1. Bronwyn Kathleen Bishop is an Australian former politician who served as the 29th speaker of the Australian House of Representatives from 2013 to 2015, during the Abbott government.
61 Facts About Bronwyn Bishop
1. 2.
Bronwyn Bishop served as state president of the New South Wales Liberals from 1985 to 1987, and then won election to the Senate at the 1987 federal election.
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Bronwyn Bishop became the state's second female senator and the first to be popularly elected.
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In 1994 Bronwyn Bishop switched to the House of Representatives, winning a by-election for the Division of Mackellar.
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Bronwyn Bishop was a shadow minister under John Hewson, Alexander Downer, and John Howard.
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In 1996 Bronwyn Bishop was appointed Minister for Defence Industry, Science and Personnel in the newly elected Howard government.
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Bronwyn Bishop was made Minister for Aged Care in 1998, but lost her place in the ministry after the 2001 election.
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Bronwyn Bishop resigned in mid-2015 after being caught in the centre of a travel-expenses scandal, and was defeated for Liberal preselection at the 2016 election, ending her parliamentary career.
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Bronwyn Bishop Kathleen Setright was born on 19 October 1942 at the Mater Hospital in North Sydney.
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Bronwyn Bishop's father, Thomas Francis Setright, was an engineer, and her mother was Kathleen Annie Congreve, an opera singer who worked as a dramatic soprano at the Australian Opera Company.
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Bronwyn Bishop was educated at Roseville Public School, completing her primary education in 1954.
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Bronwyn Bishop then attended secondary school at Cremorne Girls High School, graduating in 1959.
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In 1960, Bronwyn Bishop enrolled in a five-year Bachelor of Laws program at the Sydney Law School, University of Sydney.
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Bronwyn Bishop failed a total of 11 subjects over six years.
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The policy of the University of Sydney at the time was that a student was required to show cause why they should be allowed to repeat a subject for a third time, and Bronwyn Bishop was deemed ineligible to continue.
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Bronwyn Bishop first worked as an articled clerk and then as a solicitor from 1967.
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Bronwyn Bishop played an acting role as a barrister in the 1960s Australian television program Divorce Court.
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Heavily involved in organised politics, Bronwyn Bishop joined Killara Young Liberals in 1961 and during her association with that branch, she became vice-president.
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Bronwyn Bishop first became a Liberal Party office-holder in 1973 as president of the Balmoral branch and was later elected as the chairman of the Liberal Party Convention Committee from 1981 to 1985 and as the first female president of the NSW Liberals from 1985 to 1987.
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Bronwyn Bishop is formerly a member of the National Right faction of the Liberal Party.
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At the 1987 federal election, Bronwyn Bishop was elected to the Senate in the fifth position on the Coalition's ticket in New South Wales.
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Bronwyn Bishop was effectively a one-to-one replacement for Sir John Carrick, who was retiring from politics.
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Bronwyn Bishop was the second woman to serve as a senator for New South Wales, and the first to be popularly elected; Sue West had been appointed to a casual vacancy a few months earlier, but had failed to retain her seat.
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Bronwyn Bishop was elevated to the shadow ministry by Andrew Peacock in 1989, as Shadow Minister for Public Administration, Federal Affairs and Local Government.
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From that time through to early 1994, a series of opinion polls showed Bronwyn Bishop to be among the most popular politicians in the country.
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Bronwyn Bishop consistently polled ahead of Hewson as preferred Liberal leader, and a February 1994 poll gave her a 13-point lead as preferred prime minister over Paul Keating.
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When Hewson called a spill for the Liberal leadership in 1994, Bronwyn Bishop opted not to stand as a candidate, and Alexander Downer successfully challenged for the party leadership.
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The 1993 frontbench offer that Bronwyn Bishop had declined was as Shadow Minister for Privatisation and Administrative Affairs, a position in the Shadow Outer Ministry.
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Bronwyn Bishop declined this position as she felt it was an insult to a woman of her talent and dedication.
30.
When Downer became leader, Bronwyn Bishop became Shadow Health Minister, a senior position, but caused controversy on her first day in office by announcing her support for tobacco advertising, drawing criticism from both the Australian Medical Association and her own party, which supported the Keating government's legislation to prohibit tobacco advertising in 1992.
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Bronwyn Bishop was the first Liberal woman from New South Wales to become a minister.
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Bronwyn Bishop was Minister for Defence Industry, Science and Personnel from 11 March 1996 to 21 October 1998 and Minister for Aged Care from 21 October 1998 to 26 November 2001.
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Bronwyn Bishop was dropped from the ministry after the 2001 election.
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On 1 January 2001, Bronwyn Bishop was presented with the Centenary Medal "For service to Australian society through parliament and government".
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On 21 January 2006, at a Young Liberals convention in Sydney, Bronwyn Bishop declared her intention to introduce a private members bill to make "destroying or violating" the Australian flag a federal offence.
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Shortly before the Howard government lost office, Bronwyn Bishop headed the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Family and Human Services, and released the report "The winnable war on drugs: The impact of illicit drug use on families".
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In 2006, following a flag-burning incident during the 2005 Cronulla riots and a burnt flag display by a Melbourne artist, Bronwyn Bishop introduced the Protection of the Australian National Flag Bill 2006.
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Bronwyn Bishop was re-elected at the 2010 Election and was appointed to the outer shadow ministry as Shadow Special Minister of State and Shadow Minister for Seniors.
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Bronwyn Bishop went on to question humans' contribution to the warming of the planet, suggesting that "climate changes continually, and if we have got to do something about it we have got to learn to adapt".
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Bronwyn Bishop's tenure was largely concurrent with the premiership of Abbott.
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Bronwyn Bishop was the third woman, and the first non-Labor woman, to hold the post.
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Bronwyn Bishop was the first former senator to become Speaker of the lower house.
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Bronwyn Bishop opted against wearing the full traditional attire of the Speaker like her predecessor Peter Slipper, instead continuing to wear ordinary business attire.
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In October 2014, Bronwyn Bishop became the longest-serving woman in the history of the Australian Parliament, outstripping the record of 27 years and 3 months previously held by Kathy Sullivan.
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In November 2014 Bronwyn Bishop lost her bid for presidency of the Inter-Parliamentary Union.
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Bronwyn Bishop received significant criticism for her partisanship and claims of bias as speaker.
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Bronwyn Bishop had continued to attend Liberal party room meetings during her speakership, despite convention against this.
48.
In mid-July 2015, Bronwyn Bishop became embroiled in the "Choppergate" expenses scandal surrounding her use of parliamentary travel entitlements that ultimately led to her resignation as Speaker.
49.
Bronwyn Bishop incurred costs of over $3,300 for car expenses in order to attend the opera and other arts events from 2010 to 2013 and $800 for flights to the wedding of Sophie Mirabella in Albury.
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Bronwyn Bishop repaid over $6,700 after an investigation into her finances, but did not give the Department of Finance enough information about her engagements for them to determine whether they were a legitimate use of taxpayer funds or not.
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Bronwyn Bishop said that she would no longer be cooperating with the review after her retirement from the parliament.
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Bronwyn Bishop was eventually defeated by Jason Falinski by 51 votes to 39.
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Bronwyn Bishop joined Sky News Live as a political contributor in June 2016, making her debut on Speers Tonight on 2 June 2016.
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In November 2016, Bronwyn Bishop attended a party at The Rugby Club in Sydney to celebrate the victory of Donald Trump in the 2016 United States presidential election.
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Bronwyn Bishop was made an Officer of the Order of Australia in the 2020 Queen's Birthday Honours, for distinguished service to the Parliament of Australia, to the people of New South Wales, and to women in politics.
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Bronwyn Bishop is an amateur actress, having appeared in several charity productions including The Sound of Music, and Grease.
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Bronwyn Bishop is a patron of Opera Australia and was 2008 President of the Sydney International Piano Competition Committee.
58.
Alan Bronwyn Bishop was a judge of the now defunct Compensation Court and the District Court of New South Wales and was instrumental in the establishment of the WorkCover Authority of New South Wales.
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Bronwyn Bishop is honoured by the Bishops' alma mater with the Alan Bishop Scholarship for distinguished final-year undergraduate law students.
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Alan Bronwyn Bishop served as an alderman of the City of Sydney and was involved in multiple committees and companies, including the public medical research company AGITG.
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Bronwyn and Alan Bishop have two daughters; Angela, an entertainment reporter for Network Ten, and Sally.