1994: When Tony Abbott was elected as MP for Warringah & Bronwyn Bishop won MacKellar

At the Federal election over a week ago, Tony Abbott's political career came to an end when he lost the seat to Independent Candidate Zali Stegall.

According to the results from the Australian Electoral Commission, Abbott lost a third of his vote from the 2016 Federal Election with a 20% swing to Stegall. 

While people will be talking about his loss for a long time, why not look back at when he won election as the MP for Warringah back in 1994.

Why was the by-election called?

The member for Warringah - Michael MacKellar announced on January 21, 1994, that he would resign from Federal Parliament to accept a role at Plastics, Chemicals and Allied Industries Association of Australia.

MacKellar had served the electorate for 24 years.

Selecting the Liberal candidate for Warringah

It was rumoured that Senator Bronwyn Bishop would run as she was building a support base within the electorate. She ended up contesting MacKellar.

Abbott won preselection for the seat of Warringah on February 20, 1994, for the Liberal Party,  defeating Peter King (later became MP for Wentworth from 2001-2004),

The result

The by-elections in Warringah and MacKellar was held on March 26, 1994. The Labor party did not field a candidate in either seat.

Abbott won Warringah with 55 % of first preferences and a two-party preferred vote of 59 %. He pledged his loyalty to Liberal Party leader John Hewson. Before contesting the seat, Abbott was a staffer to Hewson and head of Australians for a Constitutional Monarchy.

Bishop had a tougher battle, winning on preferences. She would remain as the member for MacKellar until 2016 when she lost preselection to Jason Falinski as the Liberal Candidate for the 2016 Federal Election. This came after she resigned as speaker in the Abbott after charging taxpayers $5 500 for a 2015 helicopter charter flight from Geelong to Melbourne.

Below is full coverage of the by-election results from the March 27, 1994 edition of The Sunday Telegraph. 

1996: Rare Sunday Telegraph Article on Gladys Berejiklian

With Gladys Berejiklian recently gaining the job as Premier of NSW, I am reminded of this article that I found several years ago from when she had been elected as President of the Young Liberals in NSW in 1996.

In newspaper profiling the Premier in recently, you do see the images of her in the outfit that you see below, but was surprised that the photo below of her standing on the steps of Parliament House in Macquarie Street was not featured.

Source: Van Den Nieuwenhof, L. 1996. "Gladys prepares to fight for Libs". The Sunday Telegraph, November 3: 60. 

At the time, she was only 26 years old and wanted to use her appointment to the role to highlight the issues of youth e.g. Generation X. She was asked to comment on the recent debate on immigration as highlighted by Federal MP (now One Nation Leader & Queensland Senator) Pauline Hanson just two months before. Despite her Armenian heritage, she felt at the time there needed to be a restriction on the number of immigrants permitted into Australia each year.

Very few people reading this article were thinking back in 1996 that Gladys would end up running the nations premier state, but it was a sign of things to come. A politician of the future was in the grooming.

The staffer for (then) NSW Opposition Leader Peter Collins, would end up succeeding him as the Member for Willoughby in 2003 when Collins retired from politics. She worked her way up through the shadow cabinet.  When the Liberals gained power in 2011, she became Transport Minister. Under Mike Baird (2014-17), she ascended to the role of treasurer and when he retired last month, endorsed her to lead the Liberals. On January 23, the party room elected her as Premier in a unanimous vote.

Her appointment as Premier also makes her the first woman to lead a Liberal Party Government in any Australian State Parliament, and the second woman to lead a government in NSW.

The stereotypes were being bulldozed then? I hope even more can be bulldozed now.  Will she finally bulldoze the negative stereotypes of women leading in politics that sections of the media has created under the leadership of others i.e. Clover Moore, Julia Gillard and Christine Nixon? I hope so. Gender does not shape how one leads. It's the decisions that a leader makes that defines their ability to lead.