Tony Abbott

Anthony John Abbott (born 4 November 1957), Australian politician, has been a Liberal member of the Australian House of Representatives since March 1994, representing the Division of Warringah, New South Wales. He was born in London, United Kingdom, and was educated at the University of Sydney and the University of Oxford, which he attended as a Rhodes Scholar. At Sydney he was active in student politics, challenging the then dominant left-wing student leadership and gaining media attention. He was also a prominent student boxer.

After graduating, Abbott became a journalist with The Bulletin, an influential news magazine with strongly conservative politics. He became well known for his strongly worded attacks on the trade unions, feminism and other targets on the left.

Abbott was press secretary to the Leader of the Opposition, Dr John Hewson 1990-93 and executive director of Australians for Constitutional Monarchy 1993-94. In this position he played a leading role in defeating the 1999 referendum on making Australia a republic.

Abbott was 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.

During the first term of the Howard government Abbott took a leading role in opposing Pauline Hanson and her new populist party, One Nation. One of One Nation's founders, David Oldfield, was a former member of Abbott's staff. Although Abbott was a conservative, he disliked One Nation's anti-immigrant rhetoric and also its economic protectionism. He established a political fund to oppose One Nation candidates, a fund which later became a source of controversy.

Abbott is considered to be an outspoken social conservative. He is also a Catholic Christian, and at one stage considered becoming a priest (his critics call him "the Mad Monk"). On several occasions, he has discussed issues such as abortion in speeches and made clear his personal disapproval of the practice, though he has not called for any changes to laws. One speech, in March 2004, contained the following quote:

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?

Ever since he became Workplace Relations Minister in 2001 Abbott has been talked about as a possible future Liberal leader. There has been speculation that Prime Minister John Howard, who turned 65 in 2004, is grooming Abbott as his successor, in preference to the Liberal Deputy Leader, Peter Costello, who is more liberal on social issues than Abbott. Abbott has disavowed any interest in the Liberal leadership.

Abbott is an extremely able and aggressive parliamentary debater and political tactician. His appointment as Health Minister, with responsibility for the Howard Government's most difficult policy area in the run-up to the 2004 election, is a sign of his importance to the Liberal Party. One of his achievements in the portforlio was the introduction of the Medicare safety net, which capped out-of-pocket medical expenses for Medicare card holders. He gave an "iron-clad commitment" that this would be maintained after the election.

In early 2005 Abbott was involved in a media drama when it was claimed that Daniel O'Connor, an Australian Broadcasting Corporation sound recordist, was Abbott's son by an early girlfriend, and had been given up for adoption. Abbott himself believed that O'Connor was his son, but DNA testing later showed that he was not.

Shortly after this, and less than six months after the election, Cabinet decided to partly wind back the Medicare safety net. Abbott was forced to apologise for the fact that his "iron-clad commitment" had been broken. He said he had contemplated resignation but decided against it.

External links

• Personal website (http://www.tonyabbott.com.au/)
• Story on reunion with his supposed son (http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200502/s1306958.htm)