Tony Abbott was elected Prime Minister by the Australian people on September 7, 2013 and served for two years. In his time as Prime Minister, the carbon tax and the mining tax were repealed; free trade agreements were finalized with China, Japan and Korea; and the people smuggling trade from Indonesia to Australia was halted.
Between 1996 and 2007, he was successively parliamentary secretary, minister, cabinet minister and Leader of the House of Representatives in the Howard government. As Minister for Health, he expanded Medicare to include dentists, psychologists and other health professionals and resolved the medical indemnity crisis.
As Minister for Workplace Relations, he boosted construction industry productivity through the establishment of a royal commission against union lawlessness. Prior to entering parliament, he was a journalist with The Australian.
He has degrees in Economics and Law from Sydney University and a Master of Arts degree in Politics and Philosophy from Oxford which he attended as a Rhodes Scholar. He is the author of three books: The Minimal Monarchy and Why it Still Makes Sense for Australia, How to Win the Constitutional War and Give Both Sides What They Want, and Battlelines.
