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Mal Brough

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The Honourable
Mal Brough
Minister for Defence Materiel and Science
In office
21 September 2015 – 29 December 2015
Prime MinisterMalcolm Turnbull
Preceded byStuart Robert
Succeeded byMarise Payne
Special Minister of State
In office
21 September 2015 – 29 December 2015
Prime MinisterMalcolm Turnbull
Preceded byMichael Ronaldson
Succeeded byMathias Cormann
Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs
In office
27 January 2006 – 3 December 2007
Prime MinisterJohn Howard
Preceded byKay Patterson
Succeeded byJenny Macklin
Minister for Revenue and Assistant Treasurer
In office
18 July 2004 – 27 January 2006
Prime MinisterJohn Howard
Preceded byHelen Coonan
Succeeded byPeter Dutton
Minister for Employment Services
In office
14 February 2001 – 18 July 2004
Prime MinisterJohn Howard
Preceded byTony Abbott
Succeeded byFran Bailey
Member of the Australian Parliament
for Fisher
In office
7 September 2013 – 9 May 2016
Preceded byPeter Slipper
Succeeded byAndrew Wallace
Member of the Australian Parliament
for Longman
In office
2 March 1996 – 24 November 2007
Preceded byConstituency Created
Succeeded byJon Sullivan
Personal details
Born
Malcolm Thomas Brough

(1961-12-29) 29 December 1961 (age 62)
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Political partyLiberal Party of Australia
Other political
affiliations		Liberal National Party of Queensland
SpouseSue Brough
RelationsRob Brough (brother)
Alma materMonash University
Military service
Branch/serviceAustralian Army
Years of service1979–1987
RankCaptain

Malcolm Thomas Brough (/ˈbrʌf/ BRUF; born 29 December 1961) is a former Australian politician. He represented the Liberal Party in the House of Representatives (1996–2007, 2013–2016) and held ministerial office in the Howard and Turnbull Governments.

Brough was born in Brisbane and was an Australian Army officer and businessman before entering politics. He was first elected to parliament at the 1996 federal election, representing the Queensland seat of Longman. He was made a parliamentary secretary in 2000 and subsequently served as Minister for Employment Services (2001–2004) and Minister for Revenue and Assistant Treasurer (2004–2006). Brough was promoted to cabinet in 2006 as Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, and subsequently oversaw the controversial Northern Territory Emergency Response. He lost his seat at the 2007 election, at which the government was defeated.

As state president of the Liberals, Brough opposed the merger which led to the creation of the Liberal National Party of Queensland in 2008. He returned to federal parliament in 2013, standing in the seat of Fisher. In September 2015 Brough was reappointed to the ministry by Malcolm Turnbull, who replaced Tony Abbott as Liberal leader and prime minister. However, his second stint as a minister lasted only until December 2015, as he resigned from the ministry following revelations that the Australian Federal Police had investigated him over his dealings with James Ashby.[1] In February 2016 he announced that he would not seek preselection for the seat of Fisher at the 2016 federal election.[2]

Early life

Brough was born on 29 December 1961 in Brisbane, Queensland. He served in the Australian Army from 1979 to 1987 following this he worked in the private sector.[3] His brother Rob Brough is a Seven News presenter and former host of Family Feud.

There is a longstanding belief in Brough's family that they have Indigenous Australian ancestry through his maternal grandmother, Violet Bowden. Bowden's understanding was that her − mostly absent and estranged − father was Aboriginal.[4] Brough does not seek to identify himself as Aboriginal, although he does not reject the possibility.[5] His comments on the subject have, on at least one occasion, been interpreted as dismissive of his possible Aboriginal heritage, or Aboriginal culture in general.[6] His sister, Carol Stubbs, has served on the board of several Aboriginal corporations.[7]

Political career

Brough was Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Employment, Workplace Relations and Small Business 2000–01 and Minister for Employment Services from 2001 to 2004. In July 2004 he was moved to the portfolios of Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Revenue. He was Minister for Families and Community Services and Indigenous Affairs from January 2006 to November 2007. In his Indigenous Affairs portfolio, Brough was the chief architect of the government's Northern Territory Emergency Response, a package of measures designed to combat alleged high rates of child neglect and abuse in the territory.

Brough was one of a number of government MPs including Prime Minister John Howard who lost their seats at the 2007 election. Brough suffered a swing of 10.3 points in the two-party-preferred vote in his seat, to finish with a vote of 46.4 percent. He was succeeded by Labor's Jon Sullivan.[8][9] Brough switched to the seat of Fisher and won it back from Liberal turned independent and the Speaker of the House of Representatives Peter Slipper at the 2013 federal election.

State politics

Brough was elected as the President of the Queensland division of the Liberal Party in May 2008.[10] He remained in that position after a vote in July 2008 to merge into the new Liberal National Party of Queensland (LNP). He opposed the merger as it had not received final ratification from the federal Liberal Party. On 26 September 2008 he resigned from his post, saying: "You try and do the right thing and, quite frankly, at this point it's all over the shop and it's no wonder voters get so disenchanted with the non-Labor side of politics."[11]

It was because of his opposition of the merger to the LNP that he was not a candidate for his former seat of Longman at the 2010 federal election. That would have meant securing preselection from the LNP in order to have a good chance of reclaiming the seat. He also criticised the party leading up to the 2010 election on its absence of policies, but he did not rule out running for his resident seat of Fisher against Peter Slipper, a National party member who had joined the Liberals.[12]

Federal politics and diary allegations

In 2006, Brough was the Minister for Families and Community Services and Indigenous Affairs. Faced with allegations regarding the degradation of Aboriginal communities and frequent cases of child sexual abuse, Brough, combined with the Northern Territory Chief Minister Clare Martin, commissioned a report into child sexual abuse in the Northern Territory. This report received much criticism, beginning with the view that it was a hasty reaction to these allegations. Researchers have suggested that the report was not simply used as an opportunity to resolve these issues, but rather as another way to control these communities.[13]

In mid-2012, following the defection of Peter Slipper from the Liberals to become an independent MP and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Brough announced that he was seeking LNP preselection for the seat of Fisher for the 2013 federal election.[14] On 29 July 2012, it was announced that had won the preselection for the seat,[15] despite criticism over his contact with James Ashby. Ashby had been an adviser to Slipper who had made accusation of sexual harassment. Justice Steve Rares found that Brough had acted with Ashby and another Slipper staffer, Karen Doane, in abusing the judicial process for the "purpose of causing significant public, reputational and political damage to Mr Slipper".[16] On 9 October 2012, Slipper resigned as Speaker following revelations of mobile phone text messages he had sent to Ashby. In an early 2014 appeal ruling the full bench of the Federal Court found that Justice Rares had 'no basis to conclude that Brough was part of any combination with anyone in respect to the commencement of these proceedings with the predominant purpose of damaging Slipper in the way alleged or at all,' and that there was 'nothing untoward about those matters'.[17][18]

On 29 December 2015 Brough stood down from the Turnbull Ministry and moved to the backbench pending the completion of an investigation by the Australian Federal Police over the alleged copying of the diary of former speaker Peter Slipper. Jamie Briggs also resigned on the same day. Questions were raised over the holiday timing of the announcements.[19][20][21][22]

On 13 February 2016, Brough resigned from the Ministry.[1] On 26 February he announced that he would not recontest the seat of Fisher,[23] concluding that it was "a privilege and an honour" to represent the electorate.[24]

References

  1. ^ a b Massola, James (13 February 2016). "Cabinet reshuffle: Malcolm Turnbull announces new frontbench as Mal Brough resigns". The Age. Retrieved 13 February 2016.
  2. ^ "Mal Brough quits federal parliament". Sky News.
  3. ^ "Hon Mal Brough MP". Parliament of Australia. Retrieved 21 September 2020.
  4. ^ Bryant, Nick (1 September 2013). "Mal Brough crashes through". The Monthly. Retrieved 26 February 2021. His maternal grandmother, Violet, believes that her missing father was a blackfella, a piece of family lore that has been handed down the generations.
  5. ^ "Don't know for sure, no real way of ascertaining it" – Brough in Crabb, Annabel (30 June 2007). "In the eye of the storm". The Sydney Morning Herald.
  6. ^ Graham, Chris; Fynes-Clinton, Matthew (4 June 2008). "Brough and family mock Indigenous accent, culture". Crikey. Retrieved 26 February 2021.
  7. ^ "Does Mal Brough have a conflict of interest?". Crikey. 30 January 2006. Retrieved 26 February 2021.
  8. ^ "QLD Division Results – Longman". 2007 Election Tally Room. Australian Electoral Commission. 29 November 2007. Retrieved 30 November 2007.
  9. ^ "Bringing back the Brough: 10 of the worst things Mad Mal did in office | Tracker". Archived from the original on 4 September 2013. Retrieved 10 September 2013.
  10. ^ "Qld conservatives plan fresh merger talks". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 1 June 2008. Retrieved 13 January 2011.
  11. ^ "Brough quits Liberal presidency". The Brisbane Times. 26 September 2008. Retrieved 13 January 2011.
  12. ^ Dennehy, Kate (22 June 2010). "LNP has no idea, says Brough". The Brisbane Times. Retrieved 30 September 2012.
  13. ^ Roffee, James A (1 March 2016). "Rhetoric, Aboriginal Australians and the Northern Territory Intervention: A Socio-legal Investigation into Pre-legislative Argumentation". International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy. 5 (1): 131–147. doi:10.5204/ijcjsd.v5i1.285. ISSN 2202-8005.
  14. ^ "Brough to learn if he'll win preselection". News.com.au. 2 August 2012. Retrieved 29 July 2012.
  15. ^ Parnell, Sean (29 July 2012). "Mal Brough's plan for federal comeback passes a key hurdle, with LNP preselection for Fisher". The Australian. Retrieved 30 September 2012.
  16. ^ Ireland, Judith (28 February 2013). "AFP suspends Mal Brough conspiracy prober". The Age. Melbourne. Retrieved 28 April 2013.
  17. ^ Mccutcheon, John (1 March 2014). "Ruling clears Brough in Ashby affair". Sunshine Coast Daily. Retrieved 22 September 2015.
  18. ^ The majority judgment of the Full Federal Court stated that there was insufficient evidence to support the finding of Rares J at trial: Ashby v Slipper [2014] FCAFC 15 at [120]-[122] per Mansfield and Gilmour JJ.
  19. ^ Han, Misa (30 December 2015). "After work drinks 101: lessons for Jamie Briggs (and other bosses)". The Australian Financial Review.
  20. ^ Keany, Francis (29 December 2015). "Mal Brough, Jamie Briggs stand down from front bench roles; reshuffle on the cards for PM Malcolm Turnbull". Australia: ABC News.
  21. ^ Anderson, Stephanie (29 December 2015). "Timeline: Mal Brough under fire". Australia: ABC News. Retrieved 6 January 2016.
  22. ^ Cox, Lisa (2 December 2015). "Why is Mal Brough in trouble?". The Sydney Morning Herald.
  23. ^ Anderson, Stephanie (26 February 2016). "Mal Brough will not recontest Fisher seat at next election". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 7 March 2016.
  24. ^ "Mal Brough Press Release". Mal Brough Website. Archived from the original on 7 March 2016. Retrieved 7 March 2016.
Parliament of Australia
New division Member for Longman
1996–2007 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Member for Fisher
2013–2016 		Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by Minister for Employment Services
2001–2004 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Minister for Revenue and Assistant Treasurer
2004–2006 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Minister for Families and Community
Services and Indigenous Affairs
2006–2007 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Special Minister of State
2015 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Minister for Defence Materiel and Science
2015 		Succeeded byas acting
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