JULIA Gillard calls it a "captain's pick" and Nova Peris says it's an "amazing opportunity".
Trish Crossin, if she felt free to say what she really thinks, would probably call it a brutal assassination.
However you see it, the prime minister's determination to catapult Peris into the Senate over Crossin's body is the latest chapter in Labor's intermittent love affair with celebrity.
Labelling Peris a celebrity, though, is unjust, as celebrity implies fame without substance and Peris's against-the-odds achievements in two sports is certainly substantial.
And there is also the certainly substantial matter of her Aboriginality. Labor has long been sensitive about the fact it has never had an indigenous federal MP.
Nevertheless, there are imperfect parallels - and one interesting question - with Gillard's decision to preselect Peris to the winning top spot on Labor's Senate ticket for the Northern Territory.
Labor thought it was smart to entice Cheryl Kernot, the high-profile leader of the Australian Democrats, into its fold in 1997.
Her star sparkled but briefly. She was rewarded with the then marginal seat of Dickson, but she held it for only a single term.
Another to be wooed was Peter Garrett, of Midnight Oil fame. He was given the very safe seat of Kingsford Smith in 2004 after Laurie Brereton - it would have taken something nuclear to shift him against his wishes - retired.
While Garrett's rock star celebrity didn't do Mark Latham much good in Labor's 2004 election thrashing, he's at least stuck around and is deep into his second term as a cabinet minister.
Different again was Bob Carr, the former NSW premier who was resurrected last year when a casual Senate vacancy arose and was immediately made foreign minister.
At least Carr, unlike Kernot, Garrett and Peris, was already a Labor Party member.
But there was someone else who was ready, willing and able to fill the vacancy that went to Carr - Warren Mundine, a former ALP national president and, more importantly in this context, an Aborigine.
So Gillard, who is now so troubled by Labor's lack of indigenous federal MPs, less than 12 months ago apparently made no effort to get a thoroughly deserving Mundine into the Senate when the opportunity arose.
Finally, there's the question of the Senate rather than the lower house.
Neddy the Donkey would get into the Senate if placed top on Labor's ticket. So Peris is, assuming the prime minister has her way in the preselection process, guaranteed victory. That's fine if viewed purely from an indigenous representation perspective.
But it won't do anything for Labor's re-election ambitions.
If Peris is such a strong candidate, why isn't she put up for Solomon, the marginal lower house seat based on Darwin which is held by the coalition?
After all, Peris is from Darwin, she's the territory's first Olympic gold medallist and is, in Gillard's words, "a household name".
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