Julie Bishop ends her 20-year trail-blazing, globe-trotting political career

The most successful woman in the history of the Liberal Party announced her retirement from politics yesterday. Miranda Devine looks back at the former foreign minister and long-time deputy leader’s illustrious 20-year career.

• The finest moments in Julie Bishop’s political career
• Highs and lows of Julie Bishop’s globetrotting career
• Julie Bishop: Why I wear expensive outfits

The most successful woman in the history of the Liberal Party announced her retirement from politics yesterday, saying she was confident the Morrison government will win the next election.

Julie Bishop, 62, former foreign minister and deputy to four Liberal leaders, ended her 20-year career with a short, surprise speech after Question Time.

Julie Bishop leaves Parliament House in Canberra yesterday. Picture: Kym Smith

Elegant and slight in a sleeveless white shift dress and glittering gold shoes, the former Perth lawyer told the House she was proud to have been Australia’s first female foreign minister and the first female deputy leader of the Liberal Party.

“I am also proud of the fact that I am the first woman to contest the leadership ballot of the

Liberal Party in its 75-year history,” she said.

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Ms Bishop attacked Labor for having “learned nothing from its past failings”, and said she hopes her safe West Australian seat of Curtin, which she won in her seventh election in 2016 with a primary vote of 65.6 per cent, might go to a woman.

Her exit follows that of three senior government ministers who have recently announced they will not contest the next election, expected to be in May.

Julie Bishop campaigning for the seat of Curtin, Western Australia, in 1998.

Known for her death stare, flashy earrings, expensive shoes and younger hunky, surfer boyfriend, the popular former head girl of Adelaide’s St Peter’s Girls School is regarded by supporters as the best leader the Liberals never had.

But she was also criticised for her penchant for attending celebrity parties, including TV star Karl Stefanovic’s lavish Mexican wedding last year.

Ms Bishop resigned from the frontbench after the coup against Malcolm Turnbull last August.

Julie Bishop with John Howard, the first of three prime minister she served under, in 1999. Picture: Megan Lewis

She won just 11 votes from colleagues in her bid to be elected Liberal leader, despite opinion polls consistently showing her to be the most popular candidate.

She was elected deputy Liberal leader in 2007, a job she retained through three leadership changes, earning her the moniker “cockroach” and “Lady Macbeth” from enemies in the party, who accused her of leaking against Tony Abbott during his abbreviated prime ministership.

She paid tribute yesterday to the three prime ministers she served, John Howard, Mr Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull. Mr Abbott was the only one of her colleagues who did not look at Ms Bishop during her speech.

Julie Bishop and her partner David Panton pictured with US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump in New York.

Yesterday, she walked out of the House before Prime Minister Scott Morrison stood to pay tribute to her.

“Julie is a Liberal through and through … an unbelievably classy individual,” Mr Morrison said.

“Well done, good and faithful servant … Her successor will have big shoes to fill and as we know Julie has the best shoes in parliament.”

Julie Bishop walked out in fine style. Picture: Gary Ramage

Ms Bishop did a final favour for the Liberal Party she loves by blowing Labor’s best day in this session of parliament out of the water with yesterday’s announcement.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten threw a little faint praise her way, saying “people who like her particular brand of politics will be disappointed”.

He also said she “left as she started, with a fierce attack on the Labor Party. Fair enough, she loves her Liberal Party …. But I think she admired that we (Labor) did such a big job in terms of trying to encourage women in parliament.”

Mr Shorten went on to pay tribute to Ms Bishop for her handling of the MH17 tragedy, her “composure and kindness” for the victims’ families and “her steely determination in international forums to pursue justice”.

Helping then-British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson with his tie. Picture: Getty

He described her as a “trailblazer, the first female foreign minister, that is a big achievement”.

Not that the Opposition sisterhood felt the solidarity.

Deputy Leader Tanya Plibersek folded her arms, stared daggers and muttered at the woman she had long shadowed in foreign affairs. Later she was urged by colleagues reluctantly to her feet as Ms Bishop received a standing ovation. She never clapped.