Mal Brough

Malcolm Thomas "Mal" Brough (/ˈbrʌf/ BRUFF; born 29 December 1961) is a former Australian politician who was the Liberal National member for the Division of Fisher in the Australian House of Representatives. Brough was the member for the Division of Longman from the 1996 election to his defeat at the 2007 election. He was re-elected at the 2013 federal election as the member for the Division of Fisher. He held various positions in John Howard's second, third, and fourth ministries, and sat in cabinet as Minister for Families and Community Services and Indigenous Affairs from 2006 to 2007. In this role, he conducted the controversial Northern Territory Emergency Response. From Brisbane, Brough was a member of the Liberal Party, and briefly served as president of the party's Queensland Division in 2008, until he resigned following its merger with the Queensland Division of the National Party. He later joined the new Liberal National Party.

Brough served briefly in the First Turnbull Ministry until he stood aside in December 2015 and resigned from the Ministry in February 2016 after it was revealed that the Australian Federal Police had investigated Brough over his alleged involvement in the James Ashby affair.^[1]

On 26 February 2016 Brough announced that he would not seek preselection for the seat of Fisher at the 2016 federal election.^[2]

Early life

He was born on 29 December 1961 in Brisbane, Queensland, and was an Australian Army officer and businessman before entering politics. His brother, Rob Brough, is a Seven News presenter and former host of Family Feud. Brough has Aboriginal ancestry through his maternal grandmother, Violet, whose father was an indigenous Australian.^[3]

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 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.^[4][5] Brough won the seat of Fisher back from Labor at the 2013 federal election.

State politics

Brough was elected as the President of the Queensland division of the Liberal Party in May 2008.^[6] 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."^[7]

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.^[8]

Federal politics and diary allegations

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.^[9] On 29 July 2012, it was announced that had won the preselection for the seat,^[10] 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".^[11] 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'.^[12]

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.^{[13][14][15][16]}

On 13 February 2016, Brough resigned from the Ministry.^[1] On 26 February he announced that he would not recontest the seat of Fisher,^[17] concluding that it was "a privilege and an honour" to represent the electorate.^[18]

References

External links

• Summary of parliamentary voting for Mal Brough MP on TheyVoteForYou.org.au

(Abbott ←)   First Turnbull Ministry (2015–16)   (→ Turnbull)
Prime Minister: Malcolm Turnbull
Cabinet	Simon Birmingham Julie Bishop George Brandis Michaelia Cash Darren Chester Steven Ciobo Mathias Cormann Peter Dutton Mitch Fifield Josh Frydenberg Greg Hunt Barnaby Joyce Sussan Ley Scott Morrison Fiona Nash Kelly O'Dwyer Marise Payne Christian Porter Christopher Pyne Arthur Sinodinos Nigel Scullion
Outer Ministry	Matthew Canavan Richard Colbeck Concetta Fierravanti-Wells Paul Fletcher Michael Keenan Scott Ryan Dan Tehan Alan Tudge
Assistant Ministers	Karen Andrews Alex Hawke Peter Hendy Craig Laundy Michael McCormack James McGrath Keith Pitt Jane Prentice Wyatt Roy Anne Ruston Angus Taylor Ken Wyatt
Dismissed/resigned	Jamie Briggs Mal Brough Luke Hartsuyker Andrew Robb Stuart Robert Warren Truss