News
Former WA Health Minister honoured for service
Monday January 27, 2025
Former WA Minister for Health Kim Hames has been recognised in the Australia Day honours list for his contribution to politics and medicine.
Dr Hames, an AMA (WA) member who was working in general practice before becoming a politician, was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the General Division on Sunday 26 January.
The award was for his significant service to the Parliament of WA, to medicine, and to the community.
“I did 20 years of Parliament and 30 years of medicine all up,” Dr Hames said.
“You do a lot of things in government and in work and don’t expect to get any recognition for it, but when you do…I’m really grateful and very happy.”
Dr Hames studied medicine at the University of WA, gaining a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery, and then followed in his father’s footsteps and went into general practice in 1980.
He was elected to the Legislative Assembly in 1993 and first became a Minister in 1997 in the Richard Court Government. He lost his seat of Yokine in 2001 and was re-elected as Member for Dawesville in 2005. He retired from Parliament in 2017.
“I’ve got lots of good memories from when I was in there doing different stuff,” he said.
“It was Housing, Water Resources and Aboriginal Affairs the first time, then Health and Aboriginal Affairs, and then I did Tourism and Workforce Development.”
When he held the Aboriginal Affairs portfolio, Dr Hames famously provided support for a group of elders, led by Ken Colbung, to bring the head of local Nyoongar warrior Yagan back from England.
“It was Ken’s idea and I loved it, because we’d done ground radar looking for Yagan’s body, but couldn’t find it, but they knew where the head was, so I was a big fan and as Minister I funded the trip,” he said.
“Then we arranged the land and location to bury the head near where we think Yagan’s body is buried, under a roundabout. I was there on Monday. I just happened to drive past.”
Over the years, in and out of Parliament, he has continued to work as a doctor.
“When I first got in, for the first four years, because the pay of members of Parliament was very poor in those days, and I had six kids, I had to keep working, so I kept doing two afternoons a week in my practice,” Dr Hames recalled.
“But Richard Court, when he appointed me a Minister, said, ‘Clearly you’ll have to stop doing that’. I was given a hard time over it anyway, still doing a second job, but my pay dropped by half so I had to do it.
“In the four years after I lost my seat, I went back and did GP work again.”
He stayed registered during his second term in Parliament, when he was Health Minister for eight years, and went back into practice after he retired.
“I went back to working two and a half days a week, half doing skin cancers, which I’ve got a diploma in, and the other half doing GP stuff.
“When I hit 70, two years ago, I retired, but I still do about 10 weeks in a year. I just do locums, three weeks at a time, mostly in remote Aboriginal communities. My wife comes with me most of the time, and we do touristy stuff on the weekends.”
