Tony Abbott
For other people called Tony Abbott, see Tony Abbott (disambiguation). |
Hon Tony Abbott |
Anthony John "Tony" Abbott (born
4 November 1957),
Australian politician, is the Minister for Health and Ageing and Leader of the House in the Australian federal government. Since 1994, he has been the Member for
Warringah, in
New South Wales in the
House of Representatives for the
Liberal Party.
Abbott was born in
London,
United Kingdom to Australian parents. In 1960, his family returned to Australia, living first in
Bronte then moving to
Chatswood. Abbott was initially schooled at Highfield Kindergarten before attending the Holy Family Convent. In Year 3 he started at St Aloysius College and attended there until he completed his secondary school education at
St Ignatius' College, Riverview in
Sydney.
He graduated from the
University of Sydney with a Bachelor of Economics (BEc) and a Bachelor of Laws (LLB).
At university he was active in student politics, gaining media attention for his political stance opposing the then dominant left-wing student leadership. He was also a prominent student boxer. He then went on to attend the
University of Oxford as a
Rhodes Scholar and graduated with a Master of Arts (MA). A devout
Catholic, he then considered the Catholic priesthood, and entered St Patrick's diocesan seminary in Sydney, but subsequently decided to leave of his own accord and choose another career path.
After leaving the seminary Abbott worked as a journalist for
The Bulletin, an influential news magazine. He became well known for his strongly worded criticism of trade unions,
feminism and left-wing politics. For a period, Abbott was a Plant Manager for Pioneer Concrete before becoming press secretary to the Leader of the Opposition,
Dr John Hewson in 1990-93, and between 1993-94 the Executive Director of
Australians for Constitutional Monarchy.
Abbott is married to Margaret to whom he has three daughters.
An early girlfriend of Tony Abbott's was once believed to have given birth to a son which had been adopted out. This period was described as an intense personal experience for Abbott, and is said to have directly influenced his strong anti-abortion views. However the identity of this son was not known until recently. In early 2005, it was publicly revealed that this child was Daniel O'Connor, an
Australian Broadcasting Corporation sound recordist who worked in
Parliament House,
Canberra and who had often been involved in making television programs in which Abbott appeared. DNA testing later revealed, however, that Abbott was not O'Connor's biological father.
Abbott was elected to the
Australian House of Representatives at a by-election in March 1994, following the resignation of
Michael MacKellar. He was the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs 1996-98, Minister for Employment Services 1998-2001, Minister for Employment, Workplace Relations and Small Business
2001, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations 2001-03 and Minister for Health and Ageing from 2003.
Abbott is an aggressive parliamentary debater and political tactician. His appointment as Health Minister, traditionally a difficult portfolio, makes him one of the government's most senior ministers.
As Minister for Health and Ageing, Abbott has made reductions in funding to the
Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and
Medicare. He also introduced the Medicare Safety Net in 2004, which caps the annual out-of-pocket costs of Medicare card holders to a maximum amount.
Prior to the
2004 election, Abbott made an "iron-clad commitment" to maintain the safety net at current levels. Six months after this commitment, following the election victory of his party, a decision was made to partially cut back the
Medicare safety net. Abbott apologised for this and has said he had contemplated resignation but "decided against it".
Abbott is widely known as an outspoken
social conservative, and opposes
abortion. He has suggested legislation to reduce access to abortion, but this has been opposed by some of his Parliamentary colleagues in the Liberal Party. In March
2004, he said: "Why isn't the fact that 100,000 women choose to end their pregnancies regarded as a national tragedy approaching the scale, say, of
Aboriginal life expectancy being 20 years less than that of the general community?" More recently, a bill was introduced into
Parliament with Abbott's support that would, if passed, require women to undergo a counselling session and a "cooling down" period. This bill was introduced with the aim of reducing the number of abortions that are done in Australia. It is as yet unknown what form this counselling would take. On a related matter, in February
2006, a
conscience vote occurred, approving a measure that moved regulatory control of the abortion drug
RU486 away from the Health Minister; Abbott and previous Health Ministers had decided not to allow it to be made available. Abbott responded to the vote by calling for funding of alternative counselling to pregnant women through church-affiliated groups.
During the first term of the Howard government, Abbott was vocal in his opposition to the then rising
One Nation Party and its leader,
Pauline Hanson. He argued that their views included anti-immigrant rhetoric and
economic protectionism. One of One Nation's founders,
David Oldfield, was a former member of Abbott's staff. Abbott later established a political fund to oppose One Nation candidates.
Abbott was one of the leading voices in opposition to the
1999 referendum which would have, if it had succeeded, made
Australia a republic.
Abbott attracted some criticism in February 2006, when he posed a rhetorical question "Are there any Australians in the so-called Australian Labor Party?" whilst attacking what he saw as divisive racial factionalism in the controversial preselection for the seat of
Hotham.
In July
2006, Mr Abbott visited the Pitlands, an Aboriginal reserve in north-west
South Australia. He suggested that Aborigines could be recruited to shoot wild camels that inhabit central Australia. "Why not get them out shooting the camels," he said. "It gives them something they would love to do and it beats petrol sniffing." [
1]
Since his appointment as Workplace Relations Minister in 2001, Abbott has been further promoted to the high profile Health ministry. Abbott's position on the Coalition frontbench sees him touted as one of the possible successors of John Howard. However, unlike
treasurer Peter Costello, Abbott has not openly expressed any desire to lead the party. Abbott's position as a senior member of the
Liberal Party of Australia means he should remain a high profile member of any Coalition Government for the remainder of his political career.
Abbott is a volunteer member of the
NSW Rural Fire Service, which fought to contain a bushfire in Victoria's west in January 2006 [
2]
*
Personal website*
Story on reunion with his putative son*
Abbott opposing stem cell research
