Bronwyn Bishop
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| Bronwyn Bishop | |
| Constituency | Mackellar |
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| Majority | 15.8% |
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Minister for Aged Care
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| In office 1998 – 2001 |
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Minister for Defence, Industry and Science Personnel
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| In office 1996 – 1998 |
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| Born | 19 October 1942 Sydney, New South Wales |
| Political party | Liberal Party of Australia |
| Relations | Mark Baker |
| Children | Angela Bishop |
| Residence | Newport, New South Wales |
| Occupation | company director |
Bronwyn Kathleen Bishop (born 19 October 1942), Australian politician, has been a Liberal member of the Australian House of Representatives since February 1994, representing the Division of Mackellar, New South Wales. She was born in Sydney, New South Wales, and was a solicitor and company director before entering politics.
Bishop was elected to the Senate for New South Wales in July 1987, and proved an aggressive debater with an ability to annoy ministers in the Labor government, particularly Foreign Minister Gareth Evans. After the Liberals' defeat at the 1993 election, Bishop began to be seen as a possible leadership candidate, a view she shared.
Bishop resigned from the Senate in February 1994 to contest the Mackellar by-election in the House of Representatives, a move widely seen as furthering her leadership ambitions. Although she was comfortably elected, her campaign against John Hewson for the leadership faced a setback when she did not poll as well as expected against author and filmmaker Bob Ellis, running as an independent. In 1994-95 she was Shadow Health Minister, a senior position. But when Alexander Downer resigned as Liberal leader in early 1995, Bishop found that her colleagues did not share her opinion of her leadership potential, and John Howard returned to the party leadership.
When the Liberals returned to office in 1996, Howard placed her in junior portfolios. She was Minister for Defence Industry, Science and Personnel 1996-98 and Minister for Aged Care 1998-2001. This portfolio saw her embroiled in a series of controversies over standards of care in nursing homes, and she was dropped from the ministry after the 2001 elections. She campaigned to succeed Neil Andrew as Speaker of the House, but was not successful.
In August 2005 Bishop called for Muslim headscarves to be banned from public schools, an opinion also expressed by another prominent Liberal backbencher, Sophie Mirabella. The Prime Minister, John Howard, said that he did not agree with this view as a ban would be impractical. Her preoccupation with criticising Islam in Australia has been criticised as racist, sexist and hypocritical (Sources: SMH Aug 30 & Sept 6 2005, Global Research Sept 27 2005, etc). In November 2005, Bishop expressed the view that "she is opposed to the wearing of the Muslim headscarf, where it does not form part of the school uniform. This is because that in most cases the headscarf is being worn as a sign of defiance and difference between non Muslim and Muslim students" and then went on to say that she "does not believe that a ban on the Jewish skull cap is necessary, because people of the Jewish faith have not used the skull cap as a way of campaigning against the Australian culture, laws and way of life." (Source: Crikey newsletter, November 10, 2005)
On January 21, 2006, at a Young Liberals convention in Sydney, Bishop declared her intention [1] to introduce a private members bill to make "destroying or violating" the Australian flag a federal criminal offence.
She currently lives in the Sydney suburb of Newport. Her daughter is Channel 10 entertainment reporter Angela Bishop.
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Categories: 1942 births | Living people | Liberal Party of Australia politicians | People from Sydney | Members of the Australian Senate | Members of the Australian Senate for New South Wales | Members of the Australian House of Representatives | Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Mackellar
