Christopher Pyne
Encyclopedia
Christopher Maurice Pyne, MP (born 13 August 1967), Australian politician, has been a Liberal
member of the Australian House of Representatives
since 13 March 1993, representing the Division of Sturt
, South Australia
.
, South Australia
in 1967, and was educated at Saint Ignatius College, South Australia and the University of Adelaide
, where he gained a Bachelor of Laws
(LLB) and was President of Adelaide University Liberal Club from 1987 to 1988. He was a research assistant to Senator Amanda Vanstone
and later became President of the South Australian Young Liberals
from 1988-1990. Pyne was then selected as the Liberal candidate for the state seat of Ross Smith
—a very safe Labor seat—at the 1989 election
, but was defeated by the sitting member and Premier of South Australia, John Bannon
. He earned a Graduate Diploma of Legal Practice at the University of South Australia
and began practising as a solicitor in 1991. During this time he began working in Ian Wilson's
Federal electoral office for Sturt
.
in the House of Representatives
, becoming the youngest member of the Australian Parliament. He had earlier defeated Ian Wilson
, who is 35 years Pyne's senior, in a pre-selection battle for the seat.
Pyne is a republicanand established himself as a member of the moderate faction in the South Australian wing of the Liberal party, supporting then Deputy Leader Peter Costello
. In 1994, after serving a period in the backbenches, Pyne was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Minister for Social Security. He retained this position after John Howard
was elected as leader, and up to the 1996 election.
After the Coalition victory at the 1996 election, Pyne remained in the backbench. In 2003, he was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Family and Community Services, where he remained until 2004, when named Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Health and Ageing. As Parliamentary Secretary, he defended the government's "War on drugs" and established his strong support of illicit drug prohibition, as opposed to harm minimisation. He remained as Parliamentary Secretary until 30 January 2007 when he was appointed Assistant Minister for Health and Ageing. He held this portfolio until 21 March, when he was appointed Minister for Ageing
, succeeding resigning Minister, Senator Santo Santoro
.
Pyne was also chairman of the Australia Israel Parliamentary group from 1996 to 2004.
candidate Mia Handshin
, after suffering a primary vote swing of 4.5 percent and a two-party swing of 5.9 percent, to finish with 50.9 percent of the two-party vote. Following the election in which the John Howard
-led Coalition
government was defeated by the Kevin Rudd
-led Labor opposition, Pyne put himself forward as a candidate for Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party. In a ballot of Liberal caucus members, Julie Bishop
prevailed with 44 votes, ahead of Andrew Robb
, who won 25 votes, and Pyne 18 votes. Following the election of Brendan Nelson
as party leader, Pyne was appointed Shadow Minister for Justice and Border Protection.
Following Malcolm Turnbull
's election as Liberal Party Leader in September 2008, Pyne was elevated to the position of Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training. After Deputy Leader Julie Bishop
stepped down from the portfolio of Shadow Treasurer, Joe Hockey
took up the portfolio, with Pyne replacing Hockey as Manager of Opposition Business. This sparked anger within the coalition over claims Turnbull was stacking his ministry with moderate Liberal MPs, with conservative Liberal shadow parliamentary secretary Cory Bernardi
being demoted by Turnbull over claims thought to be made regarding Pyne in Bernardi's weekly online blog, in which Bernardi recalled an encounter with a Liberal MP at the Royal Adelaide Golf Club
, of which Pyne has been a member since 1988:
These allegations were strenuously denied by Pyne, stating that the idea of him joining another party was "preposterous".
Pyne was re-elected at the 2010 federal election, receiving a primary vote swing of 0.9 percent and a two-party swing of 2.5 percent, to finish with 53.4 percent of the two-party vote. In September 2010 he was re-appointed to the Tony Abbott
Shadow Ministry as Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training and Manager of Opposition Business in the House of Representatives.
Liberal Party of Australia
The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...
member of the Australian House of Representatives
Australian House of Representatives
The House of Representatives is one of the two houses of the Parliament of Australia; it is the lower house; the upper house is the Senate. Members of Parliament serve for terms of approximately three years....
since 13 March 1993, representing the Division of Sturt
Division of Sturt
The Division of Sturt is an Australian Electoral Division in South Australia.First proclaimed for the 1949 election, Sturt was named for Captain Charles Sturt, nineteenth century explorer and the first European to discover the Murray River...
, South Australia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
.
Early years
Pyne was born in AdelaideAdelaide
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
, South Australia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
in 1967, and was educated at Saint Ignatius College, South Australia and the University of Adelaide
University of Adelaide
The University of Adelaide is a public university located in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third oldest university in Australia...
, where he gained a Bachelor of Laws
Bachelor of Laws
The Bachelor of Laws is an undergraduate, or bachelor, degree in law originating in England and offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree...
(LLB) and was President of Adelaide University Liberal Club from 1987 to 1988. He was a research assistant to Senator Amanda Vanstone
Amanda Vanstone
Amanda Eloise Vanstone is a former Australian politician and a former Ambassador to Italy. She was a Liberal Senator for South Australia from 1984 to 2007, and held several ministerial portfolios in the Howard Government. After her resignation from the Senate in 2007, she served as the Australian...
and later became President of the South Australian Young Liberals
Young Liberals (Australia)
The Young Liberal Movement is the youth division of the Liberal Party of Australia, and membership is open to those between 16 and 30 years of age. Members of Young Liberals have full party-membership, and have the choice of which part they join...
from 1988-1990. Pyne was then selected as the Liberal candidate for the state seat of Ross Smith
Electoral district of Ross Smith
The electoral district of Ross Smith was an electorate for the South Australian Legislative Assembly. It was replaced by the electoral district of Enfield for the 2002 election. Sir Ross Macpherson Smith was a member of the Australian Light Horse at Gallipoli and Sinai during World War I. He then...
—a very safe Labor seat—at the 1989 election
South Australian state election, 1989
State elections were held in Australia on November 25, 1989. All 47 seats in the South Australian House of Assembly were up for election. The incumbent Australian Labor Party led by Premier of South Australia John Bannon defeated the Liberal Party of Australia led by Leader of the Opposition John...
, but was defeated by the sitting member and Premier of South Australia, John Bannon
John Bannon
John Charles Bannon AO is a former Australian politician. He was the 39th Premier of South Australia, leading the Labor Party to government at the 1982 election. The Bannon Labor government was re-elected at the 1985 election and the 1989 election...
. He earned a Graduate Diploma of Legal Practice at the University of South Australia
University of South Australia
The University of South Australia is a public university in the Australian state of South Australia. It was formed in 1991 with the merger of the South Australian Institute of Technology and Colleges of Advanced Education. It is the largest university in South Australia, with more than 36,000...
and began practising as a solicitor in 1991. During this time he began working in Ian Wilson's
Ian Wilson (politician)
Ian Bonython Cameron Wilson , solicitor, company director and Australian politician, was born in Adelaide, South Australia, the son of Sir Keith Wilson, a prominent United Australia Party and Liberal Party politician...
Federal electoral office for Sturt
Division of Sturt
The Division of Sturt is an Australian Electoral Division in South Australia.First proclaimed for the 1949 election, Sturt was named for Captain Charles Sturt, nineteenth century explorer and the first European to discover the Murray River...
.
Politics
At the 1993 Australian federal election, aged 25, Pyne was elected to the Division of SturtDivision of Sturt
The Division of Sturt is an Australian Electoral Division in South Australia.First proclaimed for the 1949 election, Sturt was named for Captain Charles Sturt, nineteenth century explorer and the first European to discover the Murray River...
in the House of Representatives
Australian House of Representatives
The House of Representatives is one of the two houses of the Parliament of Australia; it is the lower house; the upper house is the Senate. Members of Parliament serve for terms of approximately three years....
, becoming the youngest member of the Australian Parliament. He had earlier defeated Ian Wilson
Ian Wilson (politician)
Ian Bonython Cameron Wilson , solicitor, company director and Australian politician, was born in Adelaide, South Australia, the son of Sir Keith Wilson, a prominent United Australia Party and Liberal Party politician...
, who is 35 years Pyne's senior, in a pre-selection battle for the seat.
"Well Ian Wilson, my predecessor, he followed his father in the seat, Sir Keith Wilson, and in fact until I was preselected there’d never been anybody other than a Wilson preselected for the Liberal Party in Sturt, so I guess you could say it was a rather red letter day for the Liberal Party, and it was a contest that lasted for about 16 months from go to whoa; I nominated on a January 16th, and I was finally elected 3 March of the following year, so it was a very long process, involving some record-breaking aspects. We had more internal party appeals and investigations into the preselection than in the history of the Liberal Party, so it was quite exciting, and a bit stressful at times, but then anything that you want in life and in politics is always hard to come by; if it's worth having, then you have to fight for it."
Pyne is a republicanand established himself as a member of the moderate faction in the South Australian wing of the Liberal party, supporting then Deputy Leader Peter Costello
Peter Costello
Peter Howard Costello AC is an Australian politician and lawyer who served as the Treasurer in the Australian government from 1996 to 2007. He is the longest-serving Treasurer in Australian history. Costello was a Member of the Australian House of Representatives from 1990 to 2009, representing...
. In 1994, after serving a period in the backbenches, Pyne was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Minister for Social Security. He retained this position after John Howard
John Howard
John Winston Howard AC, SSI, was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....
was elected as leader, and up to the 1996 election.
After the Coalition victory at the 1996 election, Pyne remained in the backbench. In 2003, he was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Family and Community Services, where he remained until 2004, when named Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Health and Ageing. As Parliamentary Secretary, he defended the government's "War on drugs" and established his strong support of illicit drug prohibition, as opposed to harm minimisation. He remained as Parliamentary Secretary until 30 January 2007 when he was appointed Assistant Minister for Health and Ageing. He held this portfolio until 21 March, when he was appointed Minister for Ageing
Minister for Ageing (Australia)
The Australian Minister for Mental Health and Ageing is Mark Butler, who was appointed on 14 September 2010, following the Labor Party's win at the 2010 election...
, succeeding resigning Minister, Senator Santo Santoro
Santo Santoro
Santo Santoro , Australian politician, was a Liberal member of the Australian Senate from October 2002 to March 2007, representing the state of Queensland....
.
Pyne was also chairman of the Australia Israel Parliamentary group from 1996 to 2004.
2007 onward
Pyne came close to losing Sturt at the 2007 federal election to LaborAustralian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...
candidate Mia Handshin
Mia Handshin
Mia Handshin is an Adelaide-based political activist and a former columnist for The Advertiser newspaper in South Australia, contributing a weekly column to the opinion section from 1997 to 2007. She is an associate director of the consulting firm Government Relations Australia, and an adviser in...
, after suffering a primary vote swing of 4.5 percent and a two-party swing of 5.9 percent, to finish with 50.9 percent of the two-party vote. Following the election in which the John Howard
John Howard
John Winston Howard AC, SSI, was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....
-led Coalition
Coalition (Australia)
The Coalition in Australian politics refers to a group of centre-right parties that has existed in the form of a coalition agreement since 1922...
government was defeated by the Kevin Rudd
Kevin Rudd
Kevin Michael Rudd is an Australian politician who was the 26th Prime Minister of Australia from 2007 to 2010. He has been Minister for Foreign Affairs since 2010...
-led Labor opposition, Pyne put himself forward as a candidate for Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party. In a ballot of Liberal caucus members, Julie Bishop
Julie Bishop
Julie Isabel Bishop is an Australian politician and the current Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Parliament of Australia. She holds this title as the deputy leader of the Liberal Party of Australia. She is the party's first female Deputy Leader and the third woman in Australian history to...
prevailed with 44 votes, ahead of Andrew Robb
Andrew Robb
Andrew John Robb AO , Australian politician and former federal Director of the Liberal Party of Australia, was elected to the House of Representatives as member for the Division of Goldstein, Victoria for the Liberal Party of Australia at the 2004 federal election.Robb, one of nine children, was...
, who won 25 votes, and Pyne 18 votes. Following the election of Brendan Nelson
Brendan Nelson
Dr Brendan John Nelson is a former Australian politician and former federal Opposition leader. He served as a member of the Australian House of Representatives from the 1996 federal election until 19 October 2009 as the Liberal member for Bradfield, a northern Sydney seat...
as party leader, Pyne was appointed Shadow Minister for Justice and Border Protection.
Following Malcolm Turnbull
Malcolm Turnbull
Malcolm Bligh Turnbull is an Australian politician. He has been a member of the Australian House of Representatives since 2004, and was Leader of the Opposition and parliamentary leader of the Liberal Party from 16 September 2008 to 1 December 2009.Turnbull has represented the Division...
's election as Liberal Party Leader in September 2008, Pyne was elevated to the position of Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training. After Deputy Leader Julie Bishop
Julie Bishop
Julie Isabel Bishop is an Australian politician and the current Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Parliament of Australia. She holds this title as the deputy leader of the Liberal Party of Australia. She is the party's first female Deputy Leader and the third woman in Australian history to...
stepped down from the portfolio of Shadow Treasurer, Joe Hockey
Joe Hockey
Joseph Benedict "Joe" Hockey , is an Australian politician and member of the Australian House of Representatives, representing the Division of North Sydney for the Liberal Party of Australia since 1996....
took up the portfolio, with Pyne replacing Hockey as Manager of Opposition Business. This sparked anger within the coalition over claims Turnbull was stacking his ministry with moderate Liberal MPs, with conservative Liberal shadow parliamentary secretary Cory Bernardi
Cory Bernardi
Cory Bernardi is an Australian politician. He has been a Liberal Party member of the Australian Senate since 2006, representing the state of South Australia.-Early life:...
being demoted by Turnbull over claims thought to be made regarding Pyne in Bernardi's weekly online blog, in which Bernardi recalled an encounter with a Liberal MP at the Royal Adelaide Golf Club
Royal Adelaide Golf Club
The Royal Adelaide Golf Club is a private golf club in Adelaide, South Australia. It is widely acknowledged as ranking with the best in Australia, and has a world ranking that fluctuates around 50....
, of which Pyne has been a member since 1988:
These allegations were strenuously denied by Pyne, stating that the idea of him joining another party was "preposterous".
Pyne was re-elected at the 2010 federal election, receiving a primary vote swing of 0.9 percent and a two-party swing of 2.5 percent, to finish with 53.4 percent of the two-party vote. In September 2010 he was re-appointed to the Tony Abbott
Tony Abbott
Anthony John "Tony" Abbott is the Leader of the Opposition in the Australian House of Representatives and federal leader of the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. Abbott has represented the seat of Warringah since the 1994 by-election...
Shadow Ministry as Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training and Manager of Opposition Business in the House of Representatives.