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

independent politician An independent politician or non-affiliated politician is a politician not affiliated with any political party or Bureaucracy, bureaucratic association. There are numerous reasons why someone may stand for office as an independent. Some politicia ...

, who was elected to the

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

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 Morrison government, Liberal–National Coalition government, led by Prime Minister Scott Morrison, soug ...

, 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. For example, while the political systems ...

MP Celia Hammond in the

division of Curtin The Division of Curtin is an Divisions of the Australian House of Representatives, 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 ...

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

Fred Chaney Frederick Michael Chaney, AO (born 28 October 1941) is an Australian former 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 ...

, 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. 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 Legislat ...

( 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 or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation,Anthony D. Smith, Smith, A ...

/Liberal), both of whom served in the

Parliament of Western Australia The Parliament of Western Australia is the bicameralism, bicameral legislature of the Australian states and territories of Australia, state of Western Australia, which constitutes the legislative branch of the state's political system. The parl ...

. Chaney attended John XXIII College and the

University of Western Australia University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Crawley, Western Australia, Crawley, a suburb in the City of Perth local government area. UW ...

. In 1998, after graduating university, she joined law firm Blake Dawson Waldron in Sydney. In 2003, she finished an

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular a ...

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 (management consultancies), Big Three" (or MBB, the world's three large ...

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 airport, international, domestic airport, domestic and general aviation airport serving Perth, Western Australia. It is the List of the busiest airports in Australia, fourth busiest airport in Australia meas ...

. 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 WA.

Political career

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

independent candidate An independent politician or non-affiliated 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 polit ...

for the

Division of Curtin The Division of Curtin is an Divisions of the Australian House of Representatives, 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 ...

, a seat held by the Liberal Party for almost all of its existence. At the time, the seat was held by Celia Hammond. 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. 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 Nine Entertainment (formerly Fairfax Digital). The company employs ten journalists in Perth. It is ba ...

'', ''

The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, Australia, and owned by Nine Entertainment. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuous ...

'', 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 the Liberal Party has "lost its way".

The Greens The Greens or Greens may refer to: Current political parties *The Greens – The Green Alternative, Austria *Australian Greens, also known as ''The Greens'' * Greens of Andorra * The Greens (Benin) *The Greens (Bulgaria) * Greens of Bosnia and He ...

encouraged their supporters to preference Chaney ahead of other candidates by putting her second. 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 opinion poll or a projection of an election result where preferences are distributed to one of the two major parties, the Labor Party and the Liberal/Natio ...

to Hammond's 49%. Chaney has been labelled as one of a group of " teal independents" who were elected at the 2022 federal election. Chaney was re-elected at the 2025 election, defeating Liberal candidate Tom White following strong campaigns from both sides, in what was perceived as a key race in shaping the election outcome. The ABC reported Chaney had received over $900,000 in the four months preceding the election, with White responding "if your opponent is spending well over seven figures then there's an obligation to respond" when asked about his campaign spending.

Political views

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

Indigenous Voice to Parliament The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice, also known as the Indigenous Voice to Parliament, the First Nations Voice or simply the Voice, was a proposed Australian federal advisory body to comprise Aboriginal Australians, Aboriginal a ...

and campaigned for the Yes vote in the

2023 Australian Indigenous Voice referendum The 2023 Australian Indigenous Voice referendum was a Referendums in Australia, constitutional referendum held on 14October 2023 in which the proposed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice was rejected. Voters were asked to approve an Co ...

. She has called for the planned stage three tax cuts, due to take effect in 2024, to be cancelled. Chaney said, "On balance, I don’t think it makes sense to go through with the Stage 3 cuts right now. Other than budget repair, there are a lot of things this government could achieve with $243 billion".

Personal life

Chaney lives with her three children and husband.

References

External links