Leeanne Enoch

Leeanne Margaret Enoch is an Australian politician currently serving as the Labor member for Algester in the Queensland Legislative Assembly since 2015. Prior to the 2024 Queensland election, she served as a Minister in the Palaszczuk and Miles governments, most recently as Minister for Treaty, Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships, Minister for Communities and Minister for the Arts.

Enoch is an Aboriginal Australian of the Quandamooka peoples of North Stradbroke Island, and was the first Indigenous Australian woman elected to the Queensland Parliament.

Early life and education Enoch was born the oldest of four, and became the first member of her family to graduate from university. She is the elder sister of playwright Wesley Enoch, who is the second born after Leeanne and older than his two brothers.

Career Enoch worked as a high school English and drama teacher in schools across South-East Queensland and East London, later becoming a manager of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander policy in the State Education Department. Her department launched the Advance Queensland initiative in June 2015, in a drive to create jobs in new and emerging industries. The Advance Queensland Expert Panel is an independent panel created to provide advice to government.

She served as Minister for Environment and the Great Barrier Reef, Minister for Science, and Minister for Housing and Public Works ( 2017).

As of May 2023, Enoch serves as the Minister for Treaty, Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships, Minister for Communities and Minister for the Arts.

Other activities

Enoch was a witness in Eatock v Bolt, a 2011 decision of the Federal Court of Australia which held that two articles written by columnist and commentator Andrew Bolt and published in The Herald Sun newspaper had contravened section 18C, of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975. Bolt had accused Enoch and other Aboriginal people of "choosing" their identity for personal benefit.