Julie Bishop

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The Honourable
 Julie Bishop
 LLB MP
Julie Bishop

Deputy Opposition Leader
Incumbent
Assumed office 
November 29, 2007
Preceded by Julia Gillard
Constituency Curtin
Majority 13.57%[1]

Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party of Australia
Incumbent
Assumed office 
29 November 2007
Preceded by Peter Costello

In office
24 January 2006 – 3 December 2007
Preceded by Brendan Nelson

Born 17 July 1956 (1956-07-17) (age 51)
Political party Liberal Party of Australia

Julie Isabel Bishop (born 17 July 1956), Australian politician and Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Parliament of Australia as deputy leader of the Liberal Party of Australia.[2] She is the party's first female Deputy Leader.

She has been a member of the Australian House of Representatives since 1998, representing the seat of Curtin in Western Australia. She was a minister in the Howard government until the defeat of the Liberal/National Coalition at the election held on 24 November 2007. On 27 November 2007 she announced she was running for the position of Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party. She won the ballot on 29 November 2007 and became the party's first female Deputy Leader.

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[edit] Biography

Bishop was born in Lobethal, South Australia, and was educated at the St Peter's Collegiate Girls' School, the University of Adelaide and the Harvard Business School. She graduated from the University of Adelaide with a Bachelor of Laws in 1978, and subsequently practised as a barrister and solicitor at the Adelaide law firm Mangan, Ey & Bishop, where she was a partner. In 1983 she relocated to Perth where she practiced as a commercial litigation solicitor at Robinson Cox (now Clayton Utz). She became a partner of Clayton Utz in 1985, and managing partner of the Perth office in 1994. In 1996 she attended Harvard Business School in Boston and completed the Advanced Management Program for Senior Managers.

Bishop was Chair of the Town Planning Appeal Tribunal of Western Australia, a Senate Member of Murdoch University, a director of the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) and a director and fellow of the Australian Institute of Management. She has also served on the Council of Governors of the Lions Ear and Hearing Institute.[3]

[edit] Member of Parliament

Bishop won pre-selection for the seat of Curtin, Western Australia in 1998, and went on to win the seat for the Liberal Party at the Federal Election later that year against the sitting member and former Liberal turned independent, Allan Rocher, who had held the seat since 1981.

Following the Liberals' February 2001 State election loss by Richard Court to Geoff Gallop, Bishop was mooted as a possible contender for the leader of the state opposition[3]. Initially Court had announced that he would stay on as opposition leader, but had secretly negotiated a deal under which she would leave the Federal Parliament and factional opponent Colin Barnett would move to Canberra.[4] The deal soon collapsed however with Court resigning and Bishop declaring that the arrangement wasn't bizarre, but "... innovative, different."[3] Barnett took over the position.

[edit] Minister in the Howard Government

Bishop was appointed Minister for Ageing in 2003. She was later promoted to Minister for Education, Science and Training and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Women's Issues in the cabinet reshuffle on 24 January 2006 and served in those positions until the defeat of the Coalition government at the federal election held on 24 November 2007.

Bishop's education policies centred on the development of national education standards as well as performance-based pay for teachers[5]. On 13 April 2007, the Australian State Governments expressed opposition to Bishop's policies, notably those relating to performance pay. In the 2007 Budget, the Federal Government announced a $5b "endowment fund" for higher education, with an express goal of providing world-class tertiary institutions in Australia. [6]

Some of Bishop's comments, such as "the states have ideologically hijacked school syllabi and are wasting $180 million in unnecessary duplication" have been criticised by teachers. An advance media kit for a recent speech claimed parts of the present curriculum came "straight from Chairman Mao", however the reference was dropped from her speech.[7][8][9]

[edit] Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party

Following the Coalition's loss at the 2007 election, Bishop was elected deputy leader of the Liberal Party under Brendan Nelson on 29 November 2007. In a ballot of Liberal caucus members, Bishop prevailed with 44 votes, one more than the combined total of her two competitors: Andrew Robb (25 votes) and Christopher Pyne (18 votes).[10]

On 5 June 2008 as a panel member of the ABC discussion program Q&A Bishop expressed her optimism on the topic of an Australian republic.[11]

[edit] References

  1. ^ House of Representatives Division First Preferences
  2. ^ "Nelson wins Liberal leadership", The Sydney Morning Herald, 2007-11-29. Retrieved on 2007-11-29. 
  3. ^ a b c Michelle Grattan. "New kid on the block", The Age, October 11, 2003. Retrieved on 2007-11-28. 
  4. ^ "New WA Liberals leader takes on divided party (transcript)", 7:30 Report, 26/2/2001. Retrieved on 2007-11-28. 
  5. ^ [1]
  6. ^ Hon Julie Bishop MP - Budget 2007-08 Media Releases
  7. ^ Thatcher v Mao - what a week for ideology. Opinion (2006-10-07). Retrieved on 2007-05-06. “Lead: The latest shots in the culture wars were fired this week in a skirmish that has all the hallmarks of a carefully planned political campaign aimed at jolting Australians out of their complacency.”
  8. ^ Justine Ferrari (2006-10-06). Canberra to seize syllabus from states. Education. The Australian. Retrieved on 2007-05-06. “Education Minister Julie Bishop will attack state education bureaucrats and accuse them of hijacking school curriculums, distorting them with "Chairman Mao" type ideologies in a speech to the History Teachers Association of Australia today.”
  9. ^ Michael Turtle (2007-04-13). States reject performance pay for teachers. PM program. ABC (Radio National). Retrieved on 2007-05-06. “Julie Bishop took in an ambitious plan for national standards in schooling, but none of her proposals were accepted in their original form.”
  10. ^ Nelson sinks Turnbull, The Age, 29 November 2007.
  11. ^ Q&A Episode 3, ABC TV, 6 June 2008

[edit] External links

Political offices
Preceded by
Kevin Andrews
Minister for Ageing
2003 – 2006
Succeeded by
Santo Santoro
Preceded by
Brendan Nelson
Minister for Education, Science and Training
2006 – 2007
Succeeded by
Julia Gillard (education}
Kim Carr (science)
Preceded by
Kay Patterson
Minister Assisting the Prime
Minister for Women's Issues

2006 – 2007
Succeeded by
Tanya Plibersek
Parliament of Australia
Preceded by
Allan Rocher
Member for Curtin
1998 – present
Incumbent
Party political offices
Preceded by
Peter Costello
Deputy Leader of the
Liberal Party of Australia

2007 – present
Incumbent


Persondata
NAME Bishop, Julie Isabel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION Australian politician
DATE OF BIRTH 17 July 1956
PLACE OF BIRTH Lobethal, South Australia
DATE OF DEATH living
PLACE OF DEATH