Marion Scrymgour
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Marion Rose Scrymgour (born 1960) is an Australian politician. She has been an Australian Labor Party member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly since August 2001. Scrymgour represents the electorate of Arafura, which covers western Arnhem Land and the Tiwi Islands. She is the current Minister for Family and Community Services and Minister for Environment and Heritage, and is notable as the first indigenous woman to become a minister in any Australian government.
Scrymgour was born in Darwin, the capital of the Northern Territory. Her mother was a Tiwi Islander, and her father had been forcibly removed as a child from his home in Central Australia. Scrymgour attended primary and secondary school in Darwin, but initially decided against tertiary education, working in several office administration positions. She later undertook correspondence courses as a mature age student in book-keeping, accounting, administration and health economics. She subsequently served as director of the Wurli Wurlinjang Aboriginal Corporation, co-ordinated several trial community care programs around Katherine, and as Director of the Katherine West Health Board Aboriginal Corporation. Scrymgour was also an active member of the Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union, and had represented the union at the national conference of the Australian Labor Party.
Scrymgour made a shift into politics at the 2001 election, succeeding Maurice Rioli as the Australian Labor Party member for the largely safe ALP seat of Arafura. She easily defeated her Country Liberal Party rival, although her margin was not as large as Rioli's due to campaigns by two independent candidates. In winning election to the assembly, she became the first indigenous woman ever to do so.
After two years as a backbencher, Scrymgour was promoted to the ministry on December 17, 2003, as part of a reshuffle sparked by the axing of Health Minister Jane Aagaard. Taking on the portfolios of Family and Community Services and Environment and Heritage, she became the first indigenous woman to serve in any Australian government at either federal, state or territory level. As a minister, Scrymgour chaired the Substance Abuse Select Committee, and introduced legislation which attempted to deal with the issue of petrol sniffing and the issue of domestic violence in Aboriginal communities. She has also overseen planned changes to the territory's heritage laws, which will create a heritage council to protect important sites, as already exists in several states.
