Марион Скраймгур: политический путь и карьера в Австралии

Australian politician

Marion Rose Scrymgour (born 13 September 1960) is an Australian politician and the current member of parliament (MP) for Lingiari. She was a member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly from 2001 to 2012, representing the electorate of Arafura. She was the Labor Party Deputy Chief Minister of the Northern Territory from November 2007 until February 2009, and was the highest ranked Indigenous Australian woman in government in Australia's history. She was also the first Indigenous woman to be elected to the Northern Territory legislature. Scrymgour, a senior minister under former Chief Minister Clare Martin, had a rapid rise within the party throughout the 2000s, and despite a reputation for outspoken views on Indigenous issues, rose to become Deputy Chief Minister under Paul Henderson after the retirement of long time deputy Syd Stirling in 2007. She had a controversial term as Education Minister under Henderson, and was shifted to the Attorney General portfolio in February 2009, in a move widely seen as a demotion. Several days later, she resigned from Cabinet and as Deputy Chief Minister, citing "health reasons". Scrymgour remained on the Labor backbench until June 2009, when she resigned from the Labor Party over its stance on remote Indigenous communities. She sat in the Legislative Assembly as an independent, and held the balance of power; Labor had held only a one seat majority before her departure. On 4 August 2009, Scrymgour rejoined the ALP.

Scrymgour was born on 13 September 1960 in Darwin, the capital of the Northern Territory. She is the daughter of Claire and Jack Scrymgour. 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.

Chief Minister Clare Martin resigned in November 2007 after having lost the support of her caucus, and was replaced by Paul Henderson. The newly elected Henderson appointed Scrymgour as his deputy, which was considered a surprise choice at the time. On 24 December 2007 Scrymgour spent several hours at the emergency department of Royal Darwin Hospital undergoing treatment for "an emotional and physical collapse". In January 2008 Scrymgour was appointed Acting Chief Minister of the Northern Territory while the incumbent Paul Henderson was on holiday, becoming the first Aboriginal government leader in Australian history. She served for two weeks. Scrymgour had taken on the education portfolio upon her ascension to Deputy Chief Minister, but had been regularly criticised in the press for her performance, particularly after her controversial sacking of the head of the territory's Education Department in 2008. This culminated in Henderson's decision in February 2009 to remove Scrymgour from the portfolio, shifting her to the less politically difficult Attorney General role. The following week, Scrymgour resigned from Cabinet and as Deputy Chief Minister, citing recurring problems with depression caused by the death of her father. On 1 June 2009, Scrymgour publicly opposed the Government on its announced policy of concentrating Indigenous development in 20 larger communities and discouraging "homeland" or "outstation" settlement, which she labelled as insulting. She said that she realised while recovering from surgery that she had lost touch with her constituents, and that "I feel strongly because we have lied to Aboriginal people". On 4 June, after a significant degree of speculation in the media, she resigned from the Labor Party, reducing it to minority government. On 4 August 2009, after the defection of another minister, Alison Anderson, Scrymgour announced that she would rejoin the Labor Party.

After working for the Australian Red Cross in 2013–2014, Scrymgour returned to Wurli Wurlinjang Aboriginal Corporation as its CEO. In December 2013 she was elected as Chairperson of the Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance Northern Territory. In November 2013, Scrymgour was awarded an honorary doctorate in Health Sciences by the University of Sydney, the first Aboriginal recipient of such an honour from the Faculty of Health Sciences. In March 2019, Scrymgour was appointed CEO of the Northern Land Council and became the first woman CEO of any land council in the Northern Territory.

In March 2021, Scrymgour was preselected as the Labor candidate for the federal seat of Lingiari in the 2022 federal election after Labor incumbent Warren Snowdon announced he would not stand for re election. She won the seat by a narrow margin from Country Liberal candidate Damien Ryan.