Marion Scrymgour
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Marion Rose Scrymgour (born 13 September 1960) is an Australian politician and the current MP for Lingiari. She was a member of the
Northern Territory Legislative Assembly The Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory is the unicameral legislature of the Northern Territory of Australia. The Legislative Assembly has 25 members, each elected in single-member electorates for four-year terms. The voting method f ...
from 2001 to 2012, representing the electorate of Arafura. She was the Labor Party Deputy Chief Minister of the Northern Territory from November 2007 until February 2009, and was the highest-ranked
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 ...
woman in government in Australia's history. She was also the first Indigenous woman to be elected to the Northern Territory Parliament. Scrymgour, a senior minister under former Chief Minister
Clare Martin Clare Majella Martin (born 15 June 1952) is a former Australian journalist and politician. She was elected to the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly in a shock by-election win in 1995. She was appointed Opposition Leader in 1999, and won ...
, had a rapid rise within the party throughout the 2000s, and despite a reputation for outspoken views on Indigenous issues, rose to become
Deputy Chief Minister A chief minister is an elected or appointed head of government of – in most instances – a sub-national entity, for instance an administrative subdivision or federal constituent entity. Examples include a state (and sometimes a union terri ...
under Paul Henderson after the retirement of long-time deputy
Syd Stirling Sydney James Stirling (born 16 December 1951) is a former Australian politician. He was the Labor member for Nhulunbuy in the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly from 1990 to 2008. Stirling was born in Kyneton, Victoria, and worked ...
in 2007. She had a controversial term as Education Minister under Henderson, and was shifted to the Attorney-General portfolio in February 2009, in a move widely seen as a demotion. Several days later, she resigned from Cabinet and as Deputy Chief Minister, citing "health reasons". Scrymgour remained on the Labor backbench until June 2009, when she resigned from the Labor Party over its stance on remote Indigenous communities. She sat in the Legislative Assembly as an independent, and held the balance of power; Labor had held only a one-seat majority before her departure. On 4 August 2009, Scrymgour rejoined the ALP.


Early life

Scrymgour was born on 13 September 1960 in Darwin, the capital of the
Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...
. She is the daughter of Claire () and Jack Scrymgour. Her mother was a Tiwi Islander, and her father had been forcibly removed as a child from his home in Central Australia. Scrymgour attended primary and secondary school in Darwin, but initially decided against tertiary education, working in several office administration positions. She later undertook correspondence courses as a mature age student in book-keeping, accounting, administration and health economics. She subsequently served as director of the Wurli Wurlinjang Aboriginal Corporation, co-ordinated several trial community care programs around
Katherine Katherine, also spelled Catherine, and Catherina, other variations are feminine Given name, names. They are popular in Christian countries because of their derivation from the name of one of the first Christian saints, Catherine of Alexandria ...
, and as Director of the Katherine West Health Board Aboriginal Corporation. Scrymgour was also an active member of the
Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union United Voice was a large Australian trade union, with over 130,000 members. United Voice members worked in a wide range of occupations including hospitality, childcare, teachers' aides, aged care, property services (cleaning, security, maintenan ...
, and had represented the union at the national conference of the Australian Labor Party.


Territory political career


Early career

Scrymgour contested and won Labor preselection for the Legislative Assembly seat of Arafura, after the retirement of
Maurice Rioli Maurice Joseph Rioli Sr. (1 September 195725 December 2010) was an Australian rules footballer who represented St Mary's Football Club in the Northern Territory Football League (NTFL), in the West Australian Football League (WAFL) and in th ...
. The seat was considered safe for Labor, and she was re-elected with a lesser majority, due to the presence of two high-profile independent candidates on the ballot. In winning the seat, she became the first Indigenous women to be elected to the Legislative Assembly. Scrymgour was promoted to the ministry under
Clare Martin Clare Majella Martin (born 15 June 1952) is a former Australian journalist and politician. She was elected to the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly in a shock by-election win in 1995. She was appointed Opposition Leader in 1999, and won ...
on 17 December 2003, as part of a reshuffle caused by the sacking of Health Minister
Jane Aagaard Jane Lesley Aagaard (born 1956) is a former Australian politician. She was a Labor Party member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly from 2001 to 2012, representing the Darwin-based electorate of Nightcliff. She was the Speaker of ...
. She was assigned the portfolios of Family and Community Services and Environment and Heritage, and in doing so, became Australia's first Aboriginal woman cabinet minister. As Minister for Family and Community Services, Scrymgour was tasked with responding to the issues of substance abuse and domestic violence. She chaired a select committee into substance abuse, and was the relevant minister during the roll-out of non-sniffable Opal fuel across remote Indigenous communities. She was shifted to a new portfolio after the 2005 election, being appointed Minister for Natural Resources, Environment and the Arts. After a further reshuffle in August 2007, she retained Arts and Museums, regained Family and Community Services and was made Minister for Child Protection. She also oversaw planned changes to the territory's heritage laws, which created a heritage council to protect important sites, as already exists in several states. Scrymgour developed a reputation for outspoken views on Indigenous issues during her second term. She clashed with her own party on the issue of the MacArthur River Mine in 2006, and joined three other Indigenous MPs in crossing the floor to oppose the mine's expansion. She made national news in late 2007 when she publicly condemned the federal government's intervention into Indigenous communities, the
Northern Territory National Emergency Response The Northern Territory National Emergency Response, also known as "The Intervention" or the Northern Territory Intervention, and sometimes the abbreviation "NTER" (for Northern Territory Emergency Response) was a package of measures enforced by ...
, labelling it "a vicious new McCarthyism."


Deputy Chief Minister to Independent

Chief Minister
Clare Martin Clare Majella Martin (born 15 June 1952) is a former Australian journalist and politician. She was elected to the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly in a shock by-election win in 1995. She was appointed Opposition Leader in 1999, and won ...
resigned in November 2007 after having lost the support of her caucus, and was replaced by Paul Henderson. The newly elected Henderson appointed Scrymgour as his deputy, which was considered a surprise choice at the time. On 24 December 2007 Scrymgour spent several hours at the
emergency department An emergency department (ED), also known as an accident and emergency department (A&E), emergency room (ER), emergency ward (EW) or casualty department, is a medical treatment facility specializing in emergency medicine, the acute care of pati ...
of
Royal Darwin Hospital Royal Darwin Hospital (RDH) is a 360-bed Australian teaching hospital located in Tiwi, Northern Territory, a northern suburb of the Territory capital Darwin. It is part of the Top End Health Service, which covers an area of . RDH is the only ...
undergoing treatment for "an emotional and physical collapse". In January 2008 Scrymgour was appointed Acting
Chief Minister of the Northern Territory The chief minister of the Northern Territory is the head of government of the Northern Territory. The office is the equivalent of a state premier. When the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly was created in 1974, the head of government was ...
while the incumbent Paul Henderson was on holiday, becoming the first Aboriginal government leader in Australian history. She served for two weeks. Scrymgour had taken on the education portfolio upon her ascension to Deputy Chief Minister, but had been regularly criticised in the press for her performance, particularly after her controversial sacking of the head of the territory's Education Department in 2008. This culminated in Henderson's decision in February 2009 to remove Scrymgour from the portfolio, shifting her to the less politically difficult Attorney-General role. The following week, Scrymgour resigned from Cabinet and as Deputy Chief Minister, citing recurring problems with depression caused by the death of her father. On 1 June 2009, Scrymgour publicly opposed the Government on its announced policy of concentrating indigenous development in 20 larger communities and discouraging "homeland" or "outstation" settlement, which she labelled as insulting. She said that she realised while recovering from surgery that she had lost touch with her constituents, and that "I feel strongly because we have lied to Aboriginal people". On 4 June, after a significant degree of speculation in the media, she resigned from the Labor Party, reducing it to minority government. On 4 August 2009, after the defection of another minister,
Alison Anderson Alison Nampitjinpa Anderson (born 28 January 1958) is an Australian politician. She was member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly between 2005 and 2016, representing the electorate of Namatijra (known as MacDonnell until 2012). Cu ...
, Scrymgour announced that she would rejoin the Labor Party. She retired from politics at the 2012 election.


Post-politics

After working for the Australian Red Cross in 2013–2014, Scrymgour returned to Wurli Wurlinjang Aboriginal Corporation as its CEO. In December 2013 she was elected as Chairperson of the
Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance Northern Territory The Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance Northern Territory (AMSANT) is a healthcare policy organisation that serves Aboriginal communities in Australia's Northern Territory. It is an independent, not-for-profit group that is funded by Australi ...
. In November 2013, Scrymgour was awarded an honorary doctorate in Health Sciences by the University of Sydney, the first Aboriginal recipient of such an honour from the Faculty of Health Sciences. In March 2019, Scrymgour was appointed CEO of the
Northern Land Council The Northern Land Council (NLC) is a land council representing the Aboriginal peoples of the Top End of the Northern Territory of Australia, with its head office in Darwin. While the NLC was established in 1974, its origins began in the strugg ...
and became the first woman CEO of any land council in the Northern Territory.


Federal politics

In March 2021, Scrymgour was preselected as 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 for the federal seat of Lingiari in the 2022 federal election after Labor incumbent
Warren Snowdon Warren Edward Snowdon (born 20 March 1950) is an Australian former politician who served as a member of the House of Representatives from July 1987 to March 1996, and again from October 1998 until May 2022. Initially representing the Division ...
announced he would not stand for re-election. She won the seat by a narrow margin from Country Liberal candidate Damien Ryan.


See also

*
List of Indigenous Australian politicians This list of Indigenous Australian politicians includes Indigenous Australians who have been members of Australian legislaturesfederal, state or territory. It does not include those elected to local councils (including mayors), Governors/Gover ...


References


External links


Members of the Legislative Assembly: Marion Scrymgour
at the Northern Territory Parliamentary web page * {{DEFAULTSORT:Scrymgour, Marion 1960 births Living people Indigenous Australian politicians Australian Labor Party members of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly Independent members of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly Members of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly Deputy Chief Ministers of the Northern Territory Attorneys-General of the Northern Territory Indigenous Australian health professionals 21st-century Australian politicians 21st-century Australian women politicians Women members of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly Women members of the Australian House of Representatives Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Lingiari Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia Tiwi Islands people