Minister, but had been regularly criticised in the press for her performance, particularly after her controversial sacking of the head of the territory's Education Department in 2008. This culminated in Henderson's decision in February 2009 to remove Scrymgour from the portfolio, shifting her to the less politically difficult Attorney-General role. The following week, Scrymgour resigned from Cabinet and as Deputy Chief Minister, citing recurring problems with depression caused by the death of her father. On 1 June 2009, Scrymgour publicly opposed the Government on its announced policy of concentrating indigenous development in 20 larger communities and discouraging "homeland" or "outstation" settlement, which she labelled as insulting. She said that she realised while recovering from surgery that she had lost touch with her constituents, and that "I feel strongly because we have lied to Aboriginal people". On 4 June, after a significant degree of speculation in the media, she resigned from the Labor Party, reducing it to minority government. On 4 August 2009, after the defection of another minister, Alison Anderson, Scrymgour announced that she would rejoin the Labor Party. She retired from politics at the 2012 election. Post-politics After working for the Australian Red Cross in 2013–2014, Scrymgour returned to Wurli Wurlinjang Aboriginal Corporation as its CEO. In December 2013 she was elected as Chairperson of the Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance Northern Territory. In November 2013, Scrymgour was awarded an honorary doctorate in Health Sciences by the University of Sydney, the first Aboriginal recipient of such an honour from the Faculty of Health Sciences. In March 2019, Scrymgour was appointed CEO of the Northern Land Council and became the first woman CEO of any land council in the Northern Territory. Federal politics In March 2021, Scrymgour was preselected as the Labor candidate for the federal seat of Lingiari in the 2022 federal election after Labor incumbent Warren Snowdon announced he would not stand for re-election. She won the seat by a narrow margin from Country Liberal candidate Damien Ryan. See also List of Indigenous Australian politicians References External links Members of the Legislative Assembly: Marion Scrymgour, at the Northern Territory Parliamentary web page 1960 births Living people Indigenous Australian politicians Australian Labor Party members of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly Independent members of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly Members of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly Deputy Chief Ministers of the Northern Territory Attorneys-General of the Northern Territory Indigenous Australian health