In 1960 the Menzies Government decided to inflict Master Anthony John Abbott on the nation

While the Abbott legend makes much of his education, religion and politics, there is very little mention of his early family life.

So to fill this gap there’s a little potted family background included in this brief profile of that notorious discount immigrant Anthony John Abbott, Leader of the Liberal Party of Australia and Leader of the Opposition in the Australian Parliament.

Father

At sixteen years of age Richard Henry Abbott, (Ernest Henry Abbott- father and Jane Elizabeth Abbott  née Keir - mother) arrived in Sydney, Australia on 17th January 1940 aboard the passenger ship Ulysses accompanied by his mother, four months after Britain declared war on Germany.

{http://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/Scripts/PassengerReport.asp}

Richard's father Ernest, an English maritime engineer, appears to have been in Australia when war was declared and arranged for the family to reside in the vicinity of Newcastle port in New South Wales. {http://nbhsoba.net/images/Registers/!%20Register%20Index%20Complete%20140121.xlsx}

As required by British law as a British citizen/subject Richard was called up in 1942.

ABBOTT RICHARD HENRY : Service Number - 422371 : Date of birth - 06 Jan 1924 : Place of birth - NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNE ENGLAND : Place of enlistment - SYDNEY : Next of Kin - ABBOTT ERNEST {http://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/DetailsReports/ItemDetail.aspx?Barcode=5389535}

Richard Abbott the former Newcastle-on-Tyne labourer, now a qualified dentist, returns to the U.K. with his mother Jane on 16th April 1954 aboard P&O Strathnaver. Intending to reside at Park West, Marble Arch W1 {http://www.movinghere.org.uk/search/catalogue.asp?RecordID=50142}

Mother

Fay Peters

Father: Anthony Bredschneijder Peters, Carpenter. Born around 1907 in The Netherlands to Willemina Bredschneijder who arrived in Australia in 1912 and in 1916 married for a second time to Hendrik F. Peters in the District of Newtown NSW.

Mother:  Phyllis Irene Lacey. Born in Wales U.K. and in 1932 married Anthony Peters in the District of Waverly NSW.

{http://i.findmypast.com.au/websites/au/mX_Rudd%20Abbott%20ancestors%20came%20by%20sea.pdf}

“A PATIENT, Mrs. E. J.Hennessy, of Cessnock, with trainee Miss Fay Peters who is doing ward rounds after meal-time.” 1953

{http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/18386855?searchTerm="fay peters"&searchLimits=}

“ mother was born in Australia but gained British citizenship when she emigrated to the UK to marry old Richard Henry Abbott.” {http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/national/national/general/qantas-chief-vows-to-stay/2342620.aspx?storypage=0}

On 5th November 1955 Fay Peters arrived in England at Tilbury aboard the the P&0 liner Himalaya, stating an intention to visit in the U.K. for 18 months. She gave her U.K. address at the time as Crosby Hall, Cheyne Walk, Chelsea.

Parents marry in England

On 12th January 1957 in the district Westminster in the county of London Fay Peters wed Richard H. Abbott.

{http://www2.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/information.pl?r=205922377&d=bmd_1320433380}

Family arrives in Australia in 1960 after paying the princely sum of twenty pounds to emigrate from 5 Castlebar Road London to Australia

“ABBOTT Richard Henry born 6 January 1924; Fay (nee Peters) born 23 May 1933; Anthony John born 4 November 1957; Jane Elizabeth born 25 January 1959; travelled per ORONSAY departing Tilbury on 7 September 1960 under the Assisted Passage Migration Scheme” Intending to live with wife’s parents at Bronte, NSW. {http://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/DetailsReports/ItemDetail.aspx?Barcode=7328488}

Tony’s progress

“Abbott is the only son of Richard and Fay Abbott, of Killara on Sydney's upper North Shore. His father has one of the largest orthodontist practices in Australia and Tony Abbott was born into the privileged world of secondary education at St Ignatius College, Riverview, one of only eight Sydney GPS schools.” {Sydney Morning Herald 27^th March 1994}

“He graduated with a Bachelor of Economics (BEc) and a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) from the University of Sydney where he resided at St John's College, and was president of the Student Representative Council. He gained media attention for his political stance opposing the then dominant left-wing student leadership. He was also a prominent student boxer. He then went on to attend the Queen's College, Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and graduated with a Master of Arts (MA) in Politics and Philosophy…..

When Abbott was 19, his girlfriend became pregnant and believed Abbott to be the biological father. She was keen to get married but when Abbott refused she left him seven months into her pregnancy. She later gave birth to a son and had him adopted….. DNA testing later revealed that Abbott was not the man's father.” {http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Abbott}

“JUSTIN RICKARD, FAMILY FRIEND: I don't actually recall ever meeting Tony because he's a little bit older than me, just a little bit, but I do recall dating his younger sister at university and even in those days Tony was spoken very highly of in his family, with great awe and respect, and the phrase "future PM" was often whispered or should I say yelled around the family table.” {http://sgp1.paddington.ninemsn.com.au/sunday/cover_stories/transcript_882.asp

"In fact it was not until over twenty years after the family had arrived in Australia as subsidised assisted migrants that Tony Abbott’s parents applied to register his birth with the Dept. of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs and apply for his citizenship, in a document/s dated 19th June 1981.

This application appears to have been treated as urgent by departmental staff.

Although by now an adult, Tony Abbott did not attend any interview with the Dept. Immigration and Ethnic Affairs concerning this citizenship application according to an internal memo signed by a migration officer and held in the National Archives of Australia.

His parents were subsequently informed in a letter dated 1st July 1981 that Anthony John Abbott was now deemed to be an Australian citizen under Section 11 of the Australian Citizenship Act 1948 which allowed citizenship by descent, based on his mother's evidence of her own citizenship.

At this time Tony Abbott was 23 years and 7 months of age and, had either applied for a Rhodes Scholarship or was intending to apply for this scholarship to study at Oxford University in the United Kingdom.

Currently such applications must be applied for after 1 June in the year a Rhodes Scholarship is on offer.

To gain a Rhodes Scholarship in 1981 an applicant has to be an Australian citizen (British subject) who has been resident in Australia for at least five years. In that year the scholarship was worth approximately £3,000.

Tony Abbott was apparently intending to depart Australia on or about 10th July 1981 and, started his scholarship course at Queens College, Oxford, in October 1981" {http://northcoastvoices.blogspot.com.au/2014/03/the-real-reason-anthony-john-tony.html}

Oxford academic record

{http://junkee.com/oh-this-old-thing-just-tony-abbotts-1983-academic-transcript-from-oxford-university/24136/transcript3}

Financial status

When Tony Abbott was twelve years old his parents set up a company, EATONWEST PTY LTD, which acted as trustee for a family trust in which he may have been a beneficiary. The company was deregistered in 2004.
{http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;db=CHAMBER;id=chamber%2Fhansardr%2F1995-03-30%2F0020;query=Id%3A%22chamber%2Fhansardr%2F1995-03-30%2F0025%22}

In 1993 Tony and Margie Abbott purchased 184 Fox Valley Road, Wahroonga for $237,000 and sold it in 1994 for $250,000, in order to purchase 32 Lady Davidson Circuit, Forestville, NSW the current family home. {http://www.couriermail.com.au/realestate/news/former-home-of-pm-tony-abbott-hits-the-market/story-fnihpveq-1226867282790}

Abbott was elected as the Liberal Member of House of Representatives for Warringah in a federal by-election on 26 March 1994. He spent just under two years on the back benches before he began to receive ministerial appointments. {http://www.aph.gov.au/Senators_and_Members/Parliamentarian?MPID=EZ5}

The Howard Government lost the 2007 federal election and Abbott went from being a government minister to being an opposition MP. Apparently unwilling to alter his life-style after he was appointed a shadow minister in December 2007, he appears to have entered into a shared equity loan arrangement - possibly in 2008 or 2009 when the Rudd Labor Government was supporting these loans through investment by the Australian Office of Financial Management in the very financial institution listed in his mandatory declarations found in the Register of Members' Interests when he finally entered the details in mid-2010.

In the Register of Members’ Interests Abbott also lists his spouse as holding an unspecified number of shares in General Gold Resources Inc. In 2007 he listed these shares as General Gold Resources NL. However, this West Australia mining corporation changed its name in July 2002 to General Gold Resources Limited and a month later to Yilgarn Gold Limited. At some later date it again changed its name to Kairiki Energy Limited. The company is currently listed on the Australian Stock Exchange as a gold mining, petroleum, exploration and investment company operating in Australia and the Philippines. As at 19th September 2013 it had 3,988 shareholders with 2,983,363,837 shares on issue. {http://www.kairikienergy.com/system/application/assets/documents/26092013_Kairiki_2013_Annual_Report1.pdf}

Abbott became Leader of the Opposition on 1st December 2009 and became prime minister when the Coalition won government in September 2013. As of 1 July 2013 an Australian prime minister was paid a salary of $507,338 per annum plus parliamentary allowances and entitlements. {http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/pms-salary-tops-500000-20130613-2o75b.html}

“

Dual citizenship controversy

Because Tony Abbott was born in London U.K. before 1st January 1983 and had a British father he automatically became a British citizen at birth. 
{https://www.gov.uk/check-british-citizen}

No person holding dual citizenship can lawfully be a senator or member of the Australian Parliament.{http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/coaca430/}

In March 2014 a Mr. Tony Magrathea entered into correspondence with Oxford University concerning the possibility that Abbott held dual citizenship.

{http://tonymagrathea.blog.com/2014/06/21/tony-abbott/}

Doubts about whether Abbott ever renounced his British citizenship remain and "Ninemsn contacted the Prime Minister's Office and the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet seeking confirmation that Mr Abbott has renounced his British Citizenship. After a three-hour wait, the office replied with this single-sentence statement: "The Prime Minister is an Australian citizen and does not hold citizenship of any other country." {Channel 9 News 2nd September 2014}

The Sun Herald expanded on this news item with “An online petition with more than 5400 signatories has called on Mr Abbott, who was born in London to a British father, to produce his British citizenship renunciation form. A spokesman for Mr Abbott last night would say only: “The Prime Minister is an Australian citizen and he does not hold citizenship of any other country.”

His office refused to provide documents verifying this and would not say if Mr Abbott had renounced British citizenship.” {Herald Sun 3^rd September 2014}

Political career

Parliamentary service

Elected to the House of Representatives for Warringah, New South Wales at by-election 26.3.1994 vice the Hon. MJR MacKellar (resigned). Re-elected 1996, 1998, 2001, 2004, 2007, 2010 and 2013.

Ministerial appointments

Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs from 11.3.96 to 21.10.98.

Minister for Employment Services from 21.10.98 to 30.1.01.

Minister for Employment, Workplace Relations and Small Business from 30.1.01 to 26.11.01.

Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations from 26.11.01 to 7.10.03.

Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service from 26.11.01 to 7.10.03.

Minister for Health and Ageing from 7.10.03 to 3.12.07.

Prime Minister from 18.9.13 to 15.9.15.

Committee service

House of Representatives Standing: Banking, Finance and Public Administration from 5.5.94 to 29.1.96; Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs from 11.3.08 to 3.2.10; Family, Community, Housing and Youth from 11.3.08 to 3.2.10.

Parliamentary party positions

Leader of the House from 12.2.02 to 17.10.07.

Member, Opposition Shadow Ministry from 6.12.07 to 18.9.13. Shadow Minister for Families, Community Services, Indigenous Affairs and the Voluntary Sector from 6.12.07 to 22.9.08; Shadow Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs from 22.9.08 to 1.12.09.

Leader of the Federal Parliamentary Liberal Party from 1.12.09 to 14.9.15.

Leader of the Opposition from 1.12.09 to 18.9.13.

{http://www.aph.gov.au/Senators_and_Members/Parliamentarian?MPID=EZ5}

On 14th September 2015 a federal party room meeting of Liberal Party MPs and senators removed Abbott as leader of the parliamentary party and, in a 44 to 54 vote installed Malcolm Bligh Turnbull as prime minister. Abbott had been Australian prime minister for only seven hundred and twenty-six days.

A broad consensus emerged in the Australian media in relation to Abbott's term in office, which is encapsulated in this 19th September 2015 quote:

“Abbott governed for the past and the few conservatives desperate to continue living there. He governed against science and in contempt of the environment. He governed in opposition to social equality, in terror of reform. His was a government of fear and avoidance, a rolling sideshow anxiously avoiding the fact it had nothing to add and no idea what to do.”

{https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/2015/09/19/kicking-the-abbott/14425848002386}

Tony’s 'bon mots'

“I think that it’s very important that we empower people to reject this kind of rampant sensuality.” {http://thedawnchorus.wordpress.com/2010/08/05/reasons-to-not-vote-for-tony/}

"I find it difficult enough staying faithful to the one woman for the rest of my life" 
{http://francesjones.wordpress.com/2013/06/22/the-faceless-men-of-the-liberal-party/}

“I think there does need to be give and take on both sides, and this idea that sex is kind of a woman’s right to absolutely withhold, just as the idea that sex is a man’s right to demand I think are both, they both need to be moderated, so to speak.”

{http://www.abc.net.au/tv/qanda/txt/s2514401.htm}

“I think it would be folly to expect that women will ever dominate or even approach equal representation in a large number of areas simply because their aptitudes, abilities and interests are different for physiological reasons”

{http://www.news.com.au/national/a-look-back-at-most-controversial-tony-abbott-moments-after-prime-minister-apologises-for-winking/story-fncynjr2-1226927063505}

Tony Abbott the politician with his parents

“Mr Richard Henry Abbott & Mrs Fay Abbott

8 Collins Road ST IVES NSW 2075”

{http://www.kmc.nsw.gov.au/resources/documents/DA0970-07.pdf}

# This post is updated whenever further information is found

The real reason Anthony John 'Tony' Abbott waited until he was almost 24 years old to become an Australian citizen?

When Anthony John Abbott was born to an English father and a first-generation Australian mother at a general lying-in hospital in York Road, Lambeth, London, on 4 November 1957, his parents did not register him as an Australian infant born overseas or immediately apply for Australian citizenship on his behalf.

Presumably because at that time Richard and Fay Abbott thought they would be permanently living in England and raising a family there.

He therefore had only one official nationality status – as a British subject and citizen.

In fact it was not until over twenty years after the family had arrived in Australia as subsidised assisted migrants that Tony Abbott’s parents applied to register his birth with the Dept. of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs and apply for his citizenship, in a document/s dated 19 June 1981.

This application appears to have been treated as urgent by departmental staff.

His parents were subsequently informed in a letter dated 1 July 1981 that Anthony John Abbott was now deemed to be an Australian citizen under Section 11 of the Australian Citizenship Act 1948 which allowed citizenship by descent.

At this time Tony Abbott was 23 years and 7 months of age and, had either applied for a Rhodes Scholarship or was intending to apply for this scholarship to study at Oxford University in the United Kingdom.

Currently such applications must be applied for after 1 June in the year a Rhodes Scholarship is on offer.

To gain a Rhodes Scholarship an applicant has to be an Australian citizen and have been resident in Australia for at least five of the last ten years.

Tony Abbott was apparently intending to depart Australia on or about 10 July 1981 and, started his scholarship course at Queens College, Oxford, in October 1981.

One cannot escape the suspicion that the future Prime Minister of Australia only applied for Australian citizenship at that time in order to gain a monetary advantage which would allow him to further his studies overseas.

Which, if true, would make him a somewhat reluctant Aussie and perhaps go some way to explaining his strong admiration of the British monarchy and those anachronistic English titles he has re-introduced (without consultation with Cabinet or party room) into the Australian honours system.

Note: Immigration and citizenship information found at the National Archives of Australia.

UPDATE

There is no National Archives record listed of Fay Abbott applying to register the overseas birth of Tony Abbott’s sister, Jane Elizabeth Abbott (born on 25 January 1959 at Hammersmith, London U.K.) either in 1981 or any other year.

In June 1981 Jane Abbott would have been 22 years of age.

Anthony John "Tony" Abbott has decided that contrary to popular belief he is still Australia's prime minister

This is the very arrogant MP for Warringah backgrounding mainstream media……

Sky News, 1 February 2016:

Tony Abbott has met US President Barack Obama privately in Washington, it's been reported.

The former prime minister also held secret talks with the president's spy chief, News Corp reported on Monday, noting that the meetings could irk Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

Mr Abbott and Mr Obama met at an exclusive banquet on Saturday night, with sources saying the two had a very warm and intimate discussion.

A day earlier, Mr Abbott reportedly held secret talks with the US director of National Intelligence James Clapper - it's believed they discussed the war effort against Islamic State as well as broader global threats….

The Daily Telegraph, 1 February 2016, p.4:

WHO ABBOTT MET IN THE US

Barack Obama, US President

Richard Haass, President of the Council on Foreign Relations

James Clapper, National Intelligence Director

John McCain, Republican senator and former presidential candidate

James Wolfensohn, former president of the World Bank Credit

And the reason for this high-level foray into foreign policy?

Well, in the first instance it is bound to get up the nose of two people most likely high on Abbott’s hate list – Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop.

Secondly, Abbott has been travelling during that period of the year in which backbenchers typically go on taxpayer-funded ‘study tours’ and I’m betting that these meetings (along with a photo opportunity with former presidential adviser Henry Kissinger) will form the basis of a claim that he was on just such a tour.

Snapshot from Tony Abbott's Twitter account, 28 January 2016

Thus Abbott, who in all probability was paid to speak at the Alliance Defending Freedom dinner in New York on 28 January, will be able to claim a second time for expenses associated with his recent trip.

After all, this is the man who in 2009 decided that taxpayers should fund his own book promotion tour until he was sprung and had to pay back $9,400 in 2010.

What the New Zealand Herald is telling its readers about Australian Opposition Leader Tony Abbott

Having a wife who hails from New Zealand does not confer an advantage on British-born Australian Opposition Leader Tony Abbott.

The New Zealand Herald 3 August 2013:

…derided as the Mad Monk for his Jesuit past and moral conservatism, and parodied for elephantine ears and his red surf lifesaving budgie smugglers, Abbott remains one of the most unpopular leaders in the polling history of federal politics.

Even many Liberal supporters do not like him. Most, like the rest of the nation's voting public, would far prefer Malcolm Turnbull, ousted by Abbott by a single vote in a bitterly contested 2009 challenge.

He trailed former Prime Minister Julia Gillard in both popularity and as preferred prime minister for much of her time in office, despite the Opposition's all but unshakable ascendancy over the Government. He is now a distant second to Rudd…

…Abbott's portrait is one of a shallow and ruthlessly ambitious politician, lacking in conviction and policy….

Voters have trouble deciding how Abbott would emerge as prime minister. In Opposition he has been contradictory, divisive and ruthless, his style marked by negativity, simplistic sloganeering and a policy vacuum.

His knifing of Turnbull was every bit as nasty as Gillard's assassination of Rudd. And, like Gillard, he has backflipped on policy ranging from parental leave to public funding and parliamentary pairing.

He relentlessly pursued former Labor MP Craig Thomson over allegations of fraud. But he refused similar condemnation of Liberal trangressors….

How far Abbott's moral and social values would influence government policy concerns many voters. He refuses to allow his MPs a conscience vote on gay marriage, for example, and has a historical list of radically conservative quotes on issues such as the monarchy, climate change, premarital sex, and women's rights, roles and employment….

It is the uncertainty that hurts Abbott - and the reality that, to paraphrase the late disgraced US President Richard Nixon, he doesn't have Julia Gillard to kick around any more.

In your guts you know he's nuts

Tony Abbott in all his intellectual glory

Tony we’ll all be rooned Abbott continues to prove Albo right – “In your guts you know he’s nuts”.

“This is not a true market. Just ask yourself what an emissions trading scheme is all about. It's a market, a so-called market, in the non-delivery of an invisible substance to no-one.” {Tony Abbott during doorstop interview on 15^th July 2013}

''Tony Abbott's insistence that Labor's emissions trading scheme is an expensive exercise in buying and selling an ''invisible substance'' has drawn derision from climate experts and industry.------Professor Richard Dennis, an economist at the Australian National University, said Mr Abbott should make it clear whether he thinks radiation was harmful or not. ''The notion that something now has to be visible to be valuable or harmful is an entirely new concept in Australian politics and one that will concern and confuse many,'' he said. ''If Tony Abbott is concerned about people paying for invisible things, then anyone who owns intellectual property should be very concerned, likewise people in the futures and financial derivatives market.'' {Granny Herald on 16^th July 2013}

“Abbott's "invisible substance" line appears to have been lifted almost word for word from this UK Telegraph column. http://bit.ly/a60yoH “ {@bencubby at Twitter on 16^th July 2013}

On 19 February 2014 the National Archives of Australia and Dept. of Immigration and Border Protection decided to limit information about Anthony John Abbott

While Anthony John Abbott was Federal Leader of the Opposition the National Archives of Australia displayed on its website a digital record of Richard and Fay Abbott’s application for assisted passage to Australia with their first two children, Anthony and Jane.

Sometime after Anthony John ‘Tony’ Abbott became prime minister this digital copy disappeared from view in the original record which still retains its "open" listing.

Now a restricted listing for “Anthony John Abbott” have been posted online by archive staff and, one has to pay $29.90 for a paper copy of an unspecified record pertaining to this person if access is granted.

Snapshot taken on 22 March 2014

http://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/NameSearch/Interface/ItemDetail.aspx?Barcode=13147273

The reason given for this apparent desire not to have information on the Prime Minister and his family as freely available to the general public as is the information on other living persons or their parents and grandparents is that: Information or matter the disclosure of which under this Act would involve the unreasonable disclosure of information relating to the personal affairs of any person (including a deceased person).

So it is perfectly acceptable to release the digital records of others and, therefore for the general public to know how many times former Prime Minister John Howard's father was absent without leave when on active duty in France during World War One or how many times many other ordinary servicemen caught a venereal disease or went before courts-martial during both world wars.

It is also acceptable for what sometimes amounts to idle gossip or vindictive accusation about ordinary Australians from as late as the 1950s, 60s and 70s (concerning treason/sedition or membership of the Communist Party) to be digitally available on the National Archives website, as well as copies of ASIO surveillance photographs of May Day marchers and Moratorium protesters, yet Prime Minister Abbott's history is to be hidden from general view. 

One can be forgiven for thinking that there is now one rule for the Prime Minister and another for the rest of Australia.

Recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples: review report required by legislation to be handed to federal government by 27 September 2014

Tony Abbott is determined that recognising indigenous people in Australia's constitution is a "national crusade'' that should be important to everyone…. He has promised to finalise a draft form of words for changing the constitution by September. [The Australian, 26 January 2014]

Under federal legislation, An Act to provide for the recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, enacted by the former Gillard Government, a review committee comprising former Nationals MP & Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson, Campaign Director of Recognise Tanya Hosch and Deputy Secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister & Cabinet Mr Richard Eccles, was formed by the Abbott Government in March 2014.

This committee is under a mandatory deadline and has until 27 September 2014 to submit its report to the Federal Government on support for a referendum to amend the Constitution.

Another requirement under this legislation means that the Abbott Government must table this review committee report in the House of Representatives within 15 sitting days of receiving it - that is on or before 27 November 2014.

Thus far there has been no media release from the Minister for Indigenous Affairs concerning receipt of the report.

As has become the norm these days, Abbott & Co. appear to be briefing the media before the Australian Parliament and people:

TONY Abbott’s hand-picked panel advising on a constitutional change to recognise Aborigines has paved the way for delaying a vote as late as the 50th anniv­ersary of the highly successful 1967 “Aboriginal” referendum.

The panel is concerned that the public is not nearly ready for a recognition referendum and has raised the possibility of delaying the vote until 2017 — after the next election.

The foremost recommendation that has gone to the government is that a “council of elders” — indigenous and non-indigenous — be established to oversee and crystallise the referendum model for constitutional change.

The new council would be separate from the other inquiries and panels currently reviewing the future of the referendum.

The recommendations of the review panel, chaired by ­former deputy prime minister John ­Anderson, include the ­creation of a timeline for action as soon as possible.

Recognising that poor public awareness and ­extreme views would threaten any referendum held too soon, the review panel canvassed with the government an “outer limit” for the vote of the 50th ­anniversary of the 1967 referendum, the highest “yes” vote in a referendum in Australia’s history…. [The Australian, 12 September 2014]

Scullion also said it was unlikely the referendum would be put to voters in this term of parliament. He said it would be a “very brave” government who injected this issue into its first bid for re-election. [The Guardian, 9 September 2014]

It seems that the Abbott Government intends to allow the current recognition legislation to lapse on 27 March 2015 without there being a timetable for a national referendum or concrete details of any referendum question.

Peta Credlin - loyal chief of staff, smart political operator, puppet master or control freak?

Peta Credlin as Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s chief of staff is gaining more media attention of late – most of it very critical of her in that role.

There has been some fight back, with the Prime Minister publicly coming to her defence with ''Decisions made by my chief of staff and my office have my full backing and authority. Anyone who suggests otherwise is wrong”  and at least one journalist opining that this criticism may be a form of sexism.

However, the media rarely gives any history of this prominent member of Team Abbott with which to judge these criticisms.

This is as much as I have been able to collate from available articles published in the mainstream media (sometimes sourced from Credlin herself) and, I will let readers judge whether the charge of sexism is legitimate.

Peta Credlin admits to being in her early forties, so was probably born sometime between 1969-1971. She appears to have originally hailed from Wycheproof, a small rural community on the edge of Victoria’s mallee country where members of the Credlin family had lived since at least the late 1800s.

She was a pupil at Wycheproof P-12 College and went on to Sacred Heart College, Kyneton, after the family moved to the St. Leonards area. On leaving school she completed an Arts/Law degree at Melbourne University. By 2009-2010 she had completed a graduate diploma in legal practice, commenced a Masters of Law and been admitted to the Supreme Court of Victoria.

Credlin’s early employment history is unknown. However in 1999, aged around 28 years, she appears to have been employed by then Victorian Liberal Senator Kay Patterson. Later moving onto the staff of Federal Communications Minister Richard Alston, ending her term there as a senior adviser.

Sometime between 1998 and 2001 she was reportedly personal assistant to the head of the Department of Defence at a time when her soon-to-be husband was Defence Minister John Moore’s chief of staff.

In September 2001 she was known to be employed as director of public affairs, communications and publications at Racing Victoria, a position she resigned from in April 2005.

In December 2002 she married Brian Loughnane, who officially became federal director of the Liberal Party in February 2003.

By mid to late 2005 she was back in Canberra full-time; working first as a policy adviser to Defence Minister Robert Hill and, then as chief of staff to Communications Minister Helen Coonan in 2006.

After the defeat of the Howard Government in 2007 she appears to have accepted a position at the Australian Jockey Club in Sydney. It is uncertain as to whether she ever took up this position.

Credlin quickly moved on to become a senior adviser to the Opposition leader of the day, Brendan Nelson, in late 2007 or early 2008. When he gave way to Malcolm Turnbull in September 2008 she became acting chief of staff for the new Opposition leader, who declined to make her position permanent.

By the end of December 2009 or early January 2010 she was in her current position as Chief of Staff for Tony Abbott. Abbott became Leader of the Opposition on 1 December 2009 and Australian Prime Minister on 18 September 2013.

According to contemporary media reports during these years in Canberra, Peta Credlin has a well-established reputation for being dominant, out-spoken, aggressive, confrontational, obsessive,  a micro-manager, and a political game player who is capable of causing considerable friction within an office. She is often called the “Queen of No”. The prime minister’s wife, Margie Abbott, has been quoted as saying in 2011: "I'm scared of her".

Credlin is also reported to have actively participated in every federal election campaign since first coming to Canberra. Her husband was the Coalition's National Campaign Director for the 2004, 2007, 2010 and 2013 federal elections.

In February 2012 she risked permanent expulsion from the House of Representatives after heckling Prime Minister Gillard and Leader of the House Anthony Albanese from the political advisers box during question time (allegedly calling Albanese “an idiot”) and, in September 2013 she plead guilty to a drink-driving offence in the ACT with no conviction recorded by the magistrate.

* 2013 photograph found at Marie Claire

Abbott cutting green and red tape creates a diplomatic row

Is there no-one Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott is not willing to offend in his ideological descent into political madness?

This time it is one of our largest trading partners, Japan, and our oldest ally, New Zealand. Along with Indonesia, Taiwan,  Republic of Korea, Philippines, South Africa and the European Union – countries which are members of or co-operate with the Commission for Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna.

The Sydney Morning Herald 9 November 2013:

The Abbott government has been rebuked by Japan and New Zealand for ditching Australia's commitment to monitor closely its catch of the endangered southern bluefin tuna.

Australia had undertaken to bring in a stereo-video monitoring system to measure more accurately its live catch after Japanese claims that Australian fishers were falsely counting their take of the prized fish.

Parliamentary secretary to the Agriculture Minister Richard Colbeck has shelved the proposal, claiming its $600,000 cost was unwarranted in an industry worth $150 million a year in exports.

Australia takes 5151 tonnes of southern bluefin tuna a year, the lion's share of a 12,449 tonne global catch split between nine nations.

The fish is listed as critically endangered by environment group the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Almost all of the Australian quota is taken by purse seine vessels operating in the Great Australian Bight under the control of Port Lincoln's tuna tycoons....

Japan told the controlling Commission for Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna last year it held ''grave concerns'' that the method used to count the fish was inaccurate.

In reply, Australia confirmed its commitment to implement a stereo-video monitoring system by December 1 to measure accurately the size of each fish.

But last month Australia told the commission the Abbott government was concerned the system would impose an ''excessive regulatory and financial burden''.

Senator Colbeck said it would impose ''a significant additional cost that was not warranted''.

He said it would be postponed until an automatic system could be developed.

Japan said it came to a meeting of the commission in Adelaide last month with high hopes that Australia would meet its promise.

''To our great disappointment, our expectations were crushed,'' Japanese commissioner Shigeto Hase said.

New Zealand commissioner Arthur Hore said the commission was dismayed by a further delay to an Australian commitment made in 2006. ''This delay will have a significant impact on the interests of other commission members,'' he said. ''This is disappointing to say the least.''....