Federal election 2016: Peris ‘clashed with ALP colleagues’

Nova Peris did not ‘fit in’ with Labor culture and clashed with some colleagues before she decided to quit the Senate.

Senator Nova Peris.

Nova Peris did not “fit in” with the Labor Party’s culture and clashed with some of her colleagues before she controversially decided to quit parliament, The Australian can ­reveal.

UPDATE: An emotional Nova Peris has defended her decision to retire from the Senate.

The high-profile indigenous politician and former Olympian yesterday thanked Labor and Bill Shorten for her three years in the Senate amid criticism that she had not made her mark in parliament.

“Thank you @billshortenmp & @AustralianLabor 4 the opportunity to serve the people of Australia #ausvotes #gratitude” she tweeted.

Labor sources told The Australian her departure — which shocked parliamentary colleagues and staff on Tuesday — came after many months of isolation for the senator, who was also grappling with family problems.

One Labor senator said Senator Peris felt “she was not going anywhere” in her parliamentary career, and that was exacerbated by Mr Shorten choosing high-profile Patrick Dodson as the party’s new senator for Western Australia and appointing him as his parliamentary secretary.

“She didn’t really fit in and she didn’t come from the culture of the Labor Party and she didn’t make an impact,” the ALP senator said. Another Labor source said clashes with colleagues behind the scenes contributed to Senator Peris gradually being viewed as a poor fit with the party, and eventually to her being “frozen out” of the information stream. “They just stopped talking to her,” a source said.

Senator Peris’s relationship with opposition indigenous affairs spokesman Shayne Neumann is said to have become particularly fraught. The Australian has been told she also disagreed strongly at times with long-serving NT Labor MP and former minister Warren Snowdon and with influential factional leaders.

However, another source disputed that, saying “she wasn’t fighting ... she was just irrelevant”.

That source believed Senator Peris quit because she wanted to spend more time with family, rather than because of party tensions.

Close associates said she had taken hard media scrutiny of her and her daughter’s personal lives, and resented perceived intrusions of her privacy. In February, magistrate Gregory Grogin dismissed domestic violence charges brought against Sydney Roosters NRL star Shaun Kenny-Dowall by Jessica Peris, and labelled her a “calculating, evasive” witness who had “intentionally framed” her ­answers “to make a speech”.

The NT is a particularly challenging Senate seat to hold because of distance from Canberra and the difficulties of travelling around the territory.

Senator Peris would often return from Canberra, then be immediately called away, travelling by light plane or 4WD, to attend events in remote communities.

Nominations for candidates to replace her are due to close ­tomorrow.

Former ABC and SBS broadcaster and former NT Labor minister Malarndirri McCarthy has indicated she will nominate, and her former NT Labor ministerial colleague Kon Vatskalis expressed an interest.

Others discussed include former federal and NT Labor staffer Cathryn Tilmouth.