1. Linda Jean Burney was born on 25 April 1957 and is an Australian Labor Party politician who was member of the member of Parliament for the division of Barton from 2016 to 2025.
36 Facts About Linda Burney
1. 2.
Linda Burney was the minister for Indigenous Australians from 2022 to July 2024.
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Linda Burney was formerly a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly for the district of Canterbury from 2003 to 2016 and previously a teacher.
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Linda Burney, who is Wiradjuri, was the first known person to identify as Aboriginal to serve in the New South Wales Parliament upon her election in 2003.
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Linda Burney later became the first known woman to identify as Aboriginal in the House of Representatives upon her entry into federal politics at the 2016 election.
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Linda Burney was born on 25 April 1957 in Whitton, a small town in south-west New South Wales near Leeton, and grew up there.
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Linda Burney said in her inaugural speech to NSW Parliament that she did not grow up knowing her Aboriginal family, and only met her father, Nonny Ingram, in 1984.
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Linda Burney was raised by her elderly aunt and uncle, siblings Nina and Billy Laing, who "gave [her] the ground on which [she] stood" and taught her "the values of honesty, loyalty and respect".
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Linda Burney did her first four years of secondary school at Leeton High School and final two at Penrith High School.
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Linda Burney was one of the first Aboriginal students to graduate from the Mitchell College of Advanced Education, where she obtained a Diploma of Teaching in 1978.
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Linda Burney received an Honorary Doctorate in Education from Charles Sturt University in 2002.
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Linda Burney began her career teaching at Lethbridge Park public school in western Sydney from 1979 to 1981, after which she worked at the Aboriginal Education Unit of the NSW Department of Education from 1981 to 1983.
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Linda Burney was involved in the New South Wales Aboriginal Education Consultative Group from the 1983 to 1998, participating in the development and implementation of the first Aboriginal education policy in Australia.
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In 1998 Linda Burney was appointed deputy director general of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs, and assumed the role of director general from 2000 to 2003.
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Linda Burney was an unsuccessful candidate at the 1997 Australian Constitutional Convention election, running on the "Australian Reconciliation" ticket alongside Frank Brennan, Wendy McCarthy, and Aden Ridgeway.
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When Linda Burney was elected as the Member for Canterbury in 2003, she became the first Aboriginal person to serve in the NSW Parliament.
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Linda Burney was appointed Parliamentary Secretary for Education and Training in 2005.
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Linda Burney was the lead minister in a whole of government reform plan, "Keep Them Safe", that commenced implementing the recommendations of the inquiry.
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Linda Burney held the community services and state plan portfolios until ALP's defeat at the 2011 state election.
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Linda Burney became the Shadow Minister for Planning, Infrastructure and Heritage, Shadow Minister for the Central Coast and the Hunter and Shadow Minister for Sport and Recreation.
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On 23 December 2014, as deputy leader, Linda Burney became the interim leader of the opposition after the resignation of John Robertson, and was then re-elected as deputy leader to Luke Foley.
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Linda Burney was the Shadow Minister for Education and Shadow Minister for Aboriginal Affairs until her resignation from state parliament.
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On 1 March 2016, Linda Burney announced she would stand for preselection to contest the federal seat of Barton at the forthcoming 2016 federal election.
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Linda Burney was confirmed as the Labor candidate following a vote by the ALP's national executive.
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Linda Burney submitted her resignation to the Speaker of the NSW Legislative Assembly on 6 May 2016, and was succeeded as the state member for Canterbury by Sophie Cotsis following a by-election held on 12 November 2016.
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Linda Burney became the first Aboriginal woman to be elected to the federal House of Representatives.
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Linda Burney retained the seat of Barton for the ALP at the election, becoming the first Indigenous woman to be elected to the House of Representatives and the second Indigenous person elected to the House after Ken Wyatt in 2010.
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Linda Burney was re-elected at the 2019 federal election with an increased majority.
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Since the election of a federal Labor government in the 2022 Australian election on 21 May 2022, with Anthony Albanese as prime minister of Australia, Linda Burney was appointed Minister for Indigenous Australians, sworn in on 1 June 2022.
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On 25 July 2024 Linda Burney announced her retirement from federal Parliament at the next election ahead of a cabinet reshuffle that was announced on 28 July 2024.
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Linda Burney was replaced as Minister for Indigenous Australians by Malarndirri McCarthy.
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Linda Burney has held senior positions in the non-government sector, serving on a number of boards including SBS, the NSW Anti-Discrimination Board and the NSW Board of Studies.
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Linda Burney was an executive member of the National Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation, President of the NSW Aboriginal Education Consultative Group and is a former Director-General of the NSW Department of Aboriginal Affairs.
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In 2006, Linda Burney gave the seventh Vincent Lingiari Memorial Lecture, and in 2008 gave the sixth Henry Parkes Oration.
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Linda Burney gave the Lowitja O'Donoghue Oration at the Don Dunstan Foundation in Adelaide on 31 May 2022, in which she spoke about the Albanese government's commitment to the Uluru Statement from the Heart.
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Linda Burney's achievements have been recognised with the following honours and awards:.