ENG: Anthony John "Tony" Abbott (born 4 November 1957) is the Leader of the Opposition in the Australian House of Representatives and federal leader of the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. Abbott has represented the seat of Warringah since the 1994 by-election. He was Minister for Employment Services, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, and Minister for Health and Ageing in the Howard government at various times from 1998 to 2007 and Leader of the House of Representatives from 2001 to 2007.
After the defeat of the Howard government at the 2007 federal election, he was Shadow Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs until he resigned from Malcolm Turnbull's shadow cabinet on 26 November 2009 in protest against Liberal Party support for an ...
COALITION MPs may have to cross the floor to exercise a conscience vote, with Opposition Leader Tony Abbott indicating the coalition will hold the party line against gay marriage.
Liberal frontbencher Malcolm Turnbull has asked Mr Abbott to allow coalition MPs a conscience vote.
''My view is there should be a conscience vote,'' he told ABC Radio today.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard has also appealed to Mr Abbott to allow a conscience vote on the issue when a private member's bill is presented to the parliament with the aim of changing the Marriage Act early next year.
''For some ...
The last federal election to produce a “hung” parliament was in 1940. On that occasion, the incumbent government limped on but the prime minister of the day faced growing party dissent. The opposition, previously in disarray, looked increasingly like a credible alternative government. Eighteen months later, after a parliamentary vote of no confidence, the independents changed sides and the new government won a landslide at the next election, held at the normal time.
In her Chifley lecture on the weekend, the prime minister invoked this 1940 to 1943 parliament as one of ...
barby - in poll Tony Abbott Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says his first job in Parliament will be to overturn the Queensland Government's Wild Rivers Act.
The legislation protects rivers on Cape York in far north Queensland from development.
Indigenous leader Noel Pearson has argued the Act stops the right to self-determination.
Mr Abbott says he will be working with the independents to have the law overturned.
"As our first priority we intend to work with the independents to overturn Queensland's Wild River's legislation," he said.
"Far better for the national Parliament to restore to the people ...
An Indian Summer of Cricket, by Malcolm McGregor, published by Barrallier Books
For those who think that sport can be a metaphor for life, this is the best sort of book about sport. It’s the perfect cricket book for those who are only moderately interested in the game itself but fascinated by its personalities, dramas, and place... |
600 boats - 600 policy failures
The latest illegal boat arrival is the 600th border protection policy failure since Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd abolished John Howard’s proven border protection policies in August 2008.
This record of dysfunction is one of th... |
Australia needs an economic strategy
Last week’s mini-budget demonstrates that the government has a political strategy but not an economic one.
The obviously contrived surplus, the impact of the carbon tax on power prices and the failure of the mining tax to raise any revenue at all ar... |
The passing of The Rt Hon. Baroness Thatcher, LG, OM, PC, FRS
Margaret Thatcher was one of the greatest British prime ministers and one of the most significant world leaders of our times.
She was the first female prime minister of Great Britain and ranks with the greatest of prime ministers because of ... |
He has grown in his role as leader. Hard working,articulate family man and a Rhodes scholar. He's very polite in the face of jintolerable insults from Labor.Great next PM
