Mal Brough

The Honourable Malcolm Brough MP
Member of the Australian Parliament for Fisher
Incumbent
Assumed office 7 September 2013
Preceded by	Peter Slipper
Member of the Australian Parliament for Longman
In office 2 March 1996 – 24 November 2007
Preceded by	New division
Succeeded by	Jon Sullivan
Minister for Families and Community Services and Indigenous Affairs
In office 27 January 2006 – 3 December 2007
Prime Minister	John Howard
Preceded by	Kay Patterson
Succeeded by	Jenny Macklin
Minister for Employment Participation
In office 14 February 2001 – 18 July 2004
Prime Minister	John Howard
Preceded by	Tony Abbott
Succeeded by	Fran Bailey
Personal details
Born	(1961-12-29) 29 December 1961 Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Political party	Liberal Party of Australia
Spouse(s)	Sue Brough
Relations	Rob Brough (brother)
Alma mater	Monash University
Military service
Allegiance	Australia
Service/branch	Australian Army
Years of service	1979–1987
Rank	Captain

Malcolm Thomas "Mal" Brough (/ˈbrʌf/ BRUFF; born 29 December 1961) is an Australian politician and Liberal member of the Australian House of Representatives from March 1996 to November 2007, representing the Division of Longman, Queensland. Brough was President of the Queensland Liberal Party from May to September 2008 when he resigned following the Queensland merger of the Liberal and National parties and a new party called the Liberal National Party of Queensland. Brough won the seat of Fisher at the 2013 Australian federal election.^[1]

Early life

He was born on 29 December 1961 in Brisbane, Queensland, and was an Australian Army officer and businessman before entering politics. Former Family Feud host and Seven News presenter Rob Brough is his brother. Brough's Aboriginal ancestry is via his maternal grandmother, Violet, whose father was an indigenous Australian.^[2]

Political career

Brough was Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Employment, Workplace Relations and Small Business 2000–01 and Minister for Employment Services from 2001 to 2004. In July 2004 he was moved to the portfolios of Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Revenue. He was Minister for Families and Community Services and Indigenous Affairs from January 2006 to November 2007.

Brough was the chief architect of the government's controversial Northern Territory Emergency Response, a package of measures designed to combat high rates of child neglect and abuse in the territory.

Brough was one of a number of government MPs including John Howard who lost their seat at the 2007 election. Brough suffered a two-party preferred swing of 10.3 percent in his seat to finish with a two-party vote of 46.4 percent, and was succeeded by Labor's Jon Sullivan.^[3]

Following the 2007 federal election,^[4] the parliamentary hopeful Brough was left in limbo. This was until the 2013 federal election when Brough returned to the House of Representatives for the seat of Fisher.

State politics

Brough was elected as the President of the Queensland division of the Liberal Party in May 2008.^[5] He remained in that position after a vote in July 2008 to merge into the new Liberal National Party of Queensland, which he opposed, as the merger had not received final ratification from the federal Liberal Party. On 26 September 2008 he resigned from his post, saying: “You try and do the right thing and, quite frankly, at this point it’s all over the shop and it’s no wonder voters get so disenchanted with the non-Labor side of politics.”^[6]

It was because of his opposition of the merger to the LNP that he was not a candidate for his former seat of Longman at the 2010 Federal election as that would have meant securing preselection from the LNP, in order to have a good chance of reclaiming the seat. He also criticised the party leading up to the 2010 election on its absence of policies but did not rule out running for his resident seat of Fisher against former National-turned-Liberal member Peter Slipper.^[7]

Later career

In mid-2012, following the defection of Peter Slipper from the Liberals to become an Independent MP and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Brough announced that he was seeking LNP preselection for the seat of Fisher for the next federal election.^[8] On 29 July 2012, it was announced that had won the preselection for the seat,^[9] despite criticism over his contact with the former Slipper adviser and sexual harassment accuser James Ashby, where Justice Steve Rares found that Mr Brough had acted with Mr Ashby and another Slipper staffer Karen Doane in abusing the judicial process for the "purpose of causing significant public, reputational and political damage to Mr Slipper".^[10] On 9 October 2012, Slipper resigned as Speaker following revelations of mobile phone text messages he had sent to Ashby, and was replaced by Anna Burke.

References