Ken Wyatt delivers his maiden speech to the House of Representatives in Canberra, Wednesday, Sept. 29, 2010. (AAP)

Ken Wyatt delivers his maiden speech to the House of Representatives in Canberra, Wednesday, Sept. 29, 2010. (AAP) Source: AAP

The Member for Hasluck, Western Australia, will become Australia's first Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander Federal Government frontbencher, taking up the role of assistant health minister.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced his front bench lineup in Canberra on Sunday afternoon. Mr Wyatt's appointment is not the only historic achievement. In what Turnbull has described as a "21st century government and a ministry for the future", the new cabinet features sweeping changes, including Australia's first female Defence Minister in Marise Payne.

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Ken Wyatt AM was a senior bureaucrat in the health and education sectors before he entered Federal Parliament in 2010. That too was an historic occassion as Mr Wyatt became Australia's first Indigenous member of the House of Representatives.

"I have come from a life of poverty and through my own individual efforts I stand now within the national arena."

Speaking in 2010, Mr Wyatt said, "I have come from a life of poverty and through my own individual efforts I stand now within the national arena."

"I will bring both that wisdom and my knowledge and skills to (represent) all of the people of Hasluck."

Living Black's Phil Tucak reported in 2010 that Mr Wyatt's family heritage draws from several Indigenous groups.

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“When you bring the mix of me together, with the Yamatji, Wongi and Nyoongar, because on my fathers side is the Yamatji, but if i'm true to my father's heritage he also has some Irish, but my great great grandfather married a Buddha who was at New Norcia so thats where the Yamatji comes from," he said.

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"On my mother's side is the fact that my great, great grandfather married a Goldfields woman, and then the combination of the Wongi family heritage and the marriage into Nyoongar gives us that rich diversity."

Ken Wyatt's mother Mona was a member of the Stolen Generations. After being removed from her family, Mona was placed at Roelands Mission, a home for young Indigenous children removed from their families, near Bunbury south of Perth. It was there that she later met her future husband Don, and where Ken was born.

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Prior to entering Parliament, Wyatt served as a senior public servant in the fields of Aboriginal health and education. He has held positions as Director of the WA Office of Aboriginal Health, a similar role in NSW Health, and Director of Aboriginal Education with the WA Department of Education.



Mr Wyatt will be sworn in along with the rest of Malcolm Turnbull's revamped ministry on Monday morning.