32 Facts About Ken Wyatt

Kenneth George Wyatt was born on 4 August 1952 and is an Australian former politician.

Ken Wyatt was a member of the House of Representatives from 2010 to 2022, representing the Division of Hasluck for the Liberal Party.

Ken Wyatt 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.

Ken Wyatt was elevated to cabinet in May 2019 as Minister for Indigenous Australians in the Morrison government.

At the 2022 federal election, Ken Wyatt lost his seat to the Labor candidate Tania Lawrence.

On 6 April 2023 Ken Wyatt resigned his membership of the Liberal Party over its stance on the Indigenous Voice to Parliament, after leader Peter Dutton had announced the party's decision to support the "No" vote at the referendum on the Voice.

Kenneth George Wyatt was born on 4 August 1952 in Bunbury, Western Australia.

Ken Wyatt is of English, Irish, Indian and Indigenous Australian descent.

Ken Wyatt was born at Roelands Aboriginal Mission, a former home for young Indigenous children removed from their families.

Ken Wyatt's mother has Wongi and Noongar ancestry, while her surname, Abdullah, is from an ancestor who migrated from India to be a cameleer, helping lay the trans-Australia telegraph line.

Ken Wyatt has held positions as Director of the WA Office of Aboriginal Health as well as a similar post with NSW Health.

Ken Wyatt was previously Director of Aboriginal Education with the WA Department of Education.

Ken Wyatt stood for the Liberal Party in the seat of Hasluck in the 2010 election, defeating Labor incumbent Sharryn Jackson.

Ken Wyatt won the seat with a 1.4-point swing, and became the first Aboriginal person to be elected to the Australian House of Representatives, and the third elected to the Parliament.

On 28 September 2010, Ken Wyatt attended the opening of the 43rd Australian Parliament to take up his seat as member for Hasluck.

On 20 September 2015, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced that Ken Wyatt would become Assistant Minister for Health, making him the first Indigenous frontbencher in federal parliament.

On 18 February 2016, Ken 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 Ken 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.

Ken Wyatt retained his marginal seat at the May 2019 federal election with an increased majority.

Ken Wyatt is the first Indigenous person to hold the position and was elevated to cabinet.

Ken Wyatt 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".

In January 2022, Ken 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, Ken Wyatt lost his seat to the Labor candidate Tania Lawrence.

On 30 October 2019, Ken Wyatt announced the commencement of a "co-design process" aimed at providing an "Indigenous voice to government".

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, Ken 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".

In March 2023, Ken 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.

On 6 April 2023 Ken 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.

Ken Wyatt said that he still believed in the values of the Liberal Party, but he no longer believed in what the Liberals had become.

Ken Wyatt first married when he was 21, to Roza Veskovich, a librarian of Balkan heritage.

In December 2010 Ken Wyatt married Anna-Maria Palermo, when he was 60 and she was 56.

Ken Wyatt is of Italian descent, and they married in Italy.

Ken Wyatt's cousin Cedric Ken Wyatt was an Australian public servant and Indigenous rights advocate.

Cedric's son Ben Wyatt is a former Labor politician who served as the Treasurer of Western Australia from 2017 until March 2021.