Katherine Ella Chaney (born 21 January 1975) is an Australian

independent politician An independent or non-partisan politician is a politician not affiliated with any political party or bureaucratic association. There are numerous reasons why someone may stand for office as an independent. Some politicians have political views th ...

, who was elected to the

Australian House of Representatives The House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the upper house being the Senate. Its composition and powers are established in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia. The term of members of the ...

at the

2022 Australian federal election The 2022 Australian federal election was held on Saturday 21 May 2022 to elect members of the 47th Parliament of Australia. The incumbent Liberal/National Coalition government, led by Prime Minister Scott Morrison, sought to win a fourth conse ...

, succeeding

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

Celia Hammond Celia Hammond (born 25 July 1943) is an English former model who has since become known as a campaigner against fur and for neutering of cats to control the feral population. Early life Hammond was born to English parents and raised in Australia ...

in the

division of Curtin The Division of Curtin is an Australian electoral division in Western Australia. History The division was created in 1949 and is named for John Curtin, who was Prime Minister of Australia from 1941 to 1945. Prior to its creation, much of thi ...

. Chaney is the granddaughter of Fred Chaney Sr., who served as a member of the House of Representatives from 1955 to 1969 and as

Lord Mayor of Perth __TOC__ The history of the City of Perth, a local government area of Western Australia is defined over three distinct periods: *From 1829 to 1838 — controlled by the Governor of Western Australia *From 1838 to 1858 — controlled by the ''Pe ...

from 1978 to 1982; and is the niece of

Fred Chaney Frederick Michael Chaney, AO (born 28 October 1941) is a former Australian politician who was deputy leader of the Liberal Party from 1989 to 1990 and served as a minister in the Fraser Government. He was a Senator for Western Australia from ...

, who was deputy leader of the Liberal Party from 1989 to 1990 and served as a minister in the Fraser Government.

Early life and career

Chaney was born on 21 January 1975 in the United States. Her father is

Michael Chaney Michael Alfred Chaney (born 15 April 1950) is an Australian businessman and former Chancellor (education), chancellor of the University of Western Australia. Early life Chaney was born in Perth on 15 April 1950. He was the third-youngest of s ...

, a businessman. Her father's brothers include

, a former

Senator for WA, and Member for the

Division of Pearce The Division of Pearce is an Australian electoral division in the state of Western Australia. It was created at the 1989 redistribution and named after George Pearce, the longest serving member of the Australian Senate, serving from 1901 to 19 ...

. Her grandfather is Fred Chaney Sr., who was a Liberal Party MP and minister in the

Menzies government Menzies is a Scottish surname, with Gaelic forms being Méinnearach and Méinn, and other variant forms being Menigees, Mennes, Mengzes, Menzeys, Mengies, and Minges. Derivation and history The name and its Gaelic form are probably derived f ...

. On her mother's side, her great grandfather is

Hubert Parker Hubert Stanley Wyborn Parker DSO VD (16 October 1883—26 July 1966) was an Australian politician who represented the Western Australian Legislative Assembly seat of North-East Fremantle from 1930 until 1933, and one of the three Legisla ...

( Ministerialist) and his father is

Stephen Henry Parker Sir Stephen Henry Parker (7 November 1846 – 13 December 1927) was a lawyer and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Western Australia from 1906 to 1914. Biography Early life Stephen Henry Parker was the second son of Stephen Stanley Park ...

(

Nationalist Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: The ...

/Liberal), both of whom served in the

Parliament of Western Australia The Parliament of Western Australia is the bicameral legislature of the Australian state of Western Australia, forming the legislative branch of the Government of Western Australia. The parliament consists of a lower house, the Legislative Ass ...

. Chaney attended John XXIII College and the

University of Western Australia The University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Perth, the state capital, with a secondary campus in Albany, Western Australia, Albany an ...

. In 1998, after graduating university, she joined law firm

Blake Dawson Waldron Ashurst Australia is the Australian branch of Ashurst LLP, an international commercial law firm. The Australian headquarters of Ashurst are in Sydney. Prior to its acquisition by Ashurst, the Australian firm was named Blake Dawson, one of the ' ...

in Sydney. In 2003, she finished an

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

and moved to the

Boston Consulting Group Boston Consulting Group, Inc. (BCG) is an American global management consulting firm founded in 1963 and headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. It is one of the Big Three (or MBB, the world’s three largest management consulting firms by rev ...

as a strategic advisor. She later became General Manager Business Development at Westralia Airports Corporation, managing company of

Perth Airport Perth Airport is an international, domestic and general aviation airport serving Perth, the capital city of Western Australia. It is the fourth busiest airport in Australia measured by passenger movements and falls within the boundaries of ...

. She then moved to

Wesfarmers Wesfarmers Limited is an Australian conglomerate, headquartered in Perth, Western Australia. It has interests predominantly in Australia and New Zealand, operating in retail, chemical, fertiliser, industrial and safety products. With revenue o ...

, working there as Aboriginal affairs manager and sustainability manager. From 2017 to 2022, she worked as the director of innovation and strategy for

Anglicare Anglicare Australia is the national umbrella community services body of agencies associated with each diocese of the Anglican Church of Australia. Anglicare is also a brand name under which many Australian Anglican community services agencies ope ...

WA.

Political career

In December 2021, Curtin Independent was formed to search for an

independent candidate An independent or non-partisan politician is a politician not affiliated with any political party or bureaucratic association. There are numerous reasons why someone may stand for office as an independent. Some politicians have political views th ...

for the

Division of Curtin The Division of Curtin is an Australian electoral division in Western Australia. History The division was created in 1949 and is named for John Curtin, who was Prime Minister of Australia from 1941 to 1945. Prior to its creation, much of thi ...

, a seat held by the Liberal Party for almost all of its existence. At the time, the seat was held by

. Curtin Independent was part of a wider movement of political community engagement groups formed ahead of the

to field independent candidates. On 27 January 2022, Curtin Independent announced that Chaney was selected by the group to run as an independent candidate for Curtin. Her election campaign spent almost A$1 million, including $350,000 from

Climate 200 Climate 200 is an Australian company that provides political funding. It describes itself as a "community crowdfunding initiative" that supports community-backed independents to stand for election to advance climate policy, reduce greenhouse g ...

. Supporters of Chaney during the election campaign included Fred Chaney, who wrote an opinion piece in ''

WAtoday WAtoday is an online newspaper, focusing its coverage on Perth and Western Australia. It was established on 10 June 2008, and is owned by Fairfax Digital (now Nine Publishing, under Nine Entertainment Co). The company employs ten journalists in ...

'', ''

The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper ...

'', and ''

The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...

'' supporting her and saying that the Liberal Party has "lost its way".

The Greens The Greens or Greens may refer to: Current political parties * Australian Greens, also known as ''The Greens'' * Greens of Andorra * Greens of Bosnia and Herzegovina * Greens of Burkina * Greens (Greece) * Greens of Montenegro *Greens of Serbia *G ...

encouraged their supporters to preference Chaney ahead of other candidates by putting her second on their

how-to-vote card How-to-vote cards (HTV) are small leaflets that are handed out by party supporters during elections in Australia. Voting in the Australian lower house uses a preferential voting system. Voters must rank every candidate on the ballot in order for ...

s. At the 2022 election, which was held on 21 May 2022, Chaney was elected as the member for Curtin, defeating Hammond with 51% of the

two-candidate-preferred vote In Australian politics, the two-party-preferred vote (TPP or 2PP) is the result of an election or opinion poll after preferences have been distributed to the highest two candidates, who in some cases can be independents. For the purposes of TPP, ...

to Hammond's 49%.

Political views

Chaney describes herself as economically sensible and socially progressive. Her major election issues included action on climate change and integrity in politics.

Personal life

Chaney lives with her three children and husband.

References

External links