Cyril Kennedy (Australian politician) facts for kids

Cyril James Kennedy (born 28 May 1932) is a former Australian politician. He was a member of the Victorian Parliament, representing the area of Waverley.

Cyril Kennedy's Early Life and Career

Cyril Kennedy was born in a town called Ulverstone in Tasmania. His father, Leo Joseph Kennedy, worked on the docks, and his mother was Stella Elizabeth Noble.

Cyril went to Sacred Heart School and then Ulverstone State School. Later, he studied at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, which is often called RMIT. Before becoming a politician, from 1959 to 1979, he worked in different jobs like advertising, marketing, photography, and insurance. He was also the president of a group called the Free Education Movement, which worked to make education more accessible for everyone.

Becoming a Politician

Cyril Kennedy joined the Labor Party in 1960. This is one of Australia's major political parties.

In 1979, he was elected to the Victorian Legislative Council. This is like one of the two main groups of lawmakers in the state of Victoria. He represented an area known as Waverley. He served in this role for many years, until he was not re-elected in the 1992 state election.

Family and Heritage

Cyril Kennedy has a younger brother named Andrew David Kennedy. Andrew was also a politician, serving in the Victorian state parliament from 1982 to 1992. Before that, he was even in the Australian federal parliament from 1969 to 1972.

The Kennedy brothers are special because they are descendants of a very important historical figure named Mannalargenna. He was a leader of the Aboriginal Tasmanian people in the 1800s. This means Cyril and Andrew Kennedy are among the few Indigenous Australians who have been elected to Australian parliaments. They were the only people with acknowledged Aboriginal heritage to serve in the Victorian state parliament for a long time, until another Indigenous politician, Lidia Thorpe, was elected in 2017.