Ken Wyatt becomes Australia’s first Indigenous frontbencher in Federal parliament

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Published in the HealthBulletin Journal
Posted on:
22 September, 2015

Ken Wyatt, the Federal member for Hasluck, Western Australia, will become Australia’s first Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander to serve as a frontbencher in the Federal Government.

Ken Wyatt will be taking on the role of assistant health minister.

Mr Wyatt’s family heritage draws from several Indigenous groups. ‘When you bring the mix of me together, with the Yamatji, Wongi and Nyoongar, because on my fathers side is the Yamatji, but if I’m true to my father’s heritage he also has some Irish, but my great great grandfather married a Buddha who was at New Norcia so thats where the Yamatji comes from,’ Mr Wyatt (2010).

Mr Wyatt was a senior bureaucrat in the health and education sectors before he entered Federal Parliament in 2010. That too was an historic occassion as Mr Wyatt became Australia’s first Indigenous member of the House of Representatives.