From the red shoes to the death stare: the finest moments in Julie Bishop’s political career
From her stylish statement wardrobe choices and her strong emoji game, to her work at the highest level of international relations, Julie Bishop never failed to impress. Here are the highlights of her career.
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Julie Bishop was one of those rare politicians who enjoyed a genuine degree of affection from the Australian people, and even more remarkably, that affection came from across the political spectrum.
MORE: Julie Bishop retires from politics
After 21 years in parliament, here are a selection of the things we’ll remember her for:
HER RED SHOES
As Ms Bishop resigned from politics today, the Prime Minister said she had the “best shoes” in the parliament. And they will be tough to fill.
The sparkly Jimmy Choo shoes Ms Bishop wore the day she resigned from her role as Australia’s first foreign minister — red satin with bejewelled heels — stood out at her press conference in Parliament House.
She has described them as a comfortable pair of working boots — and they became symbolic of female empowerment.
Ms Bishop later gifted the shoes she wore only once to the Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House.
Ms Bishop confirmed that red is one of her favourite colours to wear.
“Throughout history people have been defined by what they wear,” Ms Bishop said at the time.
“I decided to go for what I would consider a sensible pair of heels, or a comfortable working boot.”
Ms Bishop admitted she did wonder if donating them would bring any benefit in the future to young women thinking of entering public life.
“If by gifting these red shoes I inspire just one young woman to aspire to enter public life, to aspire to be a foreign minister or indeed a prime minister, this gift will have been worth making,” she said.
HER RESPONSE TO THE MH17 TRAGEDY
Although Bishop was known for her A-grade wardrobe, she was also known as a strong and effective Foreign Minister. In responding to her retirement announcement this afternoon, Labor leader Bill Shorten paid particular attention to her work on the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines MH17 over Ukraine in July 2014.
“She really was a leader,” Mr Shorten said. “But I also saw her steely determination in international forums to pursue justice and she was very strong. In that regard, if any
of us were ever to be privileged to be in the position she was in, dealing with the Russians and other people, I hope that any of us would show the same strength she showed and she did, and that is to her credit. She did Australia proud that date and in those weeks.”
HER STRONG EMOJI GAME
Ms Bishop famously gave an interview to the Today Show in which she reacted to a question from former host Karl Stefanovic in emoji.
It was actually on the official World Emoji Day, which also happens to be Ms Bishop’s birthday.
Stefanovic asked her if she knew what a Thermomix was.
Ms Bishop said: “I’m going to answer in emoji”.
At the end of 2014, she also signed off from Twitter in a tweet littered with emojis which translated as: “Parliament adjourned till 9/2/15! Thanks Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Ministerial staff for a stellar year. Still more travelling before Christmas but have a good break swimming, surfing, drinking, enjoying the sunshine or fishing. Bye.”
Ms Bishop was also one of the Parliament’s most keen users of emojis in her tweets — political or not.
She made headlines with Buzzfeed in 2015 when she did an exclusive interview entirely in emojis about political leaders, Australia’s international relationships, gay marriage and more.
The interview later became the subject of a Senate committee hearing.
Former attorney-general George Brandis had to explain what they actually were to the chair of the committee, Liberal senator Chris Back.
He said they were “the smiley faces that you have on your text messages”, and that the “21st century ministry” knew about it.
During the Buzzfeed interview, her emoji response to what she thought of Russian President Vladimir Putin was the famous red angry-faced emoji.
Senator Penny Wong asked for DFAT’s interpretation of the minister’s response to a Buzzfeed question about Mr Putin.
“I’d like to understand what the diplomatic message is of the red face — is it intended to suggest the Foreign Minister is angry at President Putin?” Senator Wong asked.
“It may be that the Foreign Minister is saying she’s angry with him, it may be that she thinks he’s a red-faced angry man, I don’t know.”
Former senator Brandis said: “It could be a reference to ideology.
“Context is everything, nobody suggests — and I don’t understand you to be suggesting — the communication concerned was a formal diplomatic démarche of any kind.”
Former senator Brandis said it was “plainly not an expression of our relationship with Russia”.
Ms Bishop said later she was surprised Labor senators did not understand the context and that Mr Putin himself would have welcomed the emoji.
“He self-describes as a hard man. In fact having met President Putin I think he’d be delighted with the application of the emoji that I used to describe him,” she said.
“I note Senator Brandis suggested it was ideological. That could be the case, it might have been a multi-use emoji, I believe that’s possible.”
Parliament ðŸ¤adjourned till 9/2/15! Thanks @DFAT ðŸ‘and min staff 👠for stellar ✨🌟 year. Still more ✈ï¸ðŸŒ before 🎄🎅 but have good break ðŸŠðŸ„ðŸ¹â˜€ï¸ðŸŽ£ 🙋
— Julie Bishop (@JulieBishopMP) December 4, 2014
HER DEATH STARE
The death stare — Julie Bishop’s steely-eyed glare — became a running joke during the former Foreign Minister’s time in government.
The original death stare came in March 2010 when Ms Bishop glared at an interruption from the Q&A audience.
The Chaser comedy team then managed to persuade the then Opposition Deputy Leader to reprise her glare in a “stare-off” with Chas Licciardello in the election special Yes We Canberra.
Predictably, the comedian lost out, laughingly branding Ms Bishop’s gaze “too powerful” as he dramatically fell to the floor.
The withering look was used numerous times throughout Ms Bishop’s tenure in parliament, most memorably in 2015 when a New Zealand journalist questioned the leadership tension gripping the Liberal Party.
The journalist asked if Ms Bishop would stand against Malcolm Turnbull in the event of a successful motion for a leadership spill. Ms Bishop fixed her wide-eyed glare on the journo in question and replied: “That’s your idea of an easy question?”.
The “death stare” came to symbolise Ms Bishop’s no-nonsense approach — as well as her ability to see the funny side.
HER SENSE OF FUN
International diplomats are not renowned for being the life of the party, but Bishop often indulged her sense of fun. She enjoyed an especially convivial relationship with Britain’s former foreign minister Boris Johnson, publicly fixing his tie and taking him jogging while they (presumably) discussed matters of state.
She was also a fixture at many a society event, recently attending Karl Stefanovic and Jasmine Yarbrough’s wedding in Los Cabos, Mexico with her partner David Panton.
She wore a stunning silver sequin, one-shoulder gown coupled with her trademark pearl-drop earrings at the star-stuffed affair at the One & Only Palmilla resort in Mexico.
The ever-stylish MP painted a relaxed picture on the beach going shoeless for the party in the sand.
She later rocked up to the couple’s Studio 54-themed bash and was seen relaxing the next day with Nine’s Richard Wilkins and other guests at the resort.
HER EARRING ESCAPADE
In 2015, Julie Bishop channelled the girl with a pearl earring while doing the media rounds on morning TV.
The then Foreign Minister was on air to talk about the government’s vow to exhaust all avenues in seeking to have two Australian men spared from the death sentence in Indonesia.
But somewhere between Channel 9’s Today Show and the Sky News studio, her pearl earring went missing.
Ms Bishop, well known for her love of emojis, took to Twitter to ask if anyone in Martin Place had seen the wayward jewel.
The phone number provided went to Parliament House office in Canberra.
And the case of the missing earring sparked a Twitter account called ‘JBish Ear Ring’ with a string of tweets appearing throughout the day.
Sadly, the earring was never found.
HER FITNESS
Julie Bishop’s toned physique and athleticism set her apart from her political colleagues and fascinated the public.
Not for her Canberra’s long lunches or carb-laden dinners.
Petite, tanned and fit, Ms Bishop attracted admiration for her physical stamina and her famous “guns” — toned biceps that rivalled Michaelle Obama’s.
As Foreign Minister, the keen runner rose early to pound the pavement, a ritual she maintained on her overseas work trips.
Over the years, she would literally hit the ground running in order to stave off jet lag and adopt to her new time zone.
Ms Bishop was pictured running through the morning chill in New York’s Time Square, Beijing and London.
“You don’t have the luxury of jet lag in this position,” Ms Bishop told News Corp in 2015. “I don’t have rest days. As soon as we arrive somewhere, we’re into it.
And she shows no sign of slowing down, making headlines at the 2018 Sydney-Hobart yacht race by plunging into the ocean from the 66-foot Wild Oats X.
Wearing a yellow safety vest, Ms Bishop was in the water for less than a minute before she was successfully picked up.
SHE WAS AN INSTA MATCHMAKER
Last Christmas, Ms Bishop got into the Christmas spirit by playing cupid on social media where she told the world her nephew was single.
The former foreign minister posted a photograph to Instagram of herself with her niece Isabel and her nephew Rupert.
Ms Bishop celebrated Christmas with her family members in Adelaide.
On the post, she cheekily mentioned that her nephew was “28 and single btw”.
“So happy to be home with family for Christmas,” she wrote.
“Heading off with niece @isabelmichell and nephew @oskdreams (he’s 28 and single btw).”
Since she posted the photo, her followers have praised her as a great Aunty.
Many women wrote in, saying they were single as well.
“I thought I loved this woman just for her politics but now she’s sharing her hot nephew on Instagram,” one woman wrote.
AND BEFORE WE GO … SOME OF BISHOP’S LESSER MOMENTS
It’s a moment she would rather forget.
In 2008, Ms Bishop was the Shadow Treasurer for the Coalition when she failed to recall the official Reserve Bank interest rate on her first day in the job.
Ms Bishop initially said the rate was 7.25 per cent before saying she should go and check.
But the official cash rate fell to 7 per cent.
Nationals Senate leader Barnaby Joyce played it down at the time, saying: “It’s her first day in the job and I think you’ve got to give people a little bit of time to settle in to this.
“Ask her next week and if she doesn’t know, then you’ve got a problem.”
At the time, Senate leader Eric Abetz also defended her.
“She’s very new in the job, she’s a very excellent competent person,” he said.
“I think we all would acknowledge that from both sides of politics, anybody will from time to time get the figures wrong.
“Chances are if I hadn’t listened to the early morning news I mightn’t have got it right either.”
She also hit the headlines for the wrong reasons in 2017, when she pulled out of attending the prestigious Portsea Polo event in Victoria.
Ms Bishop and her partner David Panton were listed as guests at the Alfa Romeo marquee however sources confirmed they weren’t going.
Her decision not to go came after it was revealed she attended last year’s Polo event in Melbourne using taxpayer money.
Ms Bishop said she needed stay in Sydney for the visit of Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Ms Bishop and Mr Panton’s names were on the guest list at the Alfa Romeo marquee, but her office maintained she was never a confirmed guest.
She has since returned to the Polo in 2018 and this year.
Originally published as From the red shoes to the death stare: the finest moments in Julie Bishop’s political career
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