Tony Abbott

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Tony Abbott (2010)

Anthony "Tony" John Abbott (born November 4, 1957 in London , England , United Kingdom ) is an Australian politician of the Liberal Party of Australia and was Prime Minister of Australia from September 18, 2013 to September 15, 2015 . Malcolm Turnbull prevailed against Abbott in an internal vote of the parliamentary group of the Liberals on September 14, 2015 for the party leadership and then also became Prime Minister. In the general election in Australia , which took place on May 18, 2019 Tony Abbott lost his seat in parliament.

Life

Abbott studied at the University of Sydney and was President of the Student Council there. He graduated with a Bachelor of Economics and a Bachelor of Laws from and then attended as a Rhodes Scholar , the University of Oxford , he graduated from the Master of Arts in Politics and Philosophy. In 1983 he entered a Catholic seminary for some time but then decided to pursue a career in journalism and wrote for various Australian newspapers.

In 1990 Abbott became press officer for 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 to the House of Representatives in a by- election, in which he has since represented the interests of the Warringah constituency in north Sydney for the Liberal Party .

In 1998 he was first appointed to the government (Howard II cabinet) by Prime Minister John Howard as Minister for Employment Services. After the general election on November 10, 2001 , Howard appointed him Minister for Labor, Workplace Relations and Small Businesses (Howard III Cabinet). He was Minister of Health and the Elderly from October 7, 2003 until the end of Howard's term after the Australian Labor Party's defeat (December 3, 2007).

On December 1, 2009, he became chairman of the Liberal Party's parliamentary group and, at the same time, leader of the opposition in the House of Representatives. He was after Brendan Nelson and Malcolm Turnbull , whom he defeated by 42 to 41 votes in the fight vote, the third opposition leader within two years of Howard's resignation. Above all, Abbott was rewarded for its resolute advocacy against emissions trading . He remained opposition leader until September 18, 2013; he was followed by Chris Bowen .

In the general election on 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. Since both Abbott's Coalition and Labor under Prime Minister Julia Gillard , each with 72 seats, missed an absolute majority of 76 seats in the House of Commons, long negotiations on both sides with the six independent MPs ensued. Only two independents finally declared their support for the coalition, so that Prime Minister Julia Gillard got the necessary two votes majority for her new government (76-74 MPs).

He ran again in the general election in Australia in 2013 and was considered a favorite. The elections were won with him as the top candidate of the coalition of civil parties on September 7, 2013 against the incumbent Prime Minister Kevin Rudd of the Australian Labor Party.

Time as prime minister

On September 18, 2013, he was sworn in as Australia's 28th Prime Minister. He formed the Abbott Cabinet (Abbott Ministry).

His popularity ratings continued to decline during his tenure as Prime Minister. Critical voices increased within his party; he was accused of a high-handed management style. His government's April 2014 draft budget was not well received by the electorate. Above all, the newly introduced practice fee for visits to the doctor, higher tuition fees and a slight increase in the mineral oil tax were unpopular. Abbott has also been criticized for getting budget laws in motion without negotiating with the Senate to ensure that they are passed there. He also broke some election promises. All of this contributed to the fact that dissatisfied members of his own party rallied in February 2015 and initiated a voting against him. In a February 9, 2015 vote, 69 MPs voted for Abbott and 39 against. His position as party chairman and prime minister was formally confirmed, but clearly damaged. His most important inner-party rival was the Minister of Communications, the more liberal and progressive Malcolm Turnbull , who achieved significantly higher levels of public approval than Abbott.

On September 14, 2015, Abbot lost an internal party vote for the party leadership against Turnbull, who had previously resigned from the cabinet to challenge him. This time he received only 44 votes, 54 were for Turnbull, who became Prime Minister-designate.

Abbott with his wife Margaret 2015

Private

Abbott is very down to earth and simple to the public. He often surfs on a Sydney beach and does volunteer service with the fire department. In addition, as Prime Minister he wanted to spend a few days in an Aboriginal village every year . Like his predecessors in office, he lived in Kirribilli House .

Abbott is married and has three daughters together with his wife Margaret. Abbott is a Roman Catholic.

Abbot's sister Christine Forster, a local Sydney politician, is a lesbian. Even after coming out during his tenure as Prime Minister, Abbott spoke out against the legalization of same-sex marriage and called for a vote against opening up marriage in the 2017 referendum. When Forster married her partner in February 2018, he publicly congratulated the bride and groom.

Political positions

Abbott takes more conservative-traditionalist views in religious terms. He was critical of abortion and spoke out against in vitro fertilization , euthanasia and research on stem cells obtained from embryos. He is an opponent of same-sex marriage.

Abbott called evidence for climate change in September 2009, before he became party leader, as "crap" ( crap ), a statement which he later described as an exaggeration and not as his well-considered views. His sometimes aggressive demeanor and his past as a seminary earned him the derogatory nickname "Mad Monk" ( crazy monk ). In 2014, he submitted an application to UNESCO to remove 74,000 hectares of the Tasmanian wilderness from the list of world natural heritage in order to be able to extract wood there. This request was rejected. In this context he expressed the opinion that nature must serve man, not the other way around. In 2015, his comment on plans to relocate around 12,000 Aboriginal people from remote areas in Western Australia caused outrage.

In 2015, his government's policy of isolating refugees , officially known as “Illegal Maritime Arrivals”, was criticized internationally. After taking office, he started the “Sovereign Borders” campaign and rigorously prevented all refugees from entering the country. To do this, the Australian Navy intercepted the refugee boats and sent them back to the countries of departure, mostly to Indonesia. All asylum seekers who were not returned were detained in immigration detention at the Nauru Regional Processing Center in the island state of Nauru and Manus Regional Processing Center in Papua New Guinea. They had to stay there even if the asylum application was granted. The government has been accused of violating, at least in part, the United Nations Convention against Torture .

Web links

Commons : Tony Abbott  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Australian election: Tony Abbott loses his Warringah seat to Zali Steggall . on May 18, 2019, on The Guardian . Retrieved October 2, 2019
  2. ^ English Minister for Health and Aging
  3. ^ Nicole Scherschun: Australia elects a new parliament. dw.de, September 6, 2013, accessed on September 6, 2013
  4. Australia: Kevin Rudd admits defeat. In: Der Spiegel
  5. Tony Abbott sworn in as Australia prime minister , BBC News
  6. Australia vote: No ringing endorsement for Abbott. BBC News, February 9, 2015, accessed February 9, 2015 .
  7. Australia PM Tony Abbott ousted by Malcolm Turnbull . BBC News, Sept. 14, 2015
  8. Abbot among the Aborigines. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung, February 18, 2014
  9. smh.com.au
  10. Tony Abbott - Prime Minister , Liberal Party of Australia (English).
  11. L-Mag.de: K-Word # 238: News from the Lesbian World , February 9, 2018, accessed on February 25, 2018.
  12. ^ The Contender. sixtyminutes.ninemsn.com.au, March 5, 2010, archived from the original on April 13, 2010 ; accessed on February 9, 2015 (English, interview with Tony Abbott).
  13. Kathy Marks: He called climate change 'crap' - now Australia's new Prime Minister abolishes watchdog. In: The Independent , September 19, 2013.
  14. ^ Stuart Rintoul: Town of Beaufort changed Tony Abbott's view on climate change. In: The Australian , December 12, 2009
  15. Jonathan Pearlman: Australia appreciatively willing to accept Mad Monk Tony Abbott. The Telegraph, September 1, 2013, accessed February 9, 2015 .
  16. taz.de
  17. Abbott's remark about Aborigines outraged Australians. In: t-online.de. Retrieved March 16, 2015 .
  18. sueddeutsche.de Abbott recommends the EU its rigid refugee policy , accessed on September 21, 2015
  19. welt.de Australia recommends its tough refugee policy , accessed on September 21, 2015
  20. taz.de Refugees in Australia - Politics of Deterrence , accessed on September 21, 2015
  21. zeit.de Does Australia pay money to people smugglers? , accessed on September 21, 2015