affected their everyday lives.”
During a particularly stirring moment of his address Mr Paech said he would use his appointment to bring real change to Australians living in his remote electorate.
“Quite often we talk about wanting things to change,” Mr Paech said.
“I didn’t want to be the kind of person who just sits around and talks about change, I wanted to be part of making that change happen.”
MAIN PHOTO: Chansey Paech / Facebook.
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