The Hon. Tony Abbott

Tony Abbott was elected prime minister by the Australian people on September 7, 2013, and served for two years.

In that time, the carbon tax and mining tax were repealed, free trade agreements were finalised with China, Japan and Korea; the people smuggling trade from Indonesia to Australia was halted and Australia became the second largest military contributor to the US-led campaign against Islamic State in Iraq.

In 2014, and again in 2015, he spent a week running the government from a remote indigenous community.

Prior to entering parliament, he was a journalist with The Australian, a senior adviser to opposition leader John Hewson, and director of Australians for Constitutional Monarchy. He has degrees in economics and law from Sydney University and in politics and philosophy from Oxford which he attended as a Rhodes Scholar.

Since 1998, he has convened the Pollie Pedal annual charity bike ride which has raised nearly $7 million for organizations such as Soldier On and Carers Australia, He still does surf patrols with the Queenscliff Surf Life Saving Club and serves as a Deputy Captain with the Davidson Rural Fire Brigade.

In 2020 he was appointed as a Companion of the Order of Australia, and in 2022 he was conveyed with the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun.

Currently, he is a director of the Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation, serves on the council of the Australian War Memorial, and is an adviser the UK Board of Trade. He’s patron to several charities, including Soldier On, the International Sports Promotion Society, and Worldwide Support for Development.

He is married to Margaret and they are the parents of three daughters – Louise, Frances and Bridget.