Tony Abbott
Anthony " Tony" John Abbott (* November 4, 1957 in London) is an Australian politician of the Liberal Party of Australia, and since September 18, 2013 Prime Minister of Australia.
Life
Abbott studied at the University of Sydney, where he was president of the student council. He completed his studies with a Bachelor of Economics and a Bachelor of Laws degree and then attended as a Rhodes Scholar to Oxford University, where he obtained his Master of Arts in Politics and Philosophy. In 1983 he stood for some time in a Catholic seminary, but then decided on a career in journalism and wrote for several Australian newspapers.
1990 Abbott was press secretary of the opposition leader John Hewson. From 1993 to 1994 he was Managing Director of the NGO " Australians for Constitutional Monarchy ". In March 1994, Abbott was elected at a by-election as member of the House of Representatives, in which he for the Liberal Party represents the interests of the constituency Warringah in the north of Sydney ever since.
In 1998 he was appointed by Prime Minister John Howard as Minister for Employment Services for the first time in the government. In a cabinet reshuffle Howard appointed him in 2001 to Minister of Labour, Workplace Relations and Small Business. Most recently, he was from 2003 to the end of Howard's term in office after the election defeat by the Australian Labor Party in December 2007, Minister of Health and the elderly.
On 1 December 2009, he became chairman of the parliamentary faction of the Liberal Party and thus also Leader of the Opposition in the House of Representatives. It is thus by Brendan Nelson and Malcolm Turnbull, whom he beat in the crucial vote of 42 to 41 votes, the third leader of the opposition within two years after Howard's resignation. Abbott was thus rewarded primarily for its strong commitment to emissions trading.
In the parliamentary elections of August 21, 2010 Abbott stood as the top candidate of the conservative " Coalition " of the Liberal Party and National Party of Australia. The ruling Labor Party lost 11 seats there. Since both Abbott's Coalition and Labor under Prime Minister Julia Gillard, each with 72 mandates missed the absolute majority of 76 seats in the House, followed by long negotiations between the two sides with the six independent deputies. Only two independents finally declared their support for the Coalition, so that Prime Minister Julia Gillard the necessary two majority vote for their new government ( 76:74 MPs) brought together.
He ran again in the parliamentary elections in Australia in 2013 and was considered a favorite. The elections were won with him as a leading candidate of the coalition of bourgeois parties on September 7, 2013 against the incumbent Prime Minister Kevin Rudd of the Australian Labor Party.
On September 18, 2013, was sworn in as the 28th Prime Minister of Australia.
Abbot is shown to the public at very down to earth and easy. He often surfing on a beach in Sydney, provides volunteer service with the fire brigade and lives in a room in the police academy in Canberra, although he is as Prime Minister a luxurious house. He also spends every year a few days in an Aboriginal village.
Political positions
Abbott is regarded as emphasized conservative. He referred to the evidence of climate change in September 2009, before he became chairman of the party, as " dung " ( crap ), a statement which he later described as an exaggeration and not as his well-considered point of view. His sometimes aggressive behavior and his past as Priesterseminarist earned him the pejorative nickname " Mad Monk" a ( crazy monk).