Fred Chaney is one of seven children of the Hon. Sir Frederick Charles Chaney KBE, a Federal Parliamentarian and Minister for the Navy from 1963-1968. Fred Chaney joined the Papua New Guinea public services and served as Crown Prosecutor for two years before practicing in Perth as a solicitor. He was on the Joint Select Committee on Aboriginal Land Rights in the Northern Territory from 1976-1977 and was elected to Senate, representing Western Australia, in 1974. Chaney became the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs 1978-1979 and moved to the House of Representatives in 1990. He retired from Parliament in 1993 and became the Chancellor of Murdoch University. He also served as a member of the Native Title Tribunal and Co-Chair of Reconciliation Australia.
