The Australian Women's Register

Elizabeth Falemaka Kikkert was born in Tonga in 1980 and came to Australia aged eight, when her family moved to Adelaide. She moved to Canberra in the Australian Capital Territory in 2005 and was first elected to the ACT Legislative Assembly in 2016, representing the Liberal Party.

Before entering politics, Kikkert and her husband Sean ran a small legal practice together. The couple have five children, and Kikkert spent many years involved in charity work with women and children, becoming well known in her community for marking milestones with acts of kindness like visiting hospitals, handing out flowers and balloons, or buying strangers a coffee. A practising member of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints, she has credited her faith for encouraging her to help others and spoken publicly regarding her efforts to destigmatise mental health struggles, inspired by her brother, who has been diagnosed with schizophrenia.

Kikkert was elected to the ACT Legislative Assembly as a Member for Ginninderra in 2016. Her inaugural speech touched on her journey to public office, beginning with her arrival in Australia knowing only two words in English: yes and no, and her struggle with the language and bullying during her early years in the country. She paid tribute to her family, singling out her mother, who raised Kikkert and her four siblings as a single parent while working the graveyard shift at a nursing home after her father returned to Tonga.   She was re-elected to the ACT Legislative Assembly in October 2020.

Kikkert served as Shadow Minister for Multicultural Affairs (2016 – 2020), Families, Youth and Community Service (2016 – 2023), Disability (2020 – 2021), Corrections (2020 – 2023), Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs (2020 – 2023) and Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence (2020-2023).   She spoke to the ACT Parliament on the impact of her father’s domestic violence before his return to Tonga during a debate on family laws strengthening rules for people applying for protection orders from domestic violence, including for children, in 2018.

Kikkert was a former member of the Select Committee for End of Life Choices in the ACT (2017 –2019), and served on several Standing Committees, including as Deputy Chair, Health and Community (2020 – 2021), Deputy Chair, Health, Aging and Community Services (2016 – 2018), Deputy Chair, Education, Employment and Youth Affairs (2016 – 2020) and Chair, Public Accounts (2020 – 2023).

Elizabeth Kikkert returned to the backbench after a shadow cabinet reshuffle in December 2023 and in September 2024 she was disendorsed as a Liberal candidate for the October 2024 election. She stood in the 2024 election for the Family First Party but was not re-elected.