Margie Abbott

Margie Abbott
Margie Abbott in 2015
Born	Margaret Aitken (1958-02-01) 1 February 1958 Lower Hutt, New Zealand
Residence	Kirribilli House
Alma mater	Wellington Teachers College
Occupation	Child care centre operator
Known for	Spouse of the Prime Minister of Australia
Religion	Roman Catholicism
Spouse(s)	Tony Abbott (m. 1988–present); 3 children

Margie Abbott (born 1 February^[1] 1958^[2]) is the wife of Tony Abbott, who has been the Prime Minister of Australia since 18 September 2013. She runs a childcare centre in Sydney.

Early life

Margaret Aitken was born in Hutt Hospital,^[3] Lower Hutt, New Zealand to Max and Gail Aitken, and grew up in Wainuiomata. Both parents worked for the Post Office, Max as deputy chief postmaster of Wellington, and Gail as a typist.^[4] She has a brother, Greg, a former private investigator.^[4] The family has always been very sport-oriented; Max Aitken is a senior soccer administrator, and Margie played soccer and netball for a number of years.^[4] She is a Catholic, like her husband.^[5]

Max Aitken is a member of the New Zealand Labour Party and Gail is also a Labour voter.^[4] There were pictures of Labour leaders in the kitchen of the family home.^[6] Margie was also briefly a member of the Labour Party.^[2][7]

Margie Aitken attended Fernlea School and Wainuiomata College,^[3] where among other studies she took part in a pioneering Maori-language course.^[4][7] At the age of 16, she entered teachers college in Wellington, and after graduation taught primary school in Upper Hutt and Wainuiomata. She taught Maori both there and later in Australia.^[2] She later worked at a recruitment firm, and in 1983^[7] followed her boss to Sydney, Australia when he sold the company. Her next career move was to the marketing department of Rothschild Australia, a merchant bank in Sydney.

Marriage to Tony Abbott

In 1988 while at Rothschilds, she met Tony Abbott at a Sydney pub. He was then a journalist with The Bulletin. He proposed after taking her on the Kokoda Track. They married at Riverview Chapel on 24 September 1988, and have since had three daughters.^[8]

Current occupation

Abbott runs a community-based not-for-profit child care centre in St Ives, New South Wales ^[9] Sydney, which employs 10 staff and cares for children from around 100 families.^[2][7] She continued as a director of the centre after her husband became prime minister.^[10]

Personal views

In September 2013, Abbott said that, unlike her husband, she was open to discussion about gay marriage. She told the media "I suppose at the end of the day I think that love, commitment, are things that should be recognised and I think it's a conversation that Australia needs to have".^[11] Margie Abbott was a member of the New Zealand Labour party before meeting Tony Abbott, as were her parents and extended family. ^[12]

References