Kevin Andrews (politician)

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The Honourable
Kevin Andrews
MP
Kevin Andrews war memorial crop.png
Minister for Defence
In office
23 December 2014 – 21 September 2015
Prime Minister Tony Abbott
Malcolm Turnbull
Preceded by David Johnston
Succeeded by Marise Payne
Minister for Social Services
In office
18 September 2013 – 23 December 2014
Prime Minister Tony Abbott
Preceded by Jenny Macklin
Succeeded by Scott Morrison
Minister for Immigration and Citizenship
In office
30 January 2007 – 3 December 2007
Prime Minister John Howard
Preceded by Amanda Vanstone
Succeeded by Chris Evans
Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations
In office
7 October 2003 – 30 January 2007
Prime Minister John Howard
Preceded by Tony Abbott
Succeeded by Joe Hockey
Minister for Ageing
In office
26 November 2001 – 7 October 2003
Prime Minister John Howard
Preceded by Bronwyn Bishop
Succeeded by Julie Bishop
Member of the Australian Parliament
for Menzies
Assumed office
11 May 1991
Preceded by Neil Brown
Personal details
Born Kevin James Andrews
(1955-11-09) 9 November 1955 (age 69)
Sale, Australia
Political party Liberal Party of Australia
Other political
affiliations		 Coalition
Spouse(s) Margaret
Alma mater University of Melbourne
Monash University
Religion Roman Catholicism
Website Official website

Kevin James Andrews (born 10 November 1955) is an Australian politician and member of the Liberal Party of Australia, first elected to the House of Representatives seat of Menzies at the 1991 by-election. He was Minister for Social Services in the Abbott Government from 18 September 2013 until 23 December 2014, when he was appointed Minister for Defence after a cabinet reshuffle, serving until the 2015 ascension of Malcolm Turnbull.[1]

In the Howard Government, Andrews served as Minister for Ageing from 26 November 2001 to 7 October 2003, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations from 7 October 2003 to 30 January 2007 during which time he implemented the controversial WorkChoices labour market reforms, and Minister for Immigration and Citizenship from there on until the defeat of the incumbent government at the November 2007 election. He then served in the Abbott Shadow Cabinet portfolio of Families, Housing and Human Services.[2]

Andrews was dropped from the new Turnbull Ministry upon the ascension of the Turnbull Government and is on the government backbench presently.

Early life

Andrews was born on 9 November 1955 in Sale, Victoria, and was educated at Melbourne University where he lived at Newman College. He completed a Master of Laws (LLM) at Monash University and practised as a barrister.[citation needed]

He was co-ordinator of Continuing Legal Education for the Law Institute of Victoria from 1981 to 1983 and an associate to Sir James Gobbo, Justice of the Supreme Court of Victoria, from 1983 to 1985.[citation needed]

While practising law he was involved with the St Vincent's Bioethics Centre, the Mercy Hospital for Women, the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and the Lincoln School of Health Sciences.[3] He was also a board member of Caritas Christi Hospice.[3]

Political career

Andrews was elected to the House of Representatives for the Liberal Party of Australia at the 1991 Menzies by-election in Victoria.

Andrews at an earlier time in his political career.

As a backbencher, Andrews authored the Euthanasia Laws Bill 1996 to overrule Northern Territory legislation that legalised euthanasia (the Rights of the Terminally Ill Act 1995). It is one of only fifteen Private Member's Bills passed into law in Australian parliamentary history.

Andrews has called for an end to trials of the RU-486 drug and voted against a bill that took away the Health Minister's power to veto applications to allow the drug to be used.[4]

In taking a stance against stem cell research in 2002, he stated that it was the "first time" that "human beings can be treated as a commodity".[5] He also took a stance against stem cell research during a debate in 2006, which resulted in the overturning of a previous ban on the research.[6]

After the Coalition's third victory in 2001, Andrews was brought into the outer ministry as Minister for Ageing, a portfolio in which he served from 26 November 2001 to 7 October 2003. He was subsequently appointed to Cabinet as the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations and was responsible for introducing the Howard Government's major changes to industrial relations law in 2005, commonly known as WorkChoices. In a reshuffle in early 2007, Andrews was made Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, a position which he held until the swearing-in of the First Rudd Ministry on 3 December 2007, following the defeat of the Howard Government in the 2007 election.

During 2008 and 2009 he served as Chairman of the Coalition's Policy Review Committee, reviewing and developing the Opposition's policies, until he was promoted to the Shadow Cabinet (to the position of Shadow Minister for Families, Housing and Human Services) in December 2009 by the newly elected Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott. He was also appointed Deputy Chairman of the Coalition Policy Development Committee.

Andrews is a member of the Lyons Forum, a socially conservative Christian faction within the Coalition. He has served as the Forum Secretary and is credited with suggesting the name for the faction.[7][8]

In the 2010 Federal election, Andrews was re-elected to the seat of Menzies with a 2.70% swing against the Labor Party.[9]

Haneef affair

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Main article: Mohamed Haneef

As Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Andrews attracted controversy after he revoked on character grounds the visa of Dr Mohamed Haneef, who had been granted bail on charges of aiding terrorists.[10][11] This was criticised as a move to keep Haneef in detention; upon posting bail, Haneef would have been transferred from Brisbane's Wolston Correctional Centre to Sydney's Villawood Detention Centre.[12] Andrews defended his actions as being in accordance with the Migration Act and Haneef's lawyers challenged his interpretation of the Act in the Federal Court.[12][13]

Following the Director of Public Prosecutions dropped all charges against Haneef, Andrews refused calls to reinstate Haneef's visa, stating that his personal evidence was still valid.[10][14] Andrew's refusal resulted in calls for a public inquiry into the incident by then Queensland Premier Peter Beattie.[15][16][17]

Andrews' justification of his decision, on the basis that he had a reasonable suspicion that Haneef had associated with suspected terrorists and therefore failed the test of good character that a person must pass to keep a visa, was rejected in the Federal Court, and the revocation of Haneef's visa was overturned.[18] However, in November, e-mails released under the Freedom of Information act appeared to indicate that Andrews' office had a plan to revoke the visa before the case went to court, in the case that bail was granted.[19]

On 23 December 2008 the government-ordered inquiry report was released. Mr Clarke, the head of the judicial inquiry, determined Mr Andrews did not act for an improper motive.[2]

Publications record

Following Andrews' criticism of irregularities discovered in the CV of an Indian doctor working on the Gold Coast,[20] various media organisations carried reports disputing Andrews' claim on parliamentary and ministerial websites to have co-authored three books, having contributed only a chapter to each.[21] Andrews argued in his own defence that

"In common, everyday parlance, as one of the authors (of a chapter) I presumed you called yourself a co-author – that's all I've simply done. I wasn't aware, to be frank, of some publishing convention that someone's referred to (that suggests otherwise). If that offends people's sensibilities well so be it, basically."[21]
Kevin Andrews in 2005

2007 African immigration controversy

In October 2007 Kevin Andrews came under fire over his handling of his immigration portfolio.

Andrews' decision to cut Australia's refugee intake from African nations was branded by some critics as racist and a use of the race card to appeal to "racist" voters[22] before the 2007 Australian Federal election.[23] Andrews defended the decision, saying: "Some groups don't seem to be settling and adjusting into the Australian way of life as quickly as we would hope."[24] Andrews accused Sudanese refugees of fighting in bars and congregating in parks to drink alcoholic beverages, but did not provide statistics to back up his claims.[22]

The Queensland Labor Premier, Anna Bligh, described Andrews' criticism of Sudanese as "disturbing". She said: "It has been a long time since I have heard such a pure form of racism out of the mouth of any Australian politician."[22] Labor politician Tony Burke branded Andrews' decision as "incompetent".[25] However, Andrew's actions were applauded by the former One Nation politician, Pauline Hanson. However despise having praise from Hanson many viewed Andrews as responsible for creating a racial tension leading to anti-African sentiment in the community and racially based attacks on Sudanese migrants in Australia.[3] Andrews stated in 2011 he did not regret raising the African mirgration issue [4].[22][26][27][28]

Leadership challenge against Malcolm Turnbull

Kevin Andrews declared his candidacy against Malcolm Turnbull in a vote for a leadership spill, in opposition to Turnbull's support for the government's emissions trading scheme. He had declared himself a climate change sceptic, saying that 'the jury is still out' on human contributions to global warming.[29] The party room however voted down having a leadership spill 41 votes to 35 and the Andrews challenge did not eventuate.[30] After continued leadership speculation, a second Party Room meeting was held, at which point the leadership was declared vacant. Tony Abbott, Joe Hockey, and Malcolm Turnbull all stood for the leadership, and Tony Abbott was ultimately successful. Following his election as Leader, Abbott promoted Andrews to the Shadow Cabinet as Minister for Families, Housing and Human Services.

Deputy Leadership challenge against Julie Bishop

On 14 September 2015, after Deputy Leader Julie Bishop announced she would support Malcolm Turnbull in his challenge against Prime Minister Tony Abbott for the leadership of the Liberal Party, Andrews announced that he supported Tony Abbott and that he would stand for the deputy leadership against Bishop. Bishop retained the position of Deputy Leader with 70 votes, to Andrews' 30 votes.[31]

Advocacy

A member of the Catholic Pontifical Council for the Laity, Andrews is an Adjunct Lecturer in Politics and in Marriage Education in the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family in Melbourne.[3]

Andrews is an advisor to the Board of Life Decisions International (LDI),[32] a (non-denominational) religious[33] pro-life group that is primarily concerned with opposing the pro-choice Planned Parenthood organisation. LDI campaigns for chastity,[34] boycotts corporations and names individual celebrities[35] who support abortion, euthanasia, or embryonic stem cell experimentation or who, in their opinion, support sexual promiscuity.[36] These include GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson and Johnson, Time Warner and Disney.[37]

Andrews has described his role as "honorary patronage". He was criticised by the Sydney Morning Herald for failing to declare his wife's membership of Life Decisions International's Board of Advisors on his entry in the Parliamentary Register of Pecuniary Interests.[38] Life Decisions International fired back by accusing the Sydney Morning Herald of great bias and having no regard for the truth.[39]

Andrews made a speech to the Endeavour Forum on 9 April 2003[40] a group focusing on women's issues, opposing abortion, equal opportunity and affirmative action.[41]

He has also spoken at the Family Council of Victoria,[42] an organisation which regards homosexuality as the manifestation of a psychiatric disorder.[43] The Family Council of Victoria also opposes sex-education and anti-homophobia policies in public schools, which it claims is "pro-homosexual indoctrination" of students.[44]

Andrews supports immigration as a way to slow population ageing in Australia.[45] During an address to the Committee for the Economic Development of Australia, he said that "The level of net overseas migration is important as net inflows of migrants to Australia reduce the rate of population ageing because migrants are younger on average than the resident population. Just under 70% of the migrant intake are in the 15–44 age cohort, compared to 43% of the Australian population as a whole. Just 10% of the migrant intake are 45 or over, compared with 38% of the Australian population."[45]

In 2011, as a Liberal Shadow Cabinet frontbencher Andrews published a critique of the Greens policy agenda for Quadrant Magazine in which he wrote that the Australian Greens' "objective involves a radical transformation of the culture that underpins Western civilisation" and that their agenda would threaten the "Judeo-Christian/Enlightenment synthesis that upholds the individual" as well as "the economic system that has resulted in the creation of wealth and prosperity for the most people in human history."[46]

Andrews supported the move to make Australia a republic at the Australian Constitutional Convention 1998.[47]

References

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  18. ↑ [2007] FCA 1273 Haneef v Minister for Immigration and Citizenship
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  46. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  47. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

Further reading

External links

Parliament of Australia
Preceded by Member of Parliament
for Menzies
1991–present		 Incumbent
Political offices
Preceded by as Minister for Aged Care Minister for Ageing
2001–2003		 Succeeded by
Julie Bishop
Preceded by Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations
2003–2007		 Succeeded by
Joe Hockey
Preceded by Minister for Immigration and Citizenship
2007		 Succeeded by
Chris Evans
Preceded by as Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs Minister for Social Services
2013–2014		 Succeeded by
Scott Morrison
Preceded by Minister for Defence
2014–2015		 Succeeded by
Marise Payne

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