Tag: Julie Bishop

Mr Pyne's departure blows a prodigious hole in the ranks of the senior moderates of the Liberal Party, a group already mourning the loss of Julie Bishop. A brand-new backbencher, he was surprised in March 1993 by a visit from John Howard to his office in the House's most distant orbit of junior offices. Along with Ms Bishop, Mr Pyne was routinely overlooked by Mr Howard for ministerial office and served as a parliamentary secretary for many years, leading him to observe on Kitchen Cabinet in 2012 that he must have been an extremely good parliamentary secretary, given his extreme longevity in the role. Aslan was a big clue In the dying days of the Howard government, Mr Pyne was appointed minister for aged care, in a latent demonstration of Mr Howard's sense of humour matched only by the appointment of fellow moderate and notorious bookworm George Brandis to the Ministry of Sport. But it was in opposition, during the Rudd and Gillard years, that Mr Pyne's star rose in the Liberal Party. Never again did he estrange himself from a serving leader the way he had from John Howard; Mr Pyne made himself indispensable to Brendan Nelson, to Malcolm Turnbull, to Tony Abbott (an old friend and regular dining companion for many years, odd as this might seem), and to Mr Turnbull again He became a nimble and expert manager of parliamentary business, maintaining — notably — a warm relationship with his opposite number, Labor's Anthony Albanese. While Mr Pyne has remained as the Government's Leader of the House under Scott Morrison, his recent interview mourning the loss of Mr Turnbull and likening him to Aslan — the slain, Christ-like hero of CS Lewis' Narnia novels — was a beefy clue that the magic had gone out of politics for him. Ironically, Mr Bernardi was recruited to the Liberal Party by Mr Pyne, but in subsequent decades the pair fell out viciously. The end of an era Mr Pyne's life in politics has — in the seamless way of parliamentary men — also produced four children without any particular public comment. The opportunity for a new generation is rich.

The vote handed the job to Scott Morrison. The upheaval also ended her 11-year tenure as Liberal Party deputy leader. She said it had been an "immense honour" to serve as the Liberal Party's first female deputy leader, as well as her Perth electorate of Curtin for two decades. "I am also proud of the fact that I am the first woman to contest a leadership ballot of the Liberal Party in its 75-year history," she told the parliament on Thursday. High-profile diplomacy As foreign minister for five years, Ms Bishop took a leading role in many prominent matters. AdChoices AdChoices Notably, she was lauded for her handling of Australia's response to the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, and for calling on Russia to take responsibility over the downing of MH17. She relinquished her ministerial role in August, after the party turmoil and ouster of Malcolm Turnbull as prime minister. Thank you @JulieBishopMP for your service to our nation and our Party and, above all, your friendship over so many years. Australia MP condemns sexist 'bullying' Last year, Ms Bishop accused parliamentary colleagues of "appalling behaviour" and said political parties had "a problem" with keeping women MPs.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. "It has been an immense honour to be the longest-serving Member for Curtin and also to be the deputy leader of the Liberal Party, the first female to hold the role, [and] for 11 years, over half my entire political career," she told the Parliament. She served in that role in opposition under Brendan Nelson, Malcolm Turnbull and Tony Abbott. After the party won the 2013 election, she became foreign minister and remained in the job until Mr Turnbull lost the Liberal leadership last year. Ms Bishop ran in the ballot to replace Mr Turnbull against Scott Morrison and Peter Dutton but was eliminated in the first round of voting. Mr Morrison, who won the leadership ballot and became the Prime Minister, paid tribute to Ms Bishop and her "tremendous service to her country". "She is an incredibly classy individual. "Her successor will have big shoes to fill, and we know that Julie has the best shoes in Parliament." Opposition Leader Bill Shorten described her as a "trailblazer", even if they had not shared much in common when it came to politics. Ms Bishop had little to say as she left Parliament House for the week after making her announcement.

“The story of my journey is that I am an ordinary person and not someone who hails from the political rich or privileged elite,” said Julia Banks in her first speech to federal parliament in September 2016. I am a daughter of parents who were denied an education but who worked hard with optimism and faith in this country at two, and sometimes three, jobs so they could hope to provide their children with schools of their choice.” Banks is a rational and accomplished woman, who came to politics from life outside, after a 25-year business career, with a clear set of values and objectives, motivated to make a contribution to public service. To cut a long story short, the recruitment of people like Julia Banks is exactly what Australian politics needs, particularly the Liberal and National parties – modern political movements hampered by a reflexive stone-age sensibility when it comes to respecting the talents of women. Hard-right columnists with no mass audience cause enough turmoil to ruin leaders | Jason Wilson Read more Give yourself a moment to take that in. But the chaos and destruction of the last week proved to be “the last straw”. She notes that voters in her Victorian seat of Chisholm were very clear about what they wanted. Chisholm was the only seat captured from Labor in 2016. “The tragedy of what has been happening, the madness of what has taken hold of a number of my colleagues is this has been a very good government, and a government is always more than a leader, and the leader is only ever the sum of those he or she serves with,” Reynolds said. Be disturbed. Australian politics needs to be something more than the committed agent of its own destruction.

Investigation ordered by Turnbull revealed decade-long infiltration campaign MELBOURNE -- A secret Australian investigation uncovered a campaign by China to infiltrate the country's major political parties, a news outlet has reported, in the latest allegation of Chinese interference likely to strain relations between the trading partners. The probe ordered by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull revealed a decade-long effort by the Chinese Communist Party to compromise Australia's political process and influence policymaking, 9 News reported on Monday. The findings of the review by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation and the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet reportedly prompted Turnbull's proposal last year of pending anti-foreign interference laws that have tested ties with Beijing. Turnbull unveiled the new laws -- which would ban foreign political donations, expand the definition of espionage and create a register of foreign lobbyists -- while warning of attempts by "foreign powers" to influence Australian democracy. Beijing blasted Turnbull's remarks at the time as catering to "irresponsible reports by some Australian media that are without principle and full of bias against China." In recent months, Beijing has been accused of interference including cultivating Manchurian candidates for office, kidnapping dissidents, leaning on local Chinese-language media and spying on Chinese students studying here. "I think we can be well protected, we can protect ourselves if we understand where it is that the CCP is trying to steer our influential people and just be very alert to not being steered in that direction," Merriden Varrall, director of the East Asia Programme at the Sydney-based Lowy Institute, told the Nikkei Asian Review. Last week, Andrew Hastie, a Liberal Party MP, unleashed shock waves when he used parliamentary privilege to accuse a high-profile Chinese-born businessman of involvement in the bribery of a high-level United Nations official. Chau Chak Wing, who has launched defamation proceedings against a number of media organizations for tying him to the Chinese government, has vehemently denied the allegation. Wang said Australia should "take off the tinted glasses" and be positive toward China's growth if it wanted to improve ties.