Biography
Tony Abbott served as the 28th Prime Minister of Australia, from 2013 to 2015, and is currently the Federal President of the Liberal Party of Australia. Under his government, the carbon tax and mining tax were repealed; free trade agreements were finalised with China, Japan and Korea; the people smuggling trade from Indonesia to Australia was halted; Australia became the second largest military contributor to the US-led campaign against Islamic State in Iraq; the biggest federally-supported infrastructure program in Australian history commenced; and, as PM, he chaired the G20 meeting of global leaders in Brisbane in November 2014. In 2014, and again in 2015, he spent a week running the government from a remote indigenous community.
He served as the member for Warringah in the Australian parliament between 1994 and 2019. As the local MP, he was instrumental in the creation of the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust to preserve the natural and built heritage of his electorate and elsewhere. He served in the Howard government cabinet between 2001 and 2007, variously, as Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, Minister for Health, and Leader of the House of Representatives.
Prior to entering Parliament, he was a journalist with The Australian, a senior adviser to opposition leader John Hewson, and executive 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.
He is the author of: The Minimal Monarchy (1995), Battlelines (2009) and, most recently, Australia: A History, which was the best-selling book in its category in 2025.
Between 1998 and 2019, he convened the Pollie Pedal annual bike ride which supported organisations such as Soldier On, Carers Australia and Wandering Warriors. He still surfs near Queenscliff and volunteers with the Davidson Rural Fire Brigade. In 2020 he was appointed as a Companion of the Order of Australia.
In addition to his presidency, he is also a director of Fox Corporation and the Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation, and a visiting fellow of the Institute of Public Affairs and the Danube Institute.
He is married to Margaret and they have three daughters: Louise, Frances and Bridget.
