page_title: Eric Abetz
section_title: Early political career: 1993-2007 in opposition and Government
hierarchical_section_title: Eric Abetz / Early political career: 1993-2007 in opposition and Government
caption_attribution_description: English: Portrait of Eric Abetz, Minister for Employment
context_page_description: Eric Abetz is an Australian politician who has been a Senator for Tasmania since February 1994, representing the Liberal Party. He was the Minister for Employment and the Leader of the Government in the Senate in the Abbott Government from 2013 to 2015. He previously also served as Special Minister of State in the Howard Government from 2001 to 2006 and as Minister for Fisheries, Forestry and Conservation from 2006 to 2007.
  Born in Germany, Abetz emigrated to Australia as a small child, when his father came to work for Tasmania's Hydro Electric Commission. He was educated at the University of Tasmania and was a barrister and solicitor before entering politics. He is a former national president of the Australian Liberal Students' Federation and was state president of the Tasmanian Liberals from 1990 to 1994.
context_section_description: He won preselection as a candidate for the Senate in the 1993 election but did not win a seat.  He was then chosen to fill the casual vacancy caused by the resignation of Brian Archer in 1994, and was elected in his own right at the subsequent 1998 election and re-elected in 2004 and 2010. Abetz was Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Defence 1998–2001 and was Special Minister of State from January 2001 until 2006.
  He has served as Chairman of the Native Title and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Land Fund Committee and Chairman of the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee. He also served as Chairman of the Attorney-General and Justice Government Members' Committee.
  He was a member of a Parliamentary Delegation which visited France and Belgium in June and July 1997, and made an official visit to the United Kingdom in September 1999.
  He was Minister for Forestry from a reshuffle of the Howard ministry in January 2006 until its defeat at the 2007 election.  He commenced his portfolio by attacking the Australian Greens and environmentalists in general as anti-Australian. He described the campaign against woodchipping as "akin to treason" and branded the Greens an "extreme left" party. This allowed him to position the government's priorities as mainstream issues which both major parties wanted action on.
caption: Abetz earlier in his political career.
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