LINDA Burney, who grew up in Whitton, will not be the only woman with a penchant for blazing trails when parliament resumes next month.
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Anne Aly will be federal parliament’s first female Muslim MP.
Ms Burney, who will represent a diverse, multicultural electorate said she would not tolerate “ignorant, xenophobic views”.
Ms Burney sees clear parellels in the obstacles faced by Muslim and Indigenous people.
“People have been fearful of Aboriginal people and … the same goes for Muslim people,” Ms Burney said.
“And the sense people feel they are superior to you, (that) certain groups in the community are looking down at you.”
Dr Aly was told she was not really Australian because she was brown when she was growing up.
She said decades on, little had changed.
Dr Aly was shocked by a young person’s remark that they didn’t want her to win, they wanted the Liberal incumbent to win, because she “Anne Aly is not Australian”.
She said the remark “really jolted” her.