page_title: George Brandis
section_title: Parliamentary career
hierarchical_section_title: George Brandis / Parliamentary career
caption_attribution_description: English: Official Portrait of George Brandis
context_page_description: George Henry Brandis QC is an Australian diplomat and former politician who has been the Australian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom since May 2018. He previously served as a Senator for Queensland between 2000 and 2018, representing the Liberal Party, and was a minister in the Howard, Abbott, and Turnbull Governments.
  Brandis studied law at the University of Queensland and Magdalen College, Oxford. Before entering politics he practised as a barrister.
  Brandis was appointed to the Senate in 2000 to fill the casual vacancy caused by the resignation of Warwick Parer. He served as Minister for the Arts and Sport for the last year of the Howard Government in 2007. When the Coalition returned to power in 2013, Brandis became Attorney-General and Minister for the Arts, during which time he cut A$105 million of funding to the Australia Council for the Arts in the 2015-16 Budget. He relinquished the latter portfolio in 2015, when Malcolm Turnbull became prime minister, but was instead made Leader of the Government in the Senate.
  Brandis announced his retirement from politics in December 2017, with effect from February 2018.
context_section_description: Brandis was first chosen by the Parliament of Queensland to fill a casual vacancy following the resignation of Senator the Honourable Warwick Parer.  He was elected to a further six-year term at the 2004 election.
  In his period as a senator, he has served as Chairman of the Economics Committee and as Chairman of the Senate's Children Overboard Inquiry.
  Brandis has also made a number of public speeches. In 2003, he described the Australian Greens as eco-fascist.
  Brandis claimed over $1,000 in taxpayer expenses to attend the inaugural Sir Garfield Barwick address in Sydney on 28 June 2010. The event was billed as a Liberal party fund-raiser.
caption: Brandis early in his political career
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