Bronwyn Bishop

Infobox Politician


honorific-prefix = The Honourable

name = Bronwyn Bishop

honorific-suffix =MP
constituency_MP = Mackellar
parliament=Australian
majority = 15.8%
term_start = 1994
term_end =
predecessor = Jim Carlton
successor =
office2 = Minister for Aged Care
term_start2 = 1998
term_end2 = 2001
predecessor2= Peter Staples
successor2 = Kevin Andrews
constituency2 =
majority2 =
office3 = Minister for Defence Industry, Science and Personnel
term_start3 = 1996
term_end3 = 1998
predecessor3 = Gary Punch
successor3 = Warren Snowdon
constituency3 =
majority3 =
birth_date = Birth date and age|1942|10|19|df=y
birth_place = flagicon|AUS Sydney, New South Wales
death_date =
death_place =
party = Liberal Party of Australia
relations = Mark Baker
spouse =
civil partner =
children = Angela Bishop
residence = Newport, New South Wales
occupation = Company director and Solicitor
alma_mater = University of Sydney
religion =


website =
footnotes =

Bronwyn Kathleen Bishop MP (born 19 October 1942), Australian politician, has been a Liberal member of the Australian House of Representatives since February 1994, representing the Division of Mackellar, New South Wales.

Early years

Bishop was born in Sydney, New South Wales, and was educated at the University of Sydney. She was admitted to practice law in 1967 as a solicitor and later became a company director before entering politics. cite web
title=Biography for Bishop, the Hon. Bronwyn Kathleen
publisher=Parliament of Australia
work=Parlinfo web
url=http://parlinfoweb.aph.gov.au/piweb/TranslateWIPILink.aspx?Folder=BIOGS&Criteria=NAME_ID:SE4%3B
accessdate=2007-12-12 ] She currently lives in the Sydney suburb of Newport. Her daughter is Network Ten entertainment reporter Angela Bishop.

Political career

Bishop was elected to the Senate for New South Wales in July 1987, holding various shadow portfolios, and proved an aggressive debater against the Australian Labor Party, particularly Foreign Minister Gareth Evans. [cite news
url=http://www.theage.com.au/national/occupants-of-warm-pink-chamber-can-go-feral-20080904-49xz.html
title=Occupants of warm pink chamber can go feral
publisher=The Age
date= 5 September 2008
accessdate=2008-10-02]

After the Liberals' defeat at the 1993 election, Bishop began to be seen as a possible leadership candidate, a view she shared. Bishop resigned from the Senate in February 1994 to contest the Mackellar by-election in the House of Representatives, a move widely seen as furthering her leadership ambitions. Although she was comfortably elected, her campaign against John Hewson for the leadership faced a setback when she did not poll as well as expected against author and filmmaker Bob Ellis, running as an independent. [cite news
url=http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2001/s424717.htm
title=Bishop moves to the back bench
publisher=Australian Broadcasting Corporation
work=Lateline
date= 23 November 2001
accessdate=2007-12-12] 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.

In 1994-95 she was Shadow Health Minister, a senior position. When the Liberals returned to Government in 1996, Prime Minister John Howard appointed her a Minister of the Crown in various junior portfolios. She was Minister for Defence Industry, Science and Personnel 1996-98 and Minister for Aged Care 1998-2001. This portfolio saw her embroiled in a series of controversies over standards of care in nursing homes, and she was dropped from the ministry after the 2001 elections. In 2004 she campaigned to succeed Neil Andrew as Speaker of the House, but was not successful. [cite news
url=http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/11/15/1100384496800.html?from=storylhs
title=Victorian takes Speaker's Chair
publisher=The Age
work=
date= 16 November 2004
accessdate=2008-10-02]

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. The Prime Minister, John Howard, said that he did not agree with this view as a ban would be impractical. Her preoccupation with criticising Islam in Australia has been criticised as racist, sexist and hypocritical. [ The Sydney Morning Herald August 30 2005 and September 6 2005, Global Research September 27 2005] 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." [Crikey newsletter, November 10 2005]

On January 21, 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. [cite news
url=http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,17892821-29277,00.html
title=MP wants to outlaw flag burning
publisher= News.com.au
date= January 21 2006
accessdate=2007-12-12] Shortly before the Howard Government lost office, Bishop headed the House of RepresentativesStanding Committee on Family and Human Services, and released the report "The winnable war on drugs: The impact of illicit drug use on families" [ [http://www.aph.gov.au/House/committee/fhs/illicitdrugs/report.htm] - House of Representatives Standing Committee on Family and Human Services report: The Winnable War on Drugs] . 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 [Sen. Andrew Murray (2007). Senate Hansard, 18th September 2007, 10:20pm] and The Australian Drug Foundation for lacking evidence, being ideologically driven and having the potential to do massive harm to Australia.

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, not taking in to account the electoral redistribution.cite web | url=http://www.abc.net.au/elections/federal/2007/guide/mack.htm | title=2007 Election gudie to Mackellar | publisher="Australian Broadcasting Corporation" | date=2007-12-29 | accessdate=2008-10-4] After his appointment to Liberal Leader, Dr. Brendan Nelson appointed Ms. Bishop to the Shadow Ministry portfolio of Veteran's Affairscite web | url=http://results.aec.gov.au/13745/website/HouseDivisionFirstPrefs-13745-132.htm | title=Australian Electoral Commission summary of Mackellar, Federal Election 2007. | publisher="Australian Electoral Commission" | date=2007-12-19 | accessdate=2007-12-19] . However, after the election of Malcolm Turnbull to leader of the Liberal Party, she was dropped from this portfolio, to return to the backbench [cite news
url=http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,24897,24383286-601,00.html
title=Turnbull picks Julie Bishop to lead attack on Wayne Swan
publisher= The Australian.news.com.au
date= 22 September 2008
accessdate=2008-09-22] .

References

External links

*OpenAustralia
* [http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,,4015595-18785,00.html|Profile on The Australian]