Aboriginal MP sets out her agenda

Ms Burney says she wants to make a difference for her electorate

Linda Burney, the first Aboriginal MP in New South Wales, Australia, has told the BBC of her fight to represent minorities in the country.

When Ms Burney was sworn in last week, she became the first Aboriginal to sit in the state Parliament in 156 years of its existence.

"Australia has had a history where there has been much exclusion for indigenous people, and particularly within the parliamentary circles," Ms Burney told BBC World Service's Everywoman programme.

She said the fact that her Canterbury electorate was highly diverse had formed the basis of her ideas.

In particular, she said she wanted to tackle the problems facing older - often non-English-speaking - people; the stereotypes aimed at Canterbury's young Islamic population; and issues facing people with intellectual and physical disabilities.

Racism

Ms Burney's election is particularly remarkable as she was not made aware of her Aboriginal heritage until relatively later in life.

"I was never told I was Aboriginal because of the great shame of it," she told Everywoman.

My whole life has been about civil rights and social justice, and I'm not going to change

Linda Burney

She was the illegitimate daughter of an Aboriginal father and white mother.

At the time, many light-skinned Aboriginals were removed from their families to be brought up as white people.

"That would have happened to me had my great aunt and uncle on my mother's side not taken me and raised me," Ms Burney said.

Indeed, she did not meet her father until she was 28-years-old.

"It didn't take too long to work out I was a bit different to my blond-haired, blue-eyed cousins, and that taught me an awful lot about racism, which I received a lot of.

"I remember clearly at a very young age being told I'd never amount to anything.

"I didn't understand it, but it was clearly about the fact that I was black."

Increased diversity

But she said that being on the end of such treatment only made her more determined.

"For me it strengthened my backbone, and I said to myself, 'I will amount to something'."

Ms Burney added that she now hoped her own election was indicative of a trend towards greater inclusion in Australian political life.

"There are many more women entering the parliament, and many more different or indigenous backgrounds," she said.

Ms Burney is flying the flag for Aboriginal people

"That's crucial because the decisions that we make in parliament are decisions about real people.

"If parliament isn't diverse enough to be able to make the best decisions possible, then we're doing a disservice to our constituents."

She said that, though Australia's Aboriginal issue was perhaps unique, it was only one part of a broader picture - a picture familiar in many countries.

"The issues in this country are not dissimilar to many other Western countries where there is a growing divide between the rich and the poor," she said.

"My view and my whole life has been about civil rights and social justice, and I'm not going to change."