First Indigenous woman to be elected to Queensland state parliament says she is keenly aware of the responsibility of being ‘the first’

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Leeanne Enoch has described her election as the first Indigenous woman to Queensland’s state parliament as a moment that “belongs to all of Queensland because it means there has been a change”.

Enoch, who will be joined in the next parliament by Queensland Labor’s first Indigenous male MP, Billy Gordon, says the onus is now on her to “open the door as wide as possible” for those who may follow.

Enoch, who won Algester in Brisbane, and Gordon, who took the far northern seat of Cook 2,000km away, were part of a Labor surge on Saturday that has the party poised to take government just three years after suffering the worst defeat in Australian political history.

Enoch, a former high school teacher and state Red Cross director, told Guardian Australia that she was keenly aware of the responsibility of being “the first”.

“I also accept when you are the first, you have a responsibility to open the door as wide as possible, to as many people as possible, whatever those roles may be,” she said.

Enoch and Gordon are the first Indigenous members of state parliament since the National party MP Eric Deeral, who held the seat of Cook – now held by Gordon – 41 years ago.

Enoch, who is the sister of the playwright and theatre director Wesley Enoch, said there was “excitement and tears” at her family celebration on election night.

Relatives had travelled from North Stradbroke island, where family roots lie in the Quandamooka clan that also boasted the late Oodgeroo Noonuccal, the famous poet and Aboriginal rights campaigner.

“There’s a lot of pride in the room. There’s a lot of pride for the family,” Enoch said.

“But this moment is one that belongs not just to the family, but to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island people, and all of Queensland, because it means there has been a change.

“It’s the idea now that this is an option, this is a possibility for Aboriginal people.”

Enoch said her primary role in parliament would be as the local member for her suburban Brisbane seat.

“Obviously, first of all, it’s a huge honour to represent any electorate in the Queensland parliament,” she said.

More broadly, Enoch hopes to continue her involvement in the campaign for a reparation fund for wages stolen from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people between 1904 and 1972, when the state controlled their earnings.

She has worked on the stolen wages issue over the past six years with the Red Cross and then the Queensland Council of Unions from 2013.

The QCU clashed with the former Bligh Labor government in 2008 because it had paid out less than half of a promised fund of $55m in reparations.

Enoch said stolen wages was “an issue that doesn’t just belong to an Indigenous member of parliament but also it would belong to a Labor government, if there is one”.

Enoch said another of her “huge passions” in policy was trying to improve the quality of education “that is accessible to all, regardless of what you earn or what culture you’re from”.