Julie Bishop

Early life and career

Bishop was born in Lobethal, South Australia, growing up on a cherry farm in the Adelaide Hills. She was educated at St Peter's Collegiate Girls' School and later at the University of Adelaide, where she studied law, graduating in 1978. She practised as a barrister and solicitor at the Adelaide law firm Mangan, Ey & Bishop, where she was a partner.

In 1983, Bishop moved to Perth, Western Australia, where she practised as a commercial litigation solicitor at Clayton Utz (then known as Robinson Cox). While working at Clayton Utz, she was part of the legal team which defended compensation claims against CSR by asbestos mining workers who had contracted mesothelioma as a result of their work for the company. She became a partner of Clayton Utz in 1985.

Bishop became managing partner of the Perth office of Clayton Utz in 1994. In 1996, she attended Harvard Business School for eight weeks to complete an Advanced Management Program for Senior Managers. It was during this course that she was inspired to serve her country; after she returned from America, she was appointed as a delegate to the 1998 Constitutional Convention on the republic. There she met David Johnston, president of the WA Liberals, who convinced her to enter federal politics.

Bishop chaired the Town Planning Appeal Tribunal of Western Australia, belonged to the senate of Murdoch University and was 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.

Member of Parliament

Bishop won preselection for the Liberal Party for the seat of Curtin, Western Australia, in 1998, and went on to win the seat at the federal election later that year, defeating the sitting member, 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 leader of the state opposition. Initially, Court announced that he would lead the Liberals into opposition. However, behind the scenes he was engineering a deal under which both he and his deputy leader and factional opponent, Colin Barnett, would resign from the state legislature. Bishop would have handed her comfortably safe federal seat to Barnett, entered the state parliament via a by-election in either Barnett or Court's comfortably safe state seats (both of which were located within Curtin's borders) and succeeded Court as state Liberal leader. The deal soon collapsed, however, when Bishop turned it down, declaring that the arrangement wasn't bizarre, but "innovative, different". Court was forced to leave politics altogether, and Barnett took over as state opposition leader.

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. 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 the expressed goal of providing world-class tertiary institutions in Australia.

Some of Bishop's comments, such as "the states have ideologically hijacked school syllabi and are wasting $180 million in unnecessary duplication", were criticised by teachers. An advance media kit for a 2006 speech claimed parts of the contemporary curriculum came "straight from Chairman Mao"; however, the reference was dropped from her speech.

In 2006, Bishop was offered substantial donations to the Liberal Party by Tim Johnston, the Perth-based head of the fraudulent company Firepower International, who sought her co-operation in obtaining substantial Commonwealth funding for his operations. Bishop facilitated Johnston's access to the Howard government at the highest level, compounding extensive official complicity and Austrade funding of the multimillion-dollar scam. For example, Firepower was promoted as a co-sponsor (with BHP Billiton) of the trade show "Australia Week in Moscow", which was opened by the Australian head of state, Governor-General Michael Jeffery on 10 May 2005.

Opposition

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 party room 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). Nelson opted not to give National Party leader Warren Truss the post of Deputy Leader of the Opposition, instead giving it to Bishop. Bishop was also given the shadow portfolio of employment, business and workplace relations in the Nelson shadow cabinet.

On 22 September 2008, Bishop was offered the role of Shadow Treasurer by Nelson's successor as Opposition Leader, Malcolm Turnbull, in his shadow cabinet, making her the first woman to hold the portfolio of any major party at the federal level. On 16 February 2009, she resigned from the position of Shadow Treasurer due to dissatisfaction within Liberal ranks over her performance. Bishop moved to foreign affairs while maintaining her position of Deputy Leader and the shadow treasury portfolio was taken over by Joe Hockey. On 1 December 2009, Tony Abbott was elected leader after a leadership spill. Bishop retained the deputy role without being challenged for the position and also retained her role as Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs in Abbott's shadow cabinet.

In 2010, Bishop defended the suspected forgery of Australian passports by Mossad, saying that many countries practised the forging of passports for intelligence operations, including Australia. The government attacked Bishop over the statements, saying she had "broken a long-standing convention" in not speculating about intelligence practices. She later clarified her statement, saying, "I have no knowledge of any Australian authority forging any passports of any nation."

Following the Coalition's narrow loss in the 2010 federal election, Bishop retained the roles of Deputy Leader and Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs and was given the added responsibility of Shadow Minister for Trade.

Abbott Government

After winning the 2013 election, Abbott formed government and Bishop was subsequently sworn in as Minister for Foreign Affairs and retained her position as deputy Liberal leader. She was the only female member of the original Abbott Cabinet and the third most senior government minister after the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister respectively.

Along with Scott Morrison, Bishop has been widely regarded as one of the best performing ministers in the government.

In December 2014, Bishop became only the second female Acting Prime Minister of Australia, after Julia Gillard (who served in the capacity at various points between 2007 to 2010, before becoming Prime Minister in 2010). Throughout her tenure as Foreign Minister in the Abbott Government and later within the Turnbull Government, Bishop has been touted by political commentators as a possible future Leader of the Liberal Party, and thus, Prime Minister.

Foreign fighters

In a 2015 speech explaining the Australian government's measures against ISIS, Bishop compared the psychological underpinnings of ISIS with that of Nazism. Citing Eric Hoffer's seminal work The True Believer, she argued that the declared Caliphate drew from the same source that drove the masses to support Hitler: "Invincibility was – until the US-led airstrikes – all part of its attraction."

In October 2014, Man Haron Monis wrote to Attorney-General George Brandis asking if he (Monis) could contact the leader of ISIL, two months before he took hostages in the Sydney siege. On 28 May 2015, Bishop told Parliament that the letter was provided to a review of the siege, before correcting the record three days later.

New Colombo Plan

Months after the government was sworn in, it announced the implementation of a New Colombo Plan which would provide undergraduate students with funding to study in several different locations within the Indo-Pacific. The plan started off in pilot form and after initial success the full program was rolled out in 2015.

MH17 and UN Security Council seat

Although Bishop fought against the previous government's campaign to gain Australia a temporary two-year seat on the United Nations Security Council, she has been widely lauded for her commanding performance when representing Australia on the Council. In particular, the Foreign Minister managed to negotiate a successful resolution that was adopted by the Council in regards to gaining full access to the crash site of MH17.

During the month of November 2014, Bishop chaired the Security Council and led meeting to discuss the threat of foreign fights, UN peacekeeping and the Ebola epidemic.

Later, Bishop led negotiations to pass a resolution to set up an independent criminal tribunal into the downing of MH17. Although Russia vetoed the resolution, Bishop was widely praised for her work and for her strong statement following the veto that 'the anticipated excuses and obfuscation by the Russian Federation should be treated with the utmost disdain'.

February 2015 leadership spill

In February 2015, Abbott faced a backbench uprising over several badly judged "captain's calls". Both Julie Bishop and Malcolm Turnbull were reported by the media as considering challenging for the leadership. Opinion poll results consistently showed that both Bishop and Turnbull were preferred Liberal leader over Abbott.

The leadership spill motion failed 61 to 39 and Abbott remained unopposed as leader of the Liberal Party, retaining the Prime Ministership.

Australian-Indonesian relations

Bishop was involved at the highest level of negotiations with the Indonesian Government in attempts to save the lives of convicted drug smugglers Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan. Demonstrating the nation's opposition, and a personal opposition, to the death penalty Bishop was widely applauded for the manner in which she conducted negotiations. This was in stark contrast to the criticism faced by Prime Minister Abbott who was ridiculed for remarks he made in regards to foreign aid provided by Australia to Indonesia. Despite the government's efforts, both Chan and Sukumaran were executed.

As a result of the executions, Bishop recalled the Australian ambassador from Indonesia in condemnation of their decision. However, by August 2015 Bishop stated that the relationship with Indonesia was back on track after privately meeting with the Indonesian Foreign Minister.

Same-sex marriage debate

During the same-sex marriage debate that divided the Liberal party in August 2015, Bishop refused to publicly declare what her personal views on the issue were. However, the Foreign Minister did hint that she was in favour of reform due to being "very liberally minded" but also believes that religious institutions should be given protections that prevent them being persecuted against based on their religious beliefs.

On 11 August 2015, Bishop is said to have spoken very powerfully in favour of a plebiscite in the Coalition party room, believing that the issue should be put to a democratic vote after the next election so that it could no longer distract from the government's policy agenda during the current term. This ultimately became the policy adopted by the Abbott Government.

September 2015 leadership spill

During the September 2015 spill that saw Abbott replaced by Turnbull as party leader and prime minister, Bishop retained her role as Deputy Leader of the party, defeating a challenge from Kevin Andrews in a 70–30 vote. On the day of the leadership change, she advised the then Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, that he had lost the confidence of the Parliamentary Liberal Party. She is said to have intended to vote for Mr Abbott in the leadership vote called for that evening until he declared her position vacant as well as his.

Turnbull Government

Bishop retained the Foreign Affairs portfolio following the formation of the Turnbull Government.

In December 2016, Bishop announced the development of a foreign policy white paper - the first of its kind since 2003. This is in keeping with the government's campaign promise to release a comprehensive foreign policy strategy within 12 months.

Political positions

Bishop is considered a member of the moderate side of the Liberal Party, similar to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. She has stated that she considers herself a "very liberal minded person".

Bishop is in favour of an Australian republic and was a delegate at the constitutional convention of 1998. When a conscience vote has been allowed by the Liberal Party, Bishop has always voted on the "progressive side", voting in favour of allowing stem cell research and for removing ministerial oversight of the abortion pill RU486.

Bishop is a strong proponent of holding a plebiscite on the issue of same-sex marriage. In a television interview in November 2015, Bishop announced, for the first time, that she supported same-sex marriage.

List of portfolios

Bishop has held the following portfolios and parliamentary party positions since her election in 1998 (both shadow and government appointments are listed):

Personal life

In 1983, Bishop married property developer Neil Gillon. The couple divorced in 1988. She has subsequently had relationships with Liberal state MP and senator Ross Lightfoot and a former Lord Mayor of Perth, Peter Nattrass. Her current partner is property developer David Panton.

Honours