Patron Receives Australian of the Year Honour
AFL SportsReady congratulates our patron Fred Chaney for being named Senior Australian of the Year for his contribution to reconciliation and human rights.
Mr Chaney, Officer of the Order of Australia (AO), is a former Australian politician who, until April 2007, held the position of deputy chairman of the Australian Native Title Tribunal and is Chair of Desert Knowledge Australia and on the Board of Directors of Reconciliation Australia.
Born in Perth and educated at the University of Western Australia, he was the founding co-chair of Reconciliation Australia before helping to establish the Aboriginal Legal Service of Western Australia as the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs in the 1970s.
Mr Chaney was Minister for Administrative Services from August to December 1978, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs from December 1978 until November 1980 and Minister for Social Security from November 1980 until 1983. He was also Minister Assisting the Minister for Education from August 1978 to December 1979 and Minister Assisting the Minister for National Development and Energy from December 1979 to November 1980.
Mr Chaney was appointed as Officer of the Order of Australia in 1997 for “service to the Parliament of Australia and to the Aboriginal community through his contribution to the establishment of the Aboriginal Legal Service of Western Australia and mediating with the National Native Title Tribunal”.