15 June 2021

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Lisa Richards
Politics and Public Administration Section

This Quick Guide provides information about Indigenous Australian parliamentarians in federal and state/territory parliaments. For the purposes of this Quick Guide, ‘Indigenous parliamentarian’ refers to a parliamentarian who identifies as an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander or as having Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander ancestry.

While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of this Quick Guide, it cannot be guaranteed to be comprehensive. The Parliamentary Library would appreciate receiving any additional information or amendments that would assist in compiling future updates.

This Quick Guide lists the name, party, chamber, state/electorate, dates in office, identity (where readily available) and significant firsts. This information is compiled from a range of publicly available sources including the Commonwealth Parliamentary Handbook, The Biographical Dictionary of the Australian Senate, the websites of Australian state and territory parliaments, political websites and personal biographies. Additionally, we are grateful to the state and territory parliamentary libraries for their assistance in compiling this Quick Guide.

Party and chamber abbreviations

Indigenous Australian federal parliamentarians

As of June 2021, the 46th Parliament includes six parliamentarians who identify as Indigenous or as having Indigenous heritage—two members of the House of Representatives and four senators:

• Linda Burney, MP (ALP, Barton, NSW)
• Ken Wyatt, MP (LIB, Hasluck, WA)
• Senator Pat Dodson (ALP, WA)
• Senator Jacqui Lambie (JLN, Tas.)
• Senator Malarndirri McCarthy (ALP, NT) and
• Senator Lidia Thorpe (GRN, Vic.).

Significant firsts

• Neville Bonner (LIB; IND, Qld) was the first Indigenous member of any Australian parliament, appointed to the Senate on 11 June 1971.
• Ken Wyatt (LIB, Hasluck, WA) was the first Indigenous member of the House of Representatives, elected on 21 August 2010. He is also the first Indigenous person to hold assistant ministerial, ministerial, and Cabinet roles in the Australian Government:
• Assistant Minister for Health, appointed 30 September 2015
• Minister for Aged Care, appointed 24 January 2017 and
• (Cabinet) Minister for Indigenous Australians, appointed 29 May 2019.
• Nova Peris (ALP, NT) was the first Indigenous Australian woman elected to the Senate in 2013.
• Linda Burney (ALP, Barton, NSW) was the first female Indigenous Australian elected to the House of Representatives on 2 July 2016.
• David Kennedy (ALP, Bendigo, Vic.) was the first Indigenous Australian to be elected to both a state/territory parliament and the federal parliament. He was first elected at a by-election as the ALP member for Bendigo in the House of Representatives in 1969 and served until his defeat at the 1972 federal election. In 1982 he was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly, serving for approximately 10 years. Kennedy’s Indigenous heritage was unknown 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 parliamentarian.
• Linda Burney (ALP, Barton, NSW) and Malarndirri McCarthy (ALP, NT) are the first Indigenous women to be elected to both a state/territory parliament and the federal parliament. They served in the New South Wales and Northern Territory parliaments, respectively, prior to both being elected to the Federal Parliament on 2 July 2016.
• Aden Ridgeway (AD, NSW) was the first Aboriginal person to use an Australian Indigenous language in the Federal Parliament. In his first speech to the Senate delivered on 25 August 1999, he stated:

  On this special occasion, I make my presence known as an Aborigine and to this chamber I say, perhaps for the first time: Nyandi baaliga Jaingatti. Nyandi mimiga Gumbayynggir. Nya jawgar yaam Gumbayynggir. Translated, it means: My father is Dhunghutti. My mother is Gumbayynggir. And, therefore, I am Gumbayynggir.

Table 1: list of Indigenous Australian federal parliamentarians, by date first elected

Source: Compiled by the Parliamentary Library.

^*Selected under Section 15 of the Australian Constitution in the Senate or at a by-election in the House of Representatives.

^{^}Aden Ridgeway was elected to the Senate 3.10.1998, his term began 1.7.1999.

^#Jacqui Lambie was elected to the Senate 7.9.2013, her term began 1.7.2014.

^**Jacqui Lambie resigned on 14.11.2017 and was subsequently disqualified by the High Court on 8.12.2017, pursuant to section 44(i) of the Constitution.

Indigenous Australian state/territory parliamentarians

Significant firsts

• Hyacinth Tungutalum (CLP, NT Legislative Assembly) was the first Indigenous Australian elected to a state/territory parliament in October 1974.
• Carol Martin (ALP, WA Legislative Assembly) was the first female Indigenous Australian elected to any Australian parliament in February 2001.
• Ernie Bridge (ALP; IND, WA Legislative Assembly) was the first Indigenous Australian to hold a ministerial role and Cabinet position in any Australian government in July 1986 as Minister for Water Resources, the North-West and Aboriginal Affairs.
• Marion Scrymgour (ALP; IND; ALP, NT Legislative Assembly) was the first female Indigenous Australian to hold a ministerial position in December 2003 as Minister for Family and Community Services, and Environment and Heritage. On 26 November 2007 (p. 20) she was appointed Deputy Chief Minister of the NT, becoming (at that time) the highest-ranked Indigenous parliamentarian in Australian history.
• Adam Giles (CLP, NT Legislative Assembly) was the first (and so far, only) Indigenous Australian head of government, serving as Chief Minister of the NT from 14 March 2013 to 27 August 2016.
• Chansey Paech (ALP, NT Legislative Assembly) was the first Indigenous Australian appointed as Speaker of any Australian parliament in June 2020, shortly before the 2020 NT election.
• Ngaree Ah Kit (ALP, NT Legislative Assembly) was the first female Indigenous Australian appointed as Speaker of any Australian parliament in October 2020.

The information in Table 2 is derived from state/territory parliament websites, as such the data has not been standardised. The following parliamentarians are listed under each state/territory in order of date first elected.

Table 2: list of state/territory Indigenous Australian parliamentarians, by state/territory

Source: Compiled by the Parliamentary Library.

*By-election.

Note 1: retired parliamentarians are listed as ‘resigned’.

[1] The spelling is sourced from Hansard records. The AIATSIS Austlang thesaurus provides alternative spellings.

[2].   Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory, Members of the Legislative Assembly: 1^st Assembly 1974 to 13^th Assembly, updated 21 August 2020.

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