Julie Bishop

**Julie Bishop** (born 17 July 1956) was an Australian politician who served as Prime Minister of Australia from 2015 until her resignation in 2020. She also served as Minister for Foreign Affairs prior to becoming Prime Minister.

## 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.

## 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 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.

### 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.

### Minister for Foreign Affairs

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.

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.

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 nations 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 in February 2015. Bishop responded by breaking off relations with Indonesia.

## Prime Minister

### Leadership Spill

On 8 September 2015, Malcolm Turnbull told Prime Minister Tony Abbott that he no longer had the majority of the party and that he should call a leadership vote to determine the leadership. Turnbull then told the media that he had asked Abbott to call the vote, which Abbott announced two hours later. ABC News reported that one hour before the vote, that Turnbull would be challenging the position of Deputy Leader, implying that Julie Bishop was going to challenge for party leader. With just fifteen minutes before the vote, Bishop announced that she was going to challenge for party leadership, and subsequently, the Prime Ministership. At 10:00pm, chief government whip Scott Buchholz declared that Bishop had defeated Abbott, 64 votes to 34, and that Turnbull had been elected un-opposed as Deputy Leader.

### New Zealand Crisis

At 3:59am on 23 March 2016, a 7.9 magnitude earthquake rocked central New Zealand, causing significant damage to the country's infrastructure. Julie Bishop was informed of the crisis at 8:00am the same morning, and pledged $2 billion to efforts to rebuild New Zealand, as well as deploying 25,000 Australian defence personnel to New Zealand. During the immediate three weeks after the earthquake, Bishop and Turnbull visited New Zealand, making sure that effectively one of them was in New Zealand at all times.

On 5 April, Bishop attended a meeting of the United Nations Security Council, overseeing the establishment of an Australian-led UN Peacekeeping force, the United Nations Assistance and Rebuilding Mission in New Zealand (UNARMNZ). On April 28, Bishop announced the establishment of the Trans-Tasman Earthquake Assistance and Response Agency, with the primary goal of coordinating rebuilding efforts as well as providing temporary relocation of New Zealand citizens to Australia.

In June, the value of the New Zealand dollar, rapidly hyper-inflated, making the currency effectively worthless. During a Cabinet meeting on 11 June, Bishop and Treasurer Scott Morrison propose a currency union with New Zealand. Bishop recommended this proposal to New Zealand Prime Minister John Key on 12 June, and two days later, Bishop travelled to Napier to sign the Australia-New Zealand Currency Union Treaty. By the end of June, Australian public support had rallied behind the proposal for a constitutional union of Australia and New Zealand. On 25 June, Bishop announced a referendum on the issue.

On 3 September, the Australian public voted in favour of the union with New Zealand, with the New Zealand referendum also returning in favour on 18 September. On 1 January 2017, the Constitutional Union of Australia and New Zealand came into effect. Governor-General Major Peter Cosgrove called a double-dissolution so that a new parliament could be elected. Julie Bishop was re-elected.

### Foreign Affairs

#### Middle East

In June 2016, Julie Bishop denounced the violence in both the West Bank and Gaza Strip as part of the Third Intifada and the Gaza Civil War, which signaled Australia's movement towards recognising the state. Bishop announced that Australia would recognise Palestine's right to sovereignty in September 2018, after the Third Lebanon War.

During the War against ISIS, Bishop maintained Australia's role in the U.S.-led air campaign in Iraq and also announced that Australia would expand its role into Syria. During the coalition invasion of Libya, Australia provided military and logistic support to NATO, Egypt and Tunisia. Bishop also approved the use of Australian Special Forces in operations with US Marines and British SAS to eliminate targets in Libya in covert operations.

Bishop also condemned the unification of Iran and Iraq, and denounced Tehran's expansion into Afghanistan, Pakistan and Central Asia.

#### Asia-Pacific

Bishop advocated for greater cooperation with major regional partners like China, Japan, South Korea and the Association of South East Asian Nations. However, while Bishop aimed to restore relations with Indonesia, the Indonesian government was not as cooperative as Bishop would have hoped. In 2018, the Indonesian government agreed to begin new talks to establish a Lombok II Treaty, which was signed in 2022 by Tanya Plibersek's government.

During the Korean Crisis, Bishop supported U.S. President Hillary Clinton, but opted to eventually remain neutral to protect Australia's trade ties with Beijing and Seoul. Bishop also oversaw the signing of a free trade agreement with India.

### Domestic Politics

#### Economy

During Bishop's tenure, the Great Recession took hold around the world. In an attempt to protect consumer confidence, Bishop followed the example of her predecessor Kevin Rudd, and introduced a series of stimulus packages, which gave between $700-$1200 to Australian citizens in order to revitalise consumer confidence in the market.