Julie Isabel Bishop

Honourable

Born
17 July 1956
Lobethal, South Australia, Australia
Occupation
Barrister, Lawyer, Parliamentarian and Solicitor
Jurisdiction

A member of the Liberal Party of Australia, Julie Bishop was elected to the House of Representatives of the Parliament of Australia as the Member for Curtin, Western Australia in 1998. She was re-elected in 2001, 2004, 2007, 2010 and 2013. During the period of the Howard Government her ministerial appointments included Ageing, Education, Science and Training, and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Women's Issues. After the defeat of the Howard Government in November 2007, she was elected Deputy Leader of the Opposition and was a member of the Shadow Ministry. After the 2010 election, she retained the Deputy Leadership of the Opposition and was Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs. On the election of the Coalition Government in September 2013, Bishop remained Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party and became Minister for Foreign Affairs.

Julie Bishop was educated at St Peter's Collegiate Girls School in Adelaide, South Australia and at the University of Adelaide where she graduated with a Bachelor of Laws in 1978.

Bishop practised as a barrister and solicitor from 1979-1998, initially with the Adelaide firm, Mangan, Ey and Bishop in which she was a Partner. In 1983 she moved to Perth, Western Australia and practised as a commercial litigation solicitor at Robinson Cox, later to become Clayton Utz and became a Partner in 1985. By 1994 she was Managing Partner of the Perth office.

During that time she was a member of the legal team which defended the claims against CSR by asbestos mining workers who had contracted mesothelioma as a result of their work for the company.

In 1996 she spent eight weeks at the Harvard Business School completing an Advanced Management Program ( Senior Managers).

In 1998 she was appointed delegate to the Constitutional Convention which was convened in Canberra to discuss the idea of Australia becoming a republic.

Sources used to compile this entry: [Biographical cuttings on Julie Bishop, Lawyer], BIOG; National Library of Australia; Smart, Judith and Swain, Shurlee (eds), 'Bishop, Julie Isabel', The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia, Australian Women's Archives Project, 2 May 2014, http://www.womenaustralia.info/leaders/biogs/WLE0319b.htm; Wallace, Chris, 'Bishops' Gambit: What's next for the perpetual deputy?', The Monthly, April 2015; http://www.aph.gov.au/Senators_and_Members/Parliamentarian?MPID=83P.

Prepared by Rosemary Francis