George Brandis
Encyclopedia
George Henry Brandis, SC
(born 22 June 1957), Australian politician, has been a Liberal
member of the Australian Senate
representing Queensland since May 2000.
and then the University of Queensland
where he received a Bachelors degrees in Law and Arts (Politics), both with first class honours. Following his graduation he served as Associate to Justice Sheahan of the Queensland Supreme Court
. He was then elected a Commonwealth Scholar and obtained a Bachelor in Civil Law from Magdalen College
, University of Oxford, winning the Sir Rupert Cross Prize for Evidence.
Early in his career he was a Senior Tutor in jurisprudence at the University of Queensland
.
in the important equity case Warman v Dwyer. He was also the junior barrister for the plaintiff in the long running Multigroup litigation in the Federal Court of Australia
.
Brandis was appointed a Senior Counsel
of the Supreme Court of Queensland in November 2006.
He has co-edited two books on liberalism and published academic articles on various legal topics, one of which was cited by the High Court of Australia
in the landmark defamation case ABC v O'Neill.
While at the Bar He was a board member of UNICEF Australia
for 10 years. He has also been an Associate of the Australian Institute for Ethics and the Professions.
to fill a casual vacancy following the resignation of Senator Warwick Parer
. He was subsequently elected to a further six-year term in 2004 election.
In his period as a senator, he has served as Chairman of the Economics Committee and featured prominently as the Chairman of the Senate's highly publicised Children Overboard Inquiry
. In the wake of this inquiry, Brandis gained widespread attention when it was reported that he called Prime Minister John Howard
"a lying rodent", a report he denied.
He has also made a number of public speeches, perhaps the most controversial of which was in 2003 when he described the Australian Greens
as representing Ecofascism
.
Brandis also attacked the Greens in the Australian Senate
where he stated "I intend to continue to call to the attention of the Australian people the extremely alarming, frightening similarities between the methods employed by contemporary green politics and the methods and the values of the Nazis". Prime Minister
John Howard
later distanced himself from Brandis's claim that the Greens use Nazi-style fanaticism in Australian politics.
On 23 October 2006, Brandis made headlines when he wanted Good Shepherd Catholic College in Mount Isa
to ban from its school library the book "100 Greatest Tyrants" by British author Andrew Langley, which places Sir Robert Menzies
, the longest serving Australian Prime Minister, in such company as Mao Zedong
, Adolf Hitler
, Pol Pot
, Saddam Hussein
and Augusto Pinochet
. The book claims that Menzies was a tyrant (an abuser of political power) and that Menzies' most tyrannical act was when he wanted to ban the Communist Party of Australia
. The school principal Mr Durie said "Obviously it's twaddle to suggest Menzies was a tyrant in the same class as Attila the Hun
and that crowd", but refused to withdraw the book as it would be a resource for the generation of debate.
During his time in Parliament and before, Senator Brandis has been a strong supporter of the Young LNP
and was a former President of the Young Liberal Movement
's QLD Division.
, replacing Senator Rod Kemp
. He lost his ministerial position on the defeat of the Howard Government in the 2007 election.
On 6 December 2007 the new Leader of the Parliamentary Liberal Party, Brendan Nelson
, appointed Brandis Shadow Attorney-General
, a position he continued to hold under the leadership of Malcolm Turnbull
.
On 2 June 2008 Brandis, in his capacity as Shadow Attorney-General, referred the Same-Sex Relationships (Equal Treatment in Commonwealth Laws – Superannuation) Bill 2008 to a Senate committee for review. The aim of the Bill was to remove entrenched discriminatory legislation against Australia's gay and lesbian citizens, in this case relating to superannuation. The Bill was welcomed by the Australian Human Rights Commissioner who said:
"Most people expect that their superannuation entitlements will be inherited by their partner, children or other dependants, but Commonwealth employees in same-sex relationships have never had this right," ... "This Bill, if passed, will ensure that right from 1 July."
Brandis made it clear that the Opposition believed discrimination of this type should be removed and vocally supported the Bill against the more conservative elements of his own Party, however he insisted on a comprehensive review of the proposed legislation prior to its enactment. The Bill was passed into law, with the support of the Opposition, and received Royal Assent on 9 December 2008.
He has been outspoken in his opposition to a Bill of Rights.
In January 2010, Brandis made media headlines with his comments regarding a controversial debate between Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard
and federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott
on the topic of advice given to children regarding abstinence. Brandis suggested that as Ms Gillard did not have children, she did not have the understanding to comment on the issue of pre-marital sex.
Senator Brandis was re-elected in the 2010 election and appointed Shadow Attorney-General, Shadow Minister for the Arts and Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate in the Abbott Shadow Ministry.
Senior Counsel
The title of Senior Counsel or State Counsel is given to a senior barrister or advocate in some countries, typically equivalent to the title "Queen's Counsel" used in Commonwealth Realms...
(born 22 June 1957), Australian politician, has been a Liberal
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 Senate
Australian Senate
The Senate is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the House of Representatives. Senators are popularly elected under a system of proportional representation. Senators are elected for a term that is usually six years; after a double dissolution, however,...
representing Queensland since May 2000.
Education & Early Career
He was born in Sydney, but was raised in Brisbane, Queensland, where he now resides. He attended Villanova CollegeVillanova College
Villanova College is a private and catholic school for boys located in Coorparoo, a southern suburb of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The school has a non-selective enrolment policy for all years and caters for approximately 1,150 boys in three schools, Junior, Middle and Senior from year five to...
and then the University of Queensland
University of Queensland
The University of Queensland, also known as UQ, is a public university located in state of Queensland, Australia. Founded in 1909, it is the oldest and largest university in Queensland and the fifth oldest in the nation...
where he received a Bachelors degrees in Law and Arts (Politics), both with first class honours. Following his graduation he served as Associate to Justice Sheahan of the Queensland Supreme Court
Supreme Court of Queensland
The Supreme Court of Queensland, which is based at the Law Courts Complex, is the superior court for the Australian State of Queensland and sits around the middle of the Australian court hierarchy...
. He was then elected a Commonwealth Scholar and obtained a Bachelor in Civil Law from Magdalen College
Magdalen College, Oxford
Magdalen College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2006 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £153 million. Magdalen is currently top of the Norrington Table after over half of its 2010 finalists received first-class degrees, a record...
, University of Oxford, winning the Sir Rupert Cross Prize for Evidence.
Early in his career he was a Senior Tutor in jurisprudence at the University of Queensland
University of Queensland
The University of Queensland, also known as UQ, is a public university located in state of Queensland, Australia. Founded in 1909, it is the oldest and largest university in Queensland and the fifth oldest in the nation...
.
Legal career
He was called to the Queensland Bar in 1985 and quickly developed a large commercial practice with a particular emphasis on trade practices law. He appeared as junior counsel in the High Court of AustraliaHigh Court of Australia
The High Court of Australia is the supreme court in the Australian court hierarchy and the final court of appeal in Australia. It has both original and appellate jurisdiction, has the power of judicial review over laws passed by the Parliament of Australia and the parliaments of the States, and...
in the important equity case Warman v Dwyer. He was also the junior barrister for the plaintiff in the long running Multigroup litigation in the Federal Court of Australia
Federal Court of Australia
The Federal Court of Australia is an Australian superior court of record which has jurisdiction to deal with most civil disputes governed by federal law , along with some summary criminal matters. Cases are heard at first instance by single Judges...
.
Brandis was appointed a Senior Counsel
Senior Counsel
The title of Senior Counsel or State Counsel is given to a senior barrister or advocate in some countries, typically equivalent to the title "Queen's Counsel" used in Commonwealth Realms...
of the Supreme Court of Queensland in November 2006.
He has co-edited two books on liberalism and published academic articles on various legal topics, one of which was cited by the High Court of Australia
High Court of Australia
The High Court of Australia is the supreme court in the Australian court hierarchy and the final court of appeal in Australia. It has both original and appellate jurisdiction, has the power of judicial review over laws passed by the Parliament of Australia and the parliaments of the States, and...
in the landmark defamation case ABC v O'Neill.
While at the Bar He was a board member of UNICEF Australia
United Nations Children's Fund
United Nations Children's Fund was created by the United Nations General Assembly on December 11, 1946, to provide emergency food and healthcare to children in countries that had been devastated by World War II...
for 10 years. He has also been an Associate of the Australian Institute for Ethics and the Professions.
Parliamentary career
He was first chosen by the Parliament of QueenslandParliament of Queensland
The Parliament of Queensland is the legislature of Queensland, Australia. According to the state's constitution, the Parliament consists of the Queen and the Legislative Assembly. It is the only unicameral state parliament in the country, the upper chamber, the Legislative Council, having been...
to fill a casual vacancy following the resignation of Senator Warwick Parer
Warwick Parer
Warwick Raymond Parer , Australian politician, was a Liberal member of the Australian Senate, representing the state of Queensland. He is the nephew of Australian war photographer Damien Parer.Born in Wau, Papua New Guinea, he attended St...
. He was subsequently elected to a further six-year term in 2004 election.
In his period as a senator, he has served as Chairman of the Economics Committee and featured prominently as the Chairman of the Senate's highly publicised Children Overboard Inquiry
Children overboard affair
The Children Overboard affair was an Australian political controversy involving public allegations by Howard government ministers in October 2001, in the lead-up to a federal election, that sea-faring asylum seekers had thrown children overboard in a presumed ploy to secure rescue and passage to...
. In the wake of this inquiry, Brandis gained widespread attention when it was reported that he called Prime Minister 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....
"a lying rodent", a report he denied.
He has also made a number of public speeches, perhaps the most controversial of which was in 2003 when he described the Australian Greens
Australian Greens
The Australian Greens, commonly known as The Greens, is an Australian green political party.The party was formed in 1992; however, its origins can be traced to the early environmental movement in Australia and the formation of the United Tasmania Group , the first Green party in the world, which...
as representing Ecofascism
Ecofascism
Ecofascism, can be used in two different ways:# The term is used as a pejorative by political conservatives, centrists, and leftists to discredit deep ecology, mainstream environmentalism, radical environmentalism and other ecological positions....
.
Brandis also attacked the Greens in the Australian Senate
Australian Senate
The Senate is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the House of Representatives. Senators are popularly elected under a system of proportional representation. Senators are elected for a term that is usually six years; after a double dissolution, however,...
where he stated "I intend to continue to call to the attention of the Australian people the extremely alarming, frightening similarities between the methods employed by contemporary green politics and the methods and the values of the Nazis". Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Australia
The Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia is the highest minister of the Crown, leader of the Cabinet and Head of Her Majesty's Australian Government, holding office on commission from the Governor-General of Australia. The office of Prime Minister is, in practice, the most powerful...
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....
later distanced himself from Brandis's claim that the Greens use Nazi-style fanaticism in Australian politics.
On 23 October 2006, Brandis made headlines when he wanted Good Shepherd Catholic College in Mount Isa
Mount Isa, Queensland
-Culture and sport:The local theatre group, the Mount Isa Theatrical Society, or MITS, often holds plays and musicals, at least once every few months or so....
to ban from its school library the book "100 Greatest Tyrants" by British author Andrew Langley, which places Sir Robert Menzies
Robert Menzies
Sir Robert Gordon Menzies, , Australian politician, was the 12th and longest-serving Prime Minister of Australia....
, the longest serving Australian Prime Minister, in such company as Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...
, Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
, Pol Pot
Pol Pot
Saloth Sar , better known as Pol Pot, , was a Cambodian Maoist revolutionary who led the Khmer Rouge from 1963 until his death in 1998. From 1976 to 1979, he served as the Prime Minister of Democratic Kampuchea....
, Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
and Augusto Pinochet
Augusto Pinochet
Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte, more commonly known as Augusto Pinochet , was a Chilean army general and dictator who assumed power in a coup d'état on 11 September 1973...
. The book claims that Menzies was a tyrant (an abuser of political power) and that Menzies' most tyrannical act was when he wanted to ban the Communist Party of Australia
Communist Party of Australia
The Communist Party of Australia was founded in 1920 and dissolved in 1991; it was succeeded by the Socialist Party of Australia, which then renamed itself, becoming the current Communist Party of Australia. The CPA achieved its greatest political strength in the 1940s and faced an attempted...
. The school principal Mr Durie said "Obviously it's twaddle to suggest Menzies was a tyrant in the same class as Attila the Hun
Attila the Hun
Attila , more frequently referred to as Attila the Hun, was the ruler of the Huns from 434 until his death in 453. He was leader of the Hunnic Empire, which stretched from the Ural River to the Rhine River and from the Danube River to the Baltic Sea. During his reign he was one of the most feared...
and that crowd", but refused to withdraw the book as it would be a resource for the generation of debate.
During his time in Parliament and before, Senator Brandis has been a strong supporter of the Young LNP
Young LNP
The Young Liberal National Party, or the Young LNP, is the youth division of the Liberal National Party of Queensland, and membership is open to those between 16 and 30 years of age...
and was a former President of the Young Liberal Movement
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...
's QLD Division.
Ministerial career
On 23 January 2007, Brandis was appointed Minister for the Arts and SportMinister for Sport (Australia)
The Australian Minister for Sport is Mark Arbib, who was appointed on 14 September 2010, following the Labor Party's win at the 2010 election. The ministry is located within the Prime Minister and Cabinet portfolio.-List of Ministers for Sport:...
, replacing Senator Rod Kemp
Rod Kemp
Charles Roderick "Rod" Kemp is an Australian politician. He was a Liberal member of the Australian Senate from 1990 to 2008, representing the state of Victoria....
. He lost his ministerial position on the defeat of the Howard Government in the 2007 election.
On 6 December 2007 the new Leader of the Parliamentary Liberal Party, 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...
, appointed Brandis Shadow Attorney-General
Attorney-General of Australia
The Attorney-General of Australia is the first law officer of the Crown, chief law officer of the Commonwealth of Australia and a minister of the Crown. The Attorney-General is usually a member of the Federal Cabinet, but there is no constitutional requirement that this be the case since the...
, a position he continued to hold under the leadership of 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...
.
On 2 June 2008 Brandis, in his capacity as Shadow Attorney-General, referred the Same-Sex Relationships (Equal Treatment in Commonwealth Laws – Superannuation) Bill 2008 to a Senate committee for review. The aim of the Bill was to remove entrenched discriminatory legislation against Australia's gay and lesbian citizens, in this case relating to superannuation. The Bill was welcomed by the Australian Human Rights Commissioner who said:
"Most people expect that their superannuation entitlements will be inherited by their partner, children or other dependants, but Commonwealth employees in same-sex relationships have never had this right," ... "This Bill, if passed, will ensure that right from 1 July."
Brandis made it clear that the Opposition believed discrimination of this type should be removed and vocally supported the Bill against the more conservative elements of his own Party, however he insisted on a comprehensive review of the proposed legislation prior to its enactment. The Bill was passed into law, with the support of the Opposition, and received Royal Assent on 9 December 2008.
He has been outspoken in his opposition to a Bill of Rights.
In January 2010, Brandis made media headlines with his comments regarding a controversial debate between Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard
Julia Gillard
Julia Eileen Gillard is the 27th and current Prime Minister of Australia, in office since June 2010.Gillard was born in Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales and migrated with her family to Adelaide, Australia in 1966, attending Mitcham Demonstration School and Unley High School. In 1982 Gillard moved...
and federal Opposition Leader 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...
on the topic of advice given to children regarding abstinence. Brandis suggested that as Ms Gillard did not have children, she did not have the understanding to comment on the issue of pre-marital sex.
Senator Brandis was re-elected in the 2010 election and appointed Shadow Attorney-General, Shadow Minister for the Arts and Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate in the Abbott Shadow Ministry.