Kenneth George Wyatt (born 4 August 1952) is a former Australian politician who was a member of the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

from 2010 to 2022, representing the

Division of Hasluck The Division of Hasluck is an electoral division of the Australian House of Representatives, located in Western Australia. History The division was proclaimed at a redistribution of Western Australia's electoral divisions on 20 November 2000, ...

for the

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. He is the first

Indigenous Australian Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

elected to the House of Representatives, the first to serve as a government minister, and the first appointed to

cabinet Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to: Furniture * Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers * Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets * Filing ...

. Wyatt was appointed Minister for Aged Care and

Minister for Indigenous Health The Minister for Health and Aged Care is the position in the Australian cabinet responsible for national health and wellbeing and medical research. The incumbent Minister is Labor MP Mark Butler. In the Government of Australia, the minister is ...

in the Turnbull Government in January 2017, after previously serving as an assistant minister since September 2015. He was elevated to cabinet in May 2019 as

Minister for Indigenous Australians The Minister for Indigenous Australians in the Government of Australia is a position which holds responsibility for affairs affecting Indigenous Australians. Previous ministers have held various other titles since the position was created in 196 ...

in the

Morrison government The Morrison government was the federal executive government of Australia, led by Prime Minister Scott Morrison of the Liberal Party of Australia, between 2018 and 2022. The Morrison government commenced on 24 August 2018, when it was sworn ...

. At the 2022 federal election Wyatt lost his seat to the

Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the la ...

candidate

Tania Lawrence Tania Lawrence (born c. 1973) is an Australian politician. She is a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and was elected to the Australian House of Representatives, House of Representatives at the 2022 Australian federal election, 2022 fed ...

Early life

Wyatt was born on 4 August 1952 in

Bunbury, Western Australia Bunbury is a coastal city in the Australian state of Western Australia, approximately south of the state capital, Perth. It is the state's third most populous city after Perth and Mandurah, with a population of approximately 75,000. Located a ...

. He is of

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Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

and

descent. He was born at

Roelands Aboriginal Mission Roelands Aboriginal Mission, also known as Roelands Native Mission or simply Roelands Mission, was a farm property used to house Aboriginal children from the Stolen Generations. Peter Albany Bell, following his retirement in 1928, purchased i ...

, a former home for young

Indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology), presence in a region as the result of only natural processes, with no human intervention *Indigenous (band), an American blues-rock band *Indigenous (horse), a Hong Kong racehorse ...

children removed from their families. His mother, Mona Abdullah, was one of the

Stolen Generations The Stolen Generations (also known as Stolen Children) were the children of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent who were removed from their families by the Australian federal and state government agencies and church miss ...

of Aboriginal children removed from their parents and relocated to Roelands, where she met her husband Don. Wyatt's father has

Yamatji Yamatji (or Yamaji) is a Wajarri word that has at least three different meanings: * a member of the Watjarri people * any Aboriginal Australian person from the Murchison region of Western Australia * any group made up of members of different I ...

and Irish ancestry. His mother has Wongi and

Noongar The Noongar (, also spelt Noongah, Nyungar , Nyoongar, Nyoongah, Nyungah, Nyugah, and Yunga ) are Aboriginal Australian peoples who live in the south-west corner of Western Australia, from Geraldton on the west coast to Esperance on the so ...

ancestry, while her surname,

Abdullah Abdullah may refer to: * Abdullah (name), a list of people with the given name or surname * Abdullah, Kargı, Turkey, a village * ''Abdullah'' (film), a 1980 Bollywood film directed by Sanjay Khan * '' Abdullah: The Final Witness'', a 2015 Pakis ...

, is from an ancestor who migrated from India to be a cameleer, helping lay the trans-Australia telegraph line.

Career

Prior to entering Parliament, Wyatt served as senior public servant in the fields of Aboriginal health and education. He has held positions as Director of the WA Office of Aboriginal Health as well as a similar post with NSW Health. He was also previously Director of Aboriginal Education with the WA Department of Education.

Politics

2010–2015: backbencher

Wyatt stood for the

in the seat of Hasluck in the 2010 election, defeating

incumbent Sharryn Jackson. He won the seat with a 1.4-point swing, and became the first Aboriginal person to be elected to the Australian House of Representatives,David Kennedy was the first Indigenous individual to be elected to both a state parliament and the Federal Parliament, having served as the ALP Member for Bendigo (1969–1972) prior to entering the Victorian Parliament in 1982 (MLA, ALP). However, his Indigenous heritage was not known when he entered both parliaments nor did he self-identify as Indigenous at that time. For these reasons Neville Bonner is recorded as the first Indigenous federal parliamentarian. From: Gobbet (2017). and the third elected to the Parliament (behind

Neville Bonner Neville Thomas Bonner AO (28 March 19225 February 1999) was an Australian politician, and the first Aboriginal Australian to become a member of the Parliament of Australia. He was appointed by the Queensland Parliament to fill a casual vacancy ...

and

Aden Ridgeway Aden Derek Ridgeway (born 18 September 1962) is an Australian former politician.''The Age'' (2006)Present politics Retrieved 6 July 2006. He was a member of the Australian Senate for New South Wales from 1999 to 2005, representing the Australia ...

, both Senators). On 28 September 2010, Wyatt attended the opening of the 43rd Australian Parliament to take up his seat as member for Hasluck. He wore a traditional Booka – a kangaroo skin coat with feathers from a red-tailed

black cockatoo Black cockatoo is a general descriptive term for cockatoos that are mainly black and may include: *Palm cockatoo, ''Probosciger aterrimus'', also called great black cockatoo *Species of the genus ''Calyptorhynchus'': **Red-tailed black cockatoo, '' ...

, signifying a leadership role in Noongar culture. The cloak had been presented to him by

elders. He made his maiden speech to the Parliament on 29 September and received a standing ovation from both the

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...

and opposition benches as well as from the public galleries. Wyatt is a member of the Moderate/Modern Liberal faction of the Liberal Party.

2015–2019: frontbencher

On 20 September 2015, Prime Minister

Malcolm Turnbull Malcolm Bligh Turnbull (born 24 October 1954) is an Australian former politician and businessman who served as the 29th prime minister of Australia from 2015 to 2018. He held office as leader of the Liberal Party of Australia. Turnbull grad ...

announced that Wyatt would become Assistant Minister for Health, making him the first Indigenous frontbencher in federal parliament. Although his term commenced on 21 September, he was not sworn in with the other ministers as he was overseas, with his ceremony taking place on 30 September. On 18 February 2016, Wyatt's responsibilities were expanded to include aged care in addition to health following a rearrangement in the ministry; and were expanded further when on 24 January 2017 Wyatt was the first indigenous Australian appointed as an Australian Government Minister, with responsibility for the portfolio of Aged Care and the newly established portfolio of Indigenous Health.

2019–2022: Minister for Indigenous Australians

Wyatt retained his marginal seat at the May 2019 federal election with an increased majority. After the election, he was appointed

in the Second Morrison Ministry. He is the first Indigenous person to hold the position, and was also elevated to cabinet. In July 2019, he gave an address to the

National Press Club Organizations A press club is an organization for journalists and others professionally engaged in the production and dissemination of news. A press club whose membership is defined by the press of a given country may be known as a National Press ...

, in which he spoke of the theme of

NAIDOC Week NAIDOC Week ( ) is an Australian observance lasting from the first Sunday in July until the following Sunday. The acronym NAIDOC stands for National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee, which was originally National Aborigines Day ...

2019: "Voice. Treaty. Truth.". He said that he would "develop and bring forward a consensus option for constitutional recognition to be put to a referendum during the current parliamentary term". He spoke of the development of a local, regional and national voice, and said "with respect to ndigenousTreaty, it's important that states and territory jurisdictions take the lead. When you consider the constitution, they are better placed to undertake that work", and with regard to

truth-telling A truth commission, also known as a truth and reconciliation commission or truth and justice commission, is an official body tasked with discovering and revealing past wrongdoing by a government (or, depending on the circumstances, non-state act ...

, he would "work on approaches to work on how we progress towards truth-telling". In January 2022, Wyatt announced that the federal government had secured copyright over the Australian Aboriginal Flag, following negotiations with the flag's designer Harold Thomas. At the 2022 federal election Wyatt lost his seat to the Labor candidate

Indigenous voice to government

On 30 October 2019, Wyatt announced the commencement of a "co-design process" aimed at providing an " Indigenous voice to government". The Senior Advisory Group (SAG) is co-chaired by Professor

Tom Calma Thomas Edwin Calma, (born 1953), is an Aboriginal Australian human rights and social justice campaigner. He is the sixth chancellor of the University of Canberra, a post held since January 2014, after two years as deputy chancellor. Calma is th ...

, Chancellor of the

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, and Professor Dr

Marcia Langton Marcia Lynne Langton (born 1951) is an Australian academic. she is the Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor at the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne. Regarded as one of Australia's top intellectuals, L ...

, Associate Provost at the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb nor ...

, and comprises a total of 20 leaders and experts from across the country. The models for the Voice are being developed in two stages: #First, two groups, one local and regional and the other a national group, will create models aimed at improving local and regional decision-making, and identifying how best federal government can record Indigenous peoples' views and ideas. The groups consist mainly of Indigenous members. #Consultations will be held with Indigenous leaders, communities and stakeholders to refine the models developed in the first stage. The first meeting of the group was held in Canberra on 13 November 2019.

Awards and honours

* 1996: Member of the

Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of the Australian Gove ...

for services to Aboriginal health 2001:

Centenary Medal The Centenary Medal is an award which was created by the Australian Government in 2001. It was established to commemorate the centenary of the Federation of Australia and to recognise "people who made a contribution to Australian society or go ...

in 2001.

Other activities and roles

In 2019, Wyatt delivered the

Frank Archibald Memorial Lecture The University of New England (UNE) is a public university in Australia with approximately 22,500 higher education students. Its original and main campus is located in the city of Armidale in northern central New South Wales. UNE was the fir ...

at the University of New England on the topic "Teaching Indigenous Australia – Understanding our past and unlocking our future".Transcript
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Family

Wyatt's cousin

Cedric Wyatt Cedric Wyatt (7 April 1940 – 25 September 2014) was an Australian public servant and indigenous rights advocate. A cousin of Ken Wyatt and the father of Ben Wyatt, both elected politicians, Wyatt worked in senior positions for Western Australi ...

was a senior public servant and unsuccessful Liberal candidate for federal parliament. Cedric's son Ben Wyatt is a former

politician who served as the

Treasurer of Western Australia The Treasurer of Western Australia is the title held by the Cabinet Minister who is responsible for the management of Western Australia's public sector finances, and for preparing and delivering the annual State Budget. With only rare exceptio ...

from 2017 until March 2021. Ben was also

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

's Aboriginal Affairs Minister which at the time made Ken, as Indigenous Australians Minister, his federal portfolio counterpart.

Footnotes

References

External links

* , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Wyatt, Ken 1952 births Australian people of English descent Australian people of Indian descent Australian people of Irish descent Indigenous Australian politicians Liberal Party of Australia members of the Parliament of Australia Living people Members of the Australian House of Representatives Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Hasluck Members of the Order of Australia Noongar people People from Bunbury, Western Australia Recipients of the Centenary Medal Turnbull Government 21st-century Australian politicians Government ministers of Australia Morrison Government