Bronwyn Bishop
Encyclopedia
Bronwyn Kathleen Bishop an Australia
n politician
, is a Member of the Australian House of Representatives
for the Liberal Party
representing the Division of Mackellar
, New South Wales
since 1994. Between 1989 and 1994, Bishop was a Senator
for New South Wales
, also representing the Liberal Party.
, New South Wales
as Bronwyn Setright, and was educated in Law at the University of Sydney
. Bishop first worked as an articled clerk
and played an acting role as a barrister in the 1960s Australian television program 'Divorce Court'. She was later admitted to practise law in 1967 as a solicitor and became a company director before entering politics. Having formed an ambition to become a politician, she joined the Liberal Party at the age of 17.
Heavily involved in organised politics, Bishop joined Killara Young Liberals in 1961 and during her association with that branch, she became Vice President. Bishop first became a Liberal Party office-holder in 1973 as President of the Balmoral branch and was later elected as the Chairman of the Liberal Party Convention Committee from 1981 to 1985 and as the first female President of the NSW Liberals from 1985-1987.
at the double dissolution
of 5 June 1987, Bishop was nominated by the Liberal Party to contest the vacant seat in the Senate
for New South Wales
at the election on 11 July 1987. She won the seat and her term was deemed to have commenced from 1 July. She was elevated to the shadow ministry in 1989 as Shadow Minister for Public Administration, Federal Affairs and Local Government (1989–1990) and briefly as Shadow Minister for Urban and Regional Strategy (1994). She proved an aggressive debater against the Australian Labor Party
, particularly Foreign Minister Gareth Evans
. She was the first woman to be a Senator for New South Wales.
After the Liberals' defeat at the 1993 election, Bishop began to be seen as a possible leadership candidate, a view she shared. In a move widely seen as furthering her leadership ambitions, Bishop resigned from the Senate on 24 February 1994 to contest the Mackellar by-election
in the House of Representatives following the retirement of Jim Carlton
. Although she was comfortably elected, her campaign against John Hewson
for the Liberal Party leadership faced a setback when she did not poll as well as expected against author and filmmaker Bob Ellis
, who ran against Bishop as an independent candidate for Mackellar. She was the first Liberal woman from New South Wales to become a member of the House of Representatives. When John Hewson called a spill for the Liberal leadership in 1994, Bishop found that her colleagues did not share her opinion of her leadership potential, and Alexander Downer
successfully challenged for the party leadership.
From 1994 to 1995 she was Shadow Health Minister, a senior position, but caused controversy on her first day in office by announcing her support for tobacco advertising, drawing criticism from both the Australian Medical Association
and her own party, which supported the Keating Government's legislation to prohibit tobacco advertising in 1992.
Her remarks were attacked by the then AMA president and soon-to-be Liberal MP for the neighbouring seat of Bradfield
, Brendan Nelson
, who said that: Mrs Bishop has a lot to learn about health...there are now more than 50,000 pieces of medical research and literature supporting the view that smoking is injurious to humans. Bishop was dropped from Health and was made Shadow Minister for Privatisation and Commonwealth/State Relations (1995–1996).
When the Liberals returned to Government in 1996, Prime Minister John Howard
appointed Bishop a Minister in various junior portfolios. She was the first Liberal woman from New South Wales to become a minister. She was Minister for Defence Industry, Science and Personnel from 11 March 1996 to 21 October 1998 and Minister for Aged Care
from 21 October 1998 to 26 November 2001. It was in this role that she endured her greatest scandal, the kerosene baths controversy of 2000. The revelation that some residents at Melbourne's Riverside private nursing home had suffered blistering after being bathed in a weak kerosene solution as a cure for scabies led to a national outcry over the standards of care maintained by Bishop's department. She was dropped from the ministry after the 2001 election. In 2004 she campaigned to succeed Neil Andrew
as Speaker of the House
, but was not successful.
and Tony Abbott
supported the 'No' campaign leading up to the failed 1999 Republican referendum
and on one occasion spoke to Australians for Constitutional Monarchy
, warning of the "Seven deadly myths of the republican debate". On 17 July 1991, in response to the infamous debate on the Nine Network
's Midday television show with host Ray Martin
, debating on Australia remaining a constitutional monarchy, in a live televised debate with singer Normie Rowe
and radio broadcaster Ron Casey
, who ended up physically brawling, Bishop issued a media release which said: "It may well have been High Noon on the Midday Show when Ron Casey took a swipe at Normie Rowe but this conduct indicates just how divisive the debate on the Monarchy has become. Not content to see the country on its knees as a result of the recession the Labor Party must be pleased that it is dividing the community on an issue which has absolutely no political relevance."
In August 2005, Bishop called for Muslim headscarves to be banned from public schools, an opinion also expressed by another prominent Liberal backbencher, Sophie Mirabella
. However, the Prime Minister, John Howard
, said that he did not agree with this view as a ban would be impractical. In November 2005, Bishop expressed the view that "she is opposed to the wearing of the Muslim headscarf, where it does not form part of the school uniform. This is because that in most cases the headscarf is being worn as a sign of defiance and difference between non Muslim and Muslim students" and then went on to say that she "does not believe that a ban on the Jewish skull cap is necessary, because people of the Jewish faith have not used the skull cap as a way of campaigning against the Australian culture, laws and way of life."
On 21 January 2006, at a Young Liberals
convention in Sydney, Bishop declared her intention to introduce a private members bill to make "destroying or violating" the Australian flag a federal offence. Shortly before the Howard Government lost office, Bishop headed the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Family and Human Services, and released the report "The winnable war on drugs: The impact of illicit drug use
on families". The report was highly critical of harm minimisation and suggested mandatory adoption of children under 5 years of age whose parents were known to use drugs. The report was widely criticised by a range of organisations such as Family Drug Support, the Australian Democrats
and the Australian Drug Foundation
for lacking evidence, being ideologically driven, and having the potential to do massive harm to Australia.
In 2006, following a flag-burning incident during the 2005 Cronulla riots
and a burnt flag display by a Melbourne artist, Bishop introduced the Protection of the Australian National Flag (Desecration of the Flag) Bill 2006. This bill sought to make it "a criminal offence to wilfully destroy or otherwise mutilate the Flag in circumstances where a reasonable person would infer that the destruction or mutilation is intended publicly to express contempt or disrespect for the Flag or the Australian Nation." The bill received a second reading but subsequently lapsed and did not go to vote in the House of Representatives.
appointed Bishop to the Shadow Ministry portfolio of Veterans' Affairs.
However, after the election of Malcolm Turnbull
as leader of the Liberal Party, she was dropped from this portfolio, to return to the backbench. Despite speculation that she would be challenged for preselection in her seat of Mackellar for the next election, this did not eventuate and she later reaffirmed her intention to contest the next election. On 5 May 2009, Bishop criticised Turnbull's leadership, saying that "Malcolm seems to have been strong at the beginning but now he has gone soft." However, with Turnbull's loss of the party leadership and the election of Tony Abbott
as his successor, on 8 December 2009 Bishop was appointed to the Shadow Ministry as Shadow Minister for Seniors.
Bishop was re-elected at the 2010 Election and was appointed to the Outer Shadow Ministry as Shadow Special Minister of State and Shadow Minister for Seniors.
Regarding Wikileaks editor Julian Assange
, it was alleged that Bishop had tweeted in December 2010 that "Mr Assange should be aggressively interrogated until he reveals the location of the stolen cables, so they can be retrieved." The comment was widely retweeted and mocked as an indication of her technical naivety. However, the tweet was later revealed to be a fake.
On 17 June 2011, Bishop was the invited guest of show regular Joe Hilderbrand to The Morning Show
's fourth birthday celebrations at Star City, where she sang Happy Birthday
to hosts Larry Emdur
and Kylie Gillies
.
's A Couple of Swells with then Health Minister, Tony Abbott, at a fund-raiser in Sydney. Bishop is also a patron of Opera Australia
and was 2008 President of the Sydney International Piano Competition
Committee.
She was divorced from lawyer Alan Bishop in 1992 and has two daughters: Sally, a rehabilitation counsellor, and Angela, an entertainment reporter for Network Ten
. She currently lives in the Sydney
suburb of Newport
.
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
, is a Member of the Australian House of Representatives
Australian House of Representatives
The House of Representatives is one of the two houses of the Parliament of Australia; it is the lower house; the upper house is the Senate. Members of Parliament serve for terms of approximately three years....
for the Liberal Party
Liberal Party of Australia
The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...
representing the Division of Mackellar
Division of Mackellar
The Division of Mackellar is an Australian Electoral Division in the state of New South Wales. It is located in the Northern Beaches region of Sydney, on the Pacific coast, south of Broken Bay and the Hawkesbury River. It includes the suburbs of Narrabeen, Beacon Hill, Newport, Palm Beach and...
, New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
since 1994. Between 1989 and 1994, Bishop was a Senator
Australian Senate
The Senate is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the House of Representatives. Senators are popularly elected under a system of proportional representation. Senators are elected for a term that is usually six years; after a double dissolution, however,...
for New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
, also representing the Liberal Party.
Early years
Bishop was born in SydneySydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
as Bronwyn Setright, and was educated in Law at the University of Sydney
University of Sydney
The University of Sydney is a public university located in Sydney, New South Wales. The main campus spreads across the suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington on the southwestern outskirts of the Sydney CBD. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and Oceania...
. Bishop first worked as an articled clerk
Articled clerk
An articled clerk, also known as an articling student, is an apprentice in a professional firm in Commonwealth countries. Generally the term arises in the accountancy profession and in the legal profession. The articled clerk signs a contract, known as "articles of clerkship", committing to a...
and played an acting role as a barrister in the 1960s Australian television program 'Divorce Court'. She was later admitted to practise law in 1967 as a solicitor and became a company director before entering politics. Having formed an ambition to become a politician, she joined the Liberal Party at the age of 17.
Heavily involved in organised politics, Bishop joined Killara Young Liberals in 1961 and during her association with that branch, she became Vice President. Bishop first became a Liberal Party office-holder in 1973 as President of the Balmoral branch and was later elected as the Chairman of the Liberal Party Convention Committee from 1981 to 1985 and as the first female President of the NSW Liberals from 1985-1987.
Political career
Following the retirement of Sir John CarrickJohn Carrick (Australian politician)
Sir John Leslie Carrick, AC, KCMG is a former Australian politician.-Early life:Carrick studied economics at the University of Sydney . Before he was able to commence his career to any great degree he fought with the Sparrow Force of the Australian Army during World War II. He was landed on...
at the double dissolution
Double dissolution
A double dissolution is a procedure permitted under the Australian Constitution to resolve deadlocks between the House of Representatives and the Senate....
of 5 June 1987, Bishop was nominated by the Liberal Party to contest the vacant seat in the Senate
Australian Senate
The Senate is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the House of Representatives. Senators are popularly elected under a system of proportional representation. Senators are elected for a term that is usually six years; after a double dissolution, however,...
for New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
at the election on 11 July 1987. She won the seat and her term was deemed to have commenced from 1 July. She was elevated to the shadow ministry in 1989 as Shadow Minister for Public Administration, Federal Affairs and Local Government (1989–1990) and briefly as Shadow Minister for Urban and Regional Strategy (1994). She proved an aggressive debater against the Australian Labor Party
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...
, particularly Foreign Minister Gareth Evans
Gareth Evans (politician)
Gareth John Evans, AO, QC , is a former Australian politician from 1978 to 1999 representing the Australian Labor Party, serving in a number of ministries including Attorney-General and Foreign Minister from 1983 to 1996 in the Hawke and Keating governments. He was president and chief executive...
. She was the first woman to be a Senator for New South Wales.
After the Liberals' defeat at the 1993 election, Bishop began to be seen as a possible leadership candidate, a view she shared. In a move widely seen as furthering her leadership ambitions, Bishop resigned from the Senate on 24 February 1994 to contest the Mackellar by-election
Mackellar by-election, 1994
The 1994 Mackellar by-election was held in the Australian electorate of Mackellar in New South Wales on 26 March 1994. The by-election was triggered by the resignation of the sitting member, the Liberal Party of Australia's Jim Carlton on 14 January 1994. The writ for the by-election was issued on...
in the House of Representatives following the retirement of Jim Carlton
Jim Carlton
James Joseph Carlton AO is a former Australian politician.Carlton was born in Sydney and earned a Bachelor of Science from the University of Sydney...
. Although she was comfortably elected, her campaign against John Hewson
John Hewson
John Robert Hewson AM is an Australian economist, company director and a former politician. He was federal leader of the Liberal Party of Australia from 1990 to 1994 and led the party to defeat at the 1993 federal election.-Early life:...
for the Liberal Party leadership faced a setback when she did not poll as well as expected against author and filmmaker Bob Ellis
Bob Ellis
Bob Ellis is an Australian writer, journalist, film-maker and political commentator. He was a student at the University of Sydney at the same time as other notable Australians including Clive James, Germaine Greer, Les Murray, John Bell, Ken Horler, and Mungo McCallum...
, who ran against Bishop as an independent candidate for Mackellar. She was the first Liberal woman from New South Wales to become a member of the House of Representatives. When John Hewson called a spill for the Liberal leadership in 1994, Bishop found that her colleagues did not share her opinion of her leadership potential, and Alexander Downer
Alexander Downer
Alexander John Gosse Downer is a former Australian Liberal Party politician who was Foreign Minister of Australia from March 1996 to December 2007, the longest-serving in Australian history...
successfully challenged for the party leadership.
From 1994 to 1995 she was Shadow Health Minister, a senior position, but caused controversy on her first day in office by announcing her support for tobacco advertising, drawing criticism from both the Australian Medical Association
Australian Medical Association
The Australian Medical Association is a professional association for Australian doctors and medical students.The AMA uses a representative structure involving state branches and committees to work with members to promote and protect the interests of doctors.The mechanisms that allow this include:*...
and her own party, which supported the Keating Government's legislation to prohibit tobacco advertising in 1992.
Her remarks were attacked by the then AMA president and soon-to-be Liberal MP for the neighbouring seat of Bradfield
Division of Bradfield
The Division of Bradfield is an Australian Electoral Division in New South Wales. The division was created in 1949 and is named for Dr John Bradfield, the designer of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It is located in the upper North Shore, and includes the suburbs of Chatswood, Killara, St Ives and...
, Brendan Nelson
Brendan Nelson
Dr Brendan John Nelson is a former Australian politician and former federal Opposition leader. He served as a member of the Australian House of Representatives from the 1996 federal election until 19 October 2009 as the Liberal member for Bradfield, a northern Sydney seat...
, who said that: Mrs Bishop has a lot to learn about health...there are now more than 50,000 pieces of medical research and literature supporting the view that smoking is injurious to humans. Bishop was dropped from Health and was made Shadow Minister for Privatisation and Commonwealth/State Relations (1995–1996).
When the Liberals returned to Government in 1996, Prime Minister John Howard
John Howard
John Winston Howard AC, SSI, was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....
appointed Bishop a Minister in various junior portfolios. She was the first Liberal woman from New South Wales to become a minister. She was Minister for Defence Industry, Science and Personnel from 11 March 1996 to 21 October 1998 and Minister for Aged Care
Minister for Ageing (Australia)
The Australian Minister for Mental Health and Ageing is Mark Butler, who was appointed on 14 September 2010, following the Labor Party's win at the 2010 election...
from 21 October 1998 to 26 November 2001. It was in this role that she endured her greatest scandal, the kerosene baths controversy of 2000. The revelation that some residents at Melbourne's Riverside private nursing home had suffered blistering after being bathed in a weak kerosene solution as a cure for scabies led to a national outcry over the standards of care maintained by Bishop's department. She was dropped from the ministry after the 2001 election. In 2004 she campaigned to succeed Neil Andrew
Neil Andrew
John Neil Andrew, AO , Australian politician, was a Liberal member of the Australian House of Representatives from March 1983 to October 2004, representing the Division of Wakefield, South Australia...
as Speaker of the House
Speaker of the Australian House of Representatives
The Speaker of the House of Representatives is the presiding officer of the House of Representatives, the lower house of the Parliament of Australia. The presiding officer in the upper house is the President of the Senate....
, but was not successful.
Political advocacy
An affirmed monarchist, Bishop, along with fellow Ministers, Nick MinchinNick Minchin
Nicholas Hugh "Nick" Minchin is a former Australian politician, serving as a Liberal member of the Australian Senate representing South Australia from July 1993 to June 2011, and a former cabinet minister in the Howard Government....
and Tony Abbott
Tony Abbott
Anthony John "Tony" Abbott is the Leader of the Opposition in the Australian House of Representatives and federal leader of the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. Abbott has represented the seat of Warringah since the 1994 by-election...
supported the 'No' campaign leading up to the failed 1999 Republican referendum
Australian republic referendum, 1999
The Australian republic referendum held on 6 November 1999 was a two-question referendum to amend the Constitution of Australia. The first question asked whether Australia should become a republic with a President appointed by Parliament following a bi-partisan appointment model which had...
and on one occasion spoke to Australians for Constitutional Monarchy
Australians for Constitutional Monarchy
Australians for Constitutional Monarchy is a group that aims to preserve Australia's current constitutional monarchy, with Elizabeth II as Queen of Australia...
, warning of the "Seven deadly myths of the republican debate". On 17 July 1991, in response to the infamous debate on the Nine Network
Nine Network
The Nine Network , is an Australian television network with headquarters based in Willoughby, a suburb located on the North Shore of Sydney. For 50 years since television's inception in Australia, between 1956 and 2006, it was the most watched television network in Australia...
's Midday television show with host Ray Martin
Ray Martin (television presenter)
Raymond George "Ray" Martin AM is an Australian television journalist. He is best known for his various on-air roles on Channel Nine from 1978 to 2008. In 2011 he returned to 60 Minutes....
, debating on Australia remaining a constitutional monarchy, in a live televised debate with singer Normie Rowe
Normie Rowe
Norman John "Normie" Rowe AM was a major male solo performer of Australian pop music in the 1960s. Known for his bright and edgy tenor voice and dynamic stage presence, many of Rowe's most successful recordings were produced by Pat Aulton, house producer for the Sunshine Records, Spin Records and...
and radio broadcaster Ron Casey
Ron Casey (Sydney broadcaster)
Ronald Arthur Casey, OAM, was a former colourful television presenter, sports journalist and talk-back radio host based in Sydney, Australia. His nickname was The Case....
, who ended up physically brawling, Bishop issued a media release which said: "It may well have been High Noon on the Midday Show when Ron Casey took a swipe at Normie Rowe but this conduct indicates just how divisive the debate on the Monarchy has become. Not content to see the country on its knees as a result of the recession the Labor Party must be pleased that it is dividing the community on an issue which has absolutely no political relevance."
In August 2005, Bishop called for Muslim headscarves to be banned from public schools, an opinion also expressed by another prominent Liberal backbencher, Sophie Mirabella
Sophie Mirabella
Sophie Mirabella is an Australian federal politician. She has been a Liberal member of the Australian House of Representatives since 2001, representing the Division of Indi, Victoria...
. However, the Prime Minister, John Howard
John Howard
John Winston Howard AC, SSI, was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....
, said that he did not agree with this view as a ban would be impractical. In November 2005, Bishop expressed the view that "she is opposed to the wearing of the Muslim headscarf, where it does not form part of the school uniform. This is because that in most cases the headscarf is being worn as a sign of defiance and difference between non Muslim and Muslim students" and then went on to say that she "does not believe that a ban on the Jewish skull cap is necessary, because people of the Jewish faith have not used the skull cap as a way of campaigning against the Australian culture, laws and way of life."
On 21 January 2006, at a Young Liberals
Young Liberals (Australia)
The Young Liberal Movement is the youth division of the Liberal Party of Australia, and membership is open to those between 16 and 30 years of age. Members of Young Liberals have full party-membership, and have the choice of which part they join...
convention in Sydney, Bishop declared her intention to introduce a private members bill to make "destroying or violating" the Australian flag a federal offence. Shortly before the Howard Government lost office, Bishop headed the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Family and Human Services, and released the report "The winnable war on drugs: The impact of illicit drug use
Recreational drug use
Recreational drug use is the use of a drug, usually psychoactive, with the intention of creating or enhancing recreational experience. Such use is controversial, however, often being considered to be also drug abuse, and it is often illegal...
on families". The report was highly critical of harm minimisation and suggested mandatory adoption of children under 5 years of age whose parents were known to use drugs. The report was widely criticised by a range of organisations such as Family Drug Support, the Australian Democrats
Australian Democrats
The Australian Democrats is an Australian political party espousing a socially liberal ideology. It was formed in 1977, by a merger of the Australia Party and the New LM, after principals of those minor parties secured the commitment of former Liberal minister Don Chipp, as a high profile leader...
and the Australian Drug Foundation
Australian Drug Foundation
The Australian Drug Foundation is a non-government, not-for-profit organisation based in Melbourne, Australia. The ADF's work is inclusive of both legal and illegal drugs on a national level and focuses on primary and secondary prevention...
for lacking evidence, being ideologically driven, and having the potential to do massive harm to Australia.
In 2006, following a flag-burning incident during the 2005 Cronulla riots
2005 Cronulla riots
The 2005 Cronulla riots were a series of sectarian clashes and mob violence originating in Cronulla, New South Wales and spreading, over the next few nights, to additional Sydney suburbs....
and a burnt flag display by a Melbourne artist, Bishop introduced the Protection of the Australian National Flag (Desecration of the Flag) Bill 2006. This bill sought to make it "a criminal offence to wilfully destroy or otherwise mutilate the Flag in circumstances where a reasonable person would infer that the destruction or mutilation is intended publicly to express contempt or disrespect for the Flag or the Australian Nation." The bill received a second reading but subsequently lapsed and did not go to vote in the House of Representatives.
2007-present
In the 2007 federal election, Bishop was re-elected to her seat with a 0.62 percent primary swing and 3.04 percent two party swing against her on slightly redistributed boundaries. After his appointment as Liberal Leader, Brendan NelsonBrendan Nelson
Dr Brendan John Nelson is a former Australian politician and former federal Opposition leader. He served as a member of the Australian House of Representatives from the 1996 federal election until 19 October 2009 as the Liberal member for Bradfield, a northern Sydney seat...
appointed Bishop to the Shadow Ministry portfolio of Veterans' Affairs.
However, after the election of Malcolm Turnbull
Malcolm Turnbull
Malcolm Bligh Turnbull is an Australian politician. He has been a member of the Australian House of Representatives since 2004, and was Leader of the Opposition and parliamentary leader of the Liberal Party from 16 September 2008 to 1 December 2009.Turnbull has represented the Division...
as leader of the Liberal Party, she was dropped from this portfolio, to return to the backbench. Despite speculation that she would be challenged for preselection in her seat of Mackellar for the next election, this did not eventuate and she later reaffirmed her intention to contest the next election. On 5 May 2009, Bishop criticised Turnbull's leadership, saying that "Malcolm seems to have been strong at the beginning but now he has gone soft." However, with Turnbull's loss of the party leadership and the election of Tony Abbott
Tony Abbott
Anthony John "Tony" Abbott is the Leader of the Opposition in the Australian House of Representatives and federal leader of the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. Abbott has represented the seat of Warringah since the 1994 by-election...
as his successor, on 8 December 2009 Bishop was appointed to the Shadow Ministry as Shadow Minister for Seniors.
Bishop was re-elected at the 2010 Election and was appointed to the Outer Shadow Ministry as Shadow Special Minister of State and Shadow Minister for Seniors.
Regarding Wikileaks editor Julian Assange
Julian Assange
Julian Paul Assange is an Australian publisher, journalist, writer, computer programmer and Internet activist. He is the editor in chief of WikiLeaks, a whistleblower website and conduit for worldwide news leaks with the stated purpose of creating open governments.WikiLeaks has published material...
, it was alleged that Bishop had tweeted in December 2010 that "Mr Assange should be aggressively interrogated until he reveals the location of the stolen cables, so they can be retrieved." The comment was widely retweeted and mocked as an indication of her technical naivety. However, the tweet was later revealed to be a fake.
On 17 June 2011, Bishop was the invited guest of show regular Joe Hilderbrand to The Morning Show
The Morning Show (TV program)
The Morning Show is an Australian morning talk show that premiered on the Seven Network on 18 June 2007. The show airs between 9am and 11:30am weekdays and follows Seven's breakfast news program Sunrise, with both programs closely interlinked....
's fourth birthday celebrations at Star City, where she sang Happy Birthday
Happy Birthday to You
"Happy Birthday to You", also known more simply as "Happy Birthday", is a song that is traditionally sung to celebrate the anniversary of a person's birth...
to hosts Larry Emdur
Larry Emdur
Larry Emdur is an Australian television personality. He is currently co-hosting Saturday's Weekend Sunrise alongside Samantha Armytage....
and Kylie Gillies
Kylie Gillies
Kylie Gillies is a television presenter for the Seven Network based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. She currently co-hosts The Morning Show with Larry Emdur.-Career:...
.
Personal life
Bishop is the daughter of opera singer Kathleen Congreve and enjoys singing and dancing, having appeared in several charity productions including The Sound of Music (as Baroness Elsa), and Grease (as the Headmistress). In 2007 she sang a duet of Irving BerlinIrving Berlin
Irving Berlin was an American composer and lyricist of Jewish heritage, widely considered one of the greatest songwriters in American history.His first hit song, "Alexander's Ragtime Band", became world famous...
's A Couple of Swells with then Health Minister, Tony Abbott, at a fund-raiser in Sydney. Bishop is also a patron of Opera Australia
Opera Australia
Opera Australia is the principal opera company in Australia. Based in Sydney, its performance season at the Sydney Opera House runs for approximately eight months of the year, with the remainder of its time spent in the The Arts Centre in Melbourne...
and was 2008 President of the Sydney International Piano Competition
Sydney International Piano Competition
The Sydney International Piano Competition of Australia is a music competition, presented by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in association with the University of Sydney and broadcast live throughout Australia. It is held every four years, over a three-week period in July-August, and is...
Committee.
She was divorced from lawyer Alan Bishop in 1992 and has two daughters: Sally, a rehabilitation counsellor, and Angela, an entertainment reporter for Network Ten
Network Ten
Network Ten , is one of Australia's three major commercial television networks. Owned-and-operated stations can be found in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, while affiliates extend the network to cover most of the country...
. She currently lives in the Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
suburb of Newport
Newport, New South Wales
Newport is a suburb in northern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Newport is located 31 kilometres north of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of Pittwater Council, and is part of the Northern Beaches region....
.
See also
- Women in the Australian SenateWomen in the Australian SenateThere have been 80 women in the Australian Senate since the establishment of the Parliament of Australia. Women have had the right to both vote and sit in parliament since 1902 and all states and territories have been represented by a woman in the Senate...
- Women in the Australian House of RepresentativesWomen in the Australian House of RepresentativesThere have been 85 women in the Australian House of Representatives since the establishment of the Parliament of Australia. Women have had the right to both vote and sit in parliament since 1902, however the first woman to enter the House of Representatives was Dame Enid Lyons in 1943...
- Members of the Australian House of Representatives, 2007–2010
- Members of the Australian Senate, 1987–1990
- Shadow Cabinet (Australia) December 2007 to September 2008Shadow Cabinet (Australia) December 2007 to September 2008Following the Labor Party's win, in the Australian 2007 federal election, the Liberal-National Coalition became the official Opposition. Brendan Nelson was elected Leader of the Liberal Party on 29 November 2007, and announced that his deputy Julie Bishop would be Shadow Minister for Workplace...