TONY ABBOTT

:''For other people called Tony Abbott, see Tony Abbott (disambiguation).''
'Anthony John "Tony" Abbott' (born 4 November 1957), Australian politician, is the Minister for Health and Ageing in the Australian federal government and Leader of the House in the Federal Parliament. Since 1994, he has been the Member for Warringah, in New South Wales in the House of Representatives for the Liberal Party.

Contents

Early life

Family

Political career

Political views

Controversies

Action against One Nation Party

Alleged son

Community Service

References

External links

Early life

Abbott was born in London^[1] to Australian parents. In 1960, his family returned to Australia, living first in Bronte then moving to Chatswood. Abbott was initially schooled at Highfield Kindergarten before attending the Holy Family Convent. In Year 3 he started at St Aloysius' College (Sydney) and attended there until he completed his secondary school education at St Ignatius' College, Riverview in Sydney.^[2] He graduated from the University of Sydney, residing at St John's College, with a Bachelor of Economics (BEc) and a Bachelor of Laws (LLB).¹ At university he was active in student politics, gaining media attention for his political stance opposing the then dominant left-wing student leadership. He was also a prominent student boxer. He then went on to attend the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and graduated with a Master of Arts (MA). A devout Catholic, he then considered the Catholic priesthood, and entered St Patrick's diocesan seminary in Sydney, but subsequently decided to leave and choose another career path.
Despite his right wing leanings, Abbott has admitted he voted Labor in the 1988 NSW State Election as he thought "Barrie Unsworth was the best deal Premier that New South Wales had ever had.". ^[3]
After leaving the seminary, Abbott worked as a journalist for ''The Bulletin'', an influential news magazine. He became well known for his strongly worded criticism of trade unions, feminism and left-wing politics. For a period, Abbott was a Plant Manager for Pioneer Concrete before becoming press secretary to the Leader of the Opposition, Dr John Hewson in 1990-93, and between 1993 and 1994 was the Executive Director of Australians for Constitutional Monarchy.¹

Family

Abbott is married to Margaret with whom he has three daughters. ^[4]

Political career

Abbott was elected to the Australian House of Representatives at a by-election in March 1994, following the resignation of Michael MacKellar. He was the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs 1996-98, Minister for Employment Services 1998-2001, Minister for Employment, Workplace Relations and Small Business 2001, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations 2001-03 and Minister for Health and Ageing from 2003.
Abbott is an aggressive parliamentary debater and political tactician. His appointment as Health Minister, traditionally a difficult portfolio , makes him one of the government's most senior ministers.
As Minister for Health and Ageing, Abbott has made reductions in funding to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and Medicare. In 2004, he also introduced the Medicare Safety Net, which caps the annual out-of-pocket costs of Medicare card holders to a maximum amount.

Political views

Abbott is widely known as an outspoken socially conservative Catholic who opposes abortion. This has earned him the nickname ''The Mad Monk'' in certain political circles and in the widely circulated Crikey newsletter. Abbott has suggested legislation to reduce access to abortion, although this has been opposed by some of his Parliamentary colleagues in the Liberal Party. In March 2004, he asked: "Why isn't the fact that 100,000 women choose to end their pregnancies regarded as a national tragedy approaching the scale, say, of Aboriginal life expectancy being 20 years less than that of the general community?" ^[5]. Abbott has promised to launch an investigation into a product called Pink or Blue, which is made by UK-based DNA Worldwide, a division of US-based Consumer Genetics. This test is one of several pre-natal blood tests designed to detect the sex of a fetus as early as six weeks into pregnancy. Ethicists have raised concerns that knowing the sex of a foetus so early into pregancy would facilitate Sex-selective abortion and infanticide.^[6]
A conscience vote took place in February 2006, approving a measure that moved regulatory control of the abortion drug RU486 away from the Health Minister. Abbott and previous Health Ministers had decided not to allow it to be made available. Abbott responded to the vote by calling for funding of alternative counseling to pregnant women through church-affiliated groups. During this time, Abbott criticised the acceptance of abortion, saying "... we have a bizarre double standard, a bizarre double standard in this country where someone who kills a pregnant woman's baby is guilty of murder but a woman who aborts an unborn baby is simply exercising choice"^[7].

Controversies

In May 2006, Abbott, as Manager of Government Business, called the Opposition MP, Kelvin Thompson, a "snivelling grub" in the Parliament for speaking about Nationals MP John Anderson's shares in the disgraced Australian Wheat Board. Abbott then said "If I've offended grubs, I withdraw unconditionally." The comments were not widely reported until a week later when Labor Deputy Leader Julia Gillard (then Shadow Minister for Health) was ejected from Parliament for 24 hours after using the exact same phrases about Abbott. Abbott later told the Parliament "It would have been better if I had not moved the motion in the terms that I originally did."^[8]
In July 2006, when visiting the Pitlands in north-west South Australia, Abbott suggested Aboriginal people could be recruited to shoot wild camels that inhabit Central Australia. "Why not get them out shooting the camels," he said. "It gives them something they would love to do and it beats petrol sniffing." ^[9].
In July 2007 Abbot gained attention after swearing once on a national TV interview and repeating the phrase when asked about the incident by journalists the next day. After renewed controversy over John Howard's alleged broken promise to hand over the Liberal leadership position to Peter Costello, Abbot said to an interview: "not to put too fine a point on it, shit happens, Tony." When asked if he regretted it he smiled and repeated "shit happens", garnering some laughs from the journalists.^[10]

Action against One Nation Party

In 1998, Abbott established a trust fund called "Australians for Honest Politics Trust" to help bankroll civil court cases against the One Nation Party and its leader Pauline Hanson. Prime Minster John Howard denied any knowledge of existence of such a fund. ^[11] Abbott was also accused of offering funds to One Nation dissident Terry Sharples to support his court battle against the party. However, Prime Minister Howard defended the honesty of Abbott in this matter. ^[12]
It was Sharples' legal action that laid the basis for the successful prosecution of the One Nation founders Pauline Hanson and David Ettridge. ^[13]
Opposition MP Craig Emerson demanded to know where the money for the Trust, reportedly $100,000, had come from saying that taxpayers had a right to know. ^[14]
Treasurer Peter Costello said of the actions of Abbott that "I don't think that the way to resolve political disputes is through the courts. I think the way to resolve it is at the ballot box." ^[15]
Abbott conceded that the political threat One Nation posed to the Howard Government was "a very big factor" in his decision to pursue the legal attack, but he also claimed to be acting "in Australia's national interest". Prime Minister Howard also defended Abbott's actions saying "It's the job of the Liberal Party to politically attack other parties - there's nothing wrong with that."

Alleged son

When Abbott was 19, his then girlfriend Kathy Donnelly gave birth to a son whom she adopted out. Abbott believed the son was his and described this as an intense personal experience, which solidified his strong anti-abortion views. The identity of this son was not known until late 2004, and it was soon publicly revealed that this child was Daniel O'Connor, an Australian Broadcasting Corporation sound recordist who worked in Parliament House, Canberra and who had often been involved in making television programs in which Abbott appeared. DNA testing later revealed, however, that Abbott was not O'Connor's biological father.^[16]

Community Service

Abbott is a volunteer member of the NSW Rural Fire Service ^[17] as a member of the Davidson Rural Fire Brigade.
Abbott has participated in many events for charity. He has even run in a 100km marathon for charity. ^[18]. In April 2007, Abbott launched the 10th annual Pollie Pedal, a charitable event which aimed to raise money for breast cancer. ^[19]. Colleague Jim Lloyd said that Abbott was the "brainchild" of this event. ^[20]

References

1. The Hon Tony Abbott MP, Member for Warringah (NSW) - Parliament of Australia: House of Representatives biography
2. Completely Biased: Ignorance Reigns Supreme
3. http://www.abc.net.au/sundayprofile/stories/s1389511.htm
4. Tony Abbott-Liberal for Warringah - About Tony
5. http://www.cathnews.com/news/403/97.php
6. Pick-your-baby test investigated
7. http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2006/s1571075.htm
8. http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2006/s1652219.htm
9. http://www.missionandjustice.org/?p=902
10. "S
★
★ t, Tony Abbott swears on TV", ''News.com.au'', 20 July, 2007
11. http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2003/s933534.htm
12. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/08/28/1062028265844.html
13. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/08/27/1061663855108.html
14. http://www.australianpolitics.com/news/2003/08/03-08-26.shtml
15. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/09/02/1062403516586.html
16. http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200503/s1328485.htm
17. http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/abbott-fights-flames-in-bushfires/2006/01/27/1138319422809.html
18. http://www.walksydneystreets.net/media_press_radio02.htm
19. http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,21562363-5006009,00.html
20. http://www.ministers.dotars.gov.au/jl/pressconf/2005/LPC_9_2005.htm

External links

★ Personal website

★ Story on reunion with his putative son

★ Abbott opposing stem cell research

★ Documentation of Abbott's religio-political links

★ Wide-ranging discussion of personal beliefs

★ Sydney Morning Herald Coverage of the Trust Fund Controversy