Robert Macklin.
First up will no doubt be the achievement of Pat Turner, the wonderful Gudanji-Arrernte woman who demanded the federal government seal off the outback Aboriginal communities from all potential COVID-19 carriers, thus preventing the deaths of hundreds if not thousands of our First Nations people.
Born in Alice Springs in 1952, Pat’s father died in a work accident when she was 11, but her mother – and great uncle Charles Perkins – saw that she received a good education in Adelaide.
She joined the APS and trained as a welfare officer; came to Canberra in 1978 where she rose through the ranks to become a deputy secretary of PM&C then CEO of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission.