40 Facts About Bridget McKenzie

Bridget Grace McKenzie was born on 27 December 1969 and is an Australian politician.

Bridget McKenzie is a member of the National Party and has been a Senator for Victoria since 2011.

Bridget McKenzie has held ministerial office in the Turnbull and Morrison governments, serving as the party's Senate leader since 2019.

Bridget McKenzie was elected to the Senate at the 2010 federal election and served as a whip from 2011 to 2013.

Bridget McKenzie replaced Fiona Nash as deputy leader of the Nationals during the 2017 parliamentary eligibility crisis, and as a result was elevated to cabinet.

Bridget McKenzie served variously as Minister for Rural Health, Sport, Regional Communications, Regional Services, Local Government and Decentralisation, and Agriculture.

Bridget McKenzie resigned from cabinet and as deputy leader in 2020 as a result of a scandal surrounding the administration of community sporting grants.

Bridget McKenzie was reappointed to cabinet in 2021 following a Nationals leadership spill as Minister for Emergency Management and National Recovery and Resilience and Minister for Regionalisation, Regional Communications and Regional Education.

Bridget McKenzie was born on 27 December 1969 in Alexandra, Victoria.

Bridget McKenzie spent her early childhood in Benalla, where her mother was a primary school teacher and her father was a dairyman.

Bridget McKenzie served as the president of the Deakin University Student Association in 2003.

Bridget McKenzie subsequently taught physical education and mathematics for several years at Yarram Secondary College, Gippsland.

Bridget McKenzie joined the National Party at the age of 18, and was a junior vice-president of the Victorian branch from 2006 to 2009.

Bridget McKenzie first stood for parliament at the 2004 federal election, unsuccessfully standing for the House of Representatives in the Division of McMillan.

At the 2010 election, Bridget McKenzie was elected to the Senate in the third place on a joint Coalition ticket.

Bridget McKenzie was her party's Senate whip from September 2013 to June 2014.

Bridget McKenzie was elected deputy leader to Barnaby Joyce in December 2017, replacing Fiona Nash after her disqualification from parliament due to dual citizenship.

Under the terms of the Coalition Agreement with the Liberals, Bridget McKenzie was elevated to cabinet as Minister for Sport, Minister for Rural Health, and Minister for Regional Communications.

When Scott Morrison became prime minister in August 2018, Bridget McKenzie was appointed Minister for Regional Services, Decentralisation and Local Government.

Bridget McKenzie is a shooting enthusiast, and is chair of the Parliamentary Friends of Shooting.

Bridget McKenzie is opposed to same-sex marriage, and publicly campaigned for the "No" vote in the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey.

On 11 December 2019 Bridget McKenzie announced $66.6 million to boost Australia's defences against the virus which has a high mortality rates in domestic pigs.

Bridget McKenzie said the Bill sent a clear message that animal activists who use the personal information of farmers to incite trespass risked jail.

In December 2019 Bridget McKenzie announced Australia's first national Mandatory Dairy Industry Code of Conduct.

Hers was the first time the nationally broadcast address was hosted outside a capital city, and Bridget McKenzie used the occasion to focus on the opportunity regional Australia offered for national economic growth, saying regional Australia was a place of opportunity with unlimited potential.

The Opposition called for Bridget McKenzie to resign from the federal ministry because of the bias in the funding allocated.

Bridget McKenzie maintained that "no project that received funding was not eligible to receive it" and that "no rules were broken in this program".

The Leader of the Opposition Anthony Albanese stated that what Bridget McKenzie had done "fails every test" and she must be sacked.

Bridget McKenzie remained as leader of the Nationals in the Senate, along with Matt Canavan as deputy, as the other 3 Nationals senators were first-termers.

Bridget McKenzie remained in these ministerial positions until the Coalition lost the 2022 federal election in May 2022.

Bridget McKenzie was appointed Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development in the Peter Dutton-led Coalition Opposition.

Bridget McKenzie has been actively working to repair this relationship as part of a strategy to return the Coalition to power at the next federal election.

Bridget McKenzie became Chair of the Select Committee on Commonwealth Bilateral Air Service Agreements on 5 September 2023.

In 2017, Bridget McKenzie was accused of using parliamentary travel entitlements for personal benefit.

The accusations centered on a weekend trip to the Gold Coast that Bridget McKenzie took in September 2014.

Bridget McKenzie is the only Victorian Senator based outside Melbourne and the Electorate office relocation incorporated the inclusion of a Ministerial office.

Bridget McKenzie has four children from her marriage to Tim Edwards, a police officer.

Bridget McKenzie was in a long-distance relationship with David Bennett, a member of the New Zealand Parliament.

In January 2021, it was reported that Bridget McKenzie was in a relationship with Simon Benson, the national affairs editor for News Corp Australia.

In 2020, Bridget McKenzie published a biography of Country Party leader John McEwen through Connor Court Publishing.