Kenneth George WyattAM (born 4 August 1952) is an Australian former politician. He was a member of the House of Representatives from 2010 to 2022, representing the Division of Hasluck for the Liberal Party. He is the first Indigenous Australian elected to the House of Representatives, the first to serve as a government minister, and the first appointed to cabinet.
Prior to entering Parliament, Wyatt served as senior public servant in the fields of Aboriginal health and education.[3] He has held positions as Director of the WA Office of Aboriginal Health as well as a similar post with NSW Health.[5] He was also previously Director of Aboriginal Education with the WA Department of Education.[5]
Wyatt stood for the Liberal Party in the seat of Hasluck in the 2010 election, defeating Labor incumbent Sharryn Jackson. He won the seat with a 1.4-point swing,[7] and became the first Aboriginal person to be elected to the Australian House of Representatives,[note 1][8][9][10][11] and the third elected to the Parliament (behind Neville Bonner and Aden Ridgeway, both Senators).[12] After his election, he received racist hate mail from people who said that they would not have voted for him if they had realised that he was Indigenous.[13]
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, signifying a leadership role in Noongar culture. The cloak had been presented to him by Noongar elders.[14] He made his maiden speech to the Parliament on 29 September and received a standing ovation from both the government and opposition benches as well as from the public galleries.[15]
2015–2019: frontbencher
On 20 September 2015, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull 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.[16][17] On 18 February 2016, Wyatt's responsibilities were expanded to include aged care in addition to health following a rearrangement in the ministry;[18][19] 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.[20]
In July 2019, he gave an address to the National Press Club, in which he spoke of the theme of NAIDOC Week 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 [Indigenous] Treaty, 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, he would "work on approaches to work on how we progress towards truth-telling".[23][24][25]
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.[26]
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 CalmaAO, Chancellor of the University of Canberra, and Professor Dr Marcia Langton, Associate Provost at the University of Melbourne, and as of October 2019 comprised a total of 20 leaders and experts from across the country.[28] The models for the Voice were developed in two stages.[29] The first meeting of the group was held in Canberra on 13 November 2019.[30]
In June 2022, after the WA Liberal Party passed a motion at its state conference urging the national leader of the party, Peter Dutton, to oppose the Voice, Wyatt said "I just find it very disappointing that a party that I have been heavily involved with, believe in, and see as having a set of values that match mine, make such a decision".[31]
2023: resignation from the Liberal Party
In March 2023, Wyatt stood with Labor prime minister Anthony Albanese, along with other members of the referendum working group, as Albanese announced the wording of the proposed constitutional change in Canberra.[32]
On 6 April 2023 Wyatt resigned his membership of the Liberal Party over its stance on the Voice, after Dutton had announced the party's decision to support the "No" vote at the Voice referendum.[33][34][35] He said that he still believed in the values of the Liberal Party, but he no longer believed in what the Liberals had become. "Aboriginal people are reaching out to be heard but the Liberals have rejected their invitation", he said.[31][32]
Wyatt first married when he was 21, to Roza Veskovich, a librarian of Balkan heritage. The couple lived above a funeral parlour in East Perth for four years. They had two boys, but separated after 25 years of marriage, partly due to his frequent travelling for work. One son is a professional classical musician.[38]
In December 2010[13] Wyatt married Anna-Maria Palermo, when he was 60 and she was 56. They met at an education conference.[38] She is of Italian descent,[39] and they married in Italy.[13]
Wyatt's cousin Cedric Wyatt was an Australian public servant and Indigenous rights advocate. Cedric's son Ben Wyatt (Ken's first cousin, once removed) is a former Labor politician who served as the Treasurer of Western Australia from 2017 until March 2021. Ben was also Western Australia's Aboriginal Affairs Minister which at the time made Ken, as Indigenous Australians Minister, his federal portfolio counterpart.[40][41]
Footnotes
^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).
^Gobbett, Hannah; Parliamentary Library (11 July 2017). "Indigenous parliamentarians, federal and state: a quick guide". www.aph.gov.au. Parliament House, Canberra: Commonwealth Parliament. Retrieved 27 February 2021. Source: P Biongiourno, 'Outgoing ALP National President discusses the ALP and the ALP conference', Meet the Press, transcript, 30 July 2000, accessed 17 October 2016.
