Amanda Vanstone | |
|---|---|
.jpeg) Official portrait, 2007 | |
| Minister for Education Minister for Employment | |
| In office 11 March 1996 – 9 October 1997 | |
| Prime Minister | John Howard |
| Preceded by | Simon Crean |
| Succeeded by | David Kemp |
| Minister for Justice | |
| In office 9 October 1997 – 30 January 2001 | |
| Prime Minister | John Howard |
| Preceded by | Daryl Williams |
| Succeeded by | Chris Ellison |
| Minister for Family and Community Services | |
| In office 10 November 2001 – 7 October 2003 | |
| Prime Minister | John Howard |
| Preceded by | Jocelyn Newman |
| Succeeded by | Kay Patterson |
| Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs | |
| In office 7 October 2003 – 30 January 2007 | |
| Prime Minister | John Howard |
| Preceded by | Phillip Ruddock |
| Succeeded by | Kevin Andrews |
| Senator forSouth Australia | |
| In office 1 December 1984 – 26 April 2007 | |
| Succeeded by | Mary Jo Fisher |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1952-12-07)7 December 1952 (age 72) |
| Political party | Liberal Party of Australia |
| Alma mater | University of Adelaide |
Amanda Eloise Vanstone (néeO'Brien; born 7 December 1952) is an Australian former politician and a former Ambassador to Italy. She was aLiberalSenator for South Australia from 1984 to 2007, and held severalministerial portfolios in theHoward government. After her resignation from the Senate in 2007, she then served as theAustralian Ambassador toItaly until July 2010. Her time asMinister for Immigration was marked by controversies within theDepartment of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs.[1]
Vanstone was born Amanda Eloise O'Brien on 7 December 1952 inAdelaide, South Australia. She is the youngest of four children. Her father died when she was three. Her mother remarried soon afterwards, but not long after this her stepfather also died. She was educated at theSt Peter's Collegiate Girls' School. Vanstone has said that she does not defer to male authority due to growing up in a female-headed household and attending a school run by women.[2]
At theUniversity of Adelaide, Vanstone received both Bachelor of Arts andBachelor of Law degrees. She also earned aGraduate Diploma in Legal Practice and a Marketing Studies Certificate from theSouth Australian Institute of Technology which is now theUniversity of South Australia. In the late 1980s, she married Tony Vanstone, a commercial lawyer from Adelaide, taking his surname. Prior to entering politics, she worked as a retailer in a large department store, and later had her own business selling prints and picture-frames. She also worked as a legal practitioner.[citation needed]
In December 1984, at age 31, Vanstone was elected the youngest member of theAustralian Senate as a representative for South Australia. She was one of 27 senators for theLiberal Party of Australia elected that year. Vanstone'smaiden speech to the Senate was made on 27 March 1985 and addressed issues that young Australians had with the thenLabor Government led by Prime MinisterBob Hawke.[citation needed]
Vanstone was a member of the Opposition Shadow Ministry from 1987 to 1988, from 1989 to 1990 and from 1993 to 1996, serving as Shadow Attorney-General and Shadow Minister for Justice from 1994 to 1996.[3]
In May 1990, as an opposition backbencher, Vanstone was instrumental in the introduction of televised proceedings in parliament.[4]
In March 1996, Vanstone became one of the two women (withJocelyn Newman) inJohn Howard's cabinet when she was appointedMinister for Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs. In this portfolio she presided over heavy cuts to the employment programs established by theKeating government, which drew strong criticism. In October 1997 she was dropped from Cabinet and appointedMinister for Justice, a title which was changed to Minister for Justice andCustoms in October 1998.[citation needed]
Vanstone made a comeback in January 2001 when she was re-appointed to Cabinet asMinister for Family and Community Services. During this period she was alsoMinister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Status of Women. In the Family and Community Services portfolio she presided over the Australiansocial security programs includingCentrelink, attracting criticism by welfare activists. Vanstone frequently defended the Howard government's policies, and the then Shadow Minister for Family and Community Services,Wayne Swan, described her as "a political hyena who takes delight in attacking society's most vulnerable".[5]
In his reshuffle in October 2003, Howard appointed Vanstone Minister forImmigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Reconciliation, one of the most difficult portfolios in the government because of controversies overboat people and Australia's "Pacific Solution". Her biggest decision in this portfolio was to abolish theAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC). The abolition of ATSIC was generally supported, but there was controversy over what should replace it.[6]
During 2005, Vanstone became involved in some major controversies, one of them involving a defecting Chinese diplomat,Chen Yonglin, whilst others involved the deportation of Australian citizens andpermanent residents who her department considered undesirable – theCornelia Rau,Vivian Alvarez Solon,Stefan Nystrom andRobert Jovicic cases. An inquiry by the formerAustralian Federal Police commissioner Mick Palmer was severely critical of the Immigration Department's treatment[7] of Cornelia Rau, an Australian citizen wrongly presumed to be an illegal immigrant, and held in a Brisbane women's prison for six months.[citation needed]
She had also been criticised for overturning a deportation order and granting a visa in 2005 toFrancesco Madafferi who had been implicated by Italian officials as a dangerous mafia figure.[8] In fact Madafferi is thought to be a member of theCalabrian'Ndrangheta, known by the nameHonoured Society in Australia, which, although similar, is a crime organization distinct from theSicilian Mafia (however, common usage is to lump all such organizations together as Mafia). Francesco and his brotherAntonio ("Tony") Madafferi, a stall holder in Melbourne's Wholesale Fruit and Vegetable market (known to have been controlled by theHonoured Society), were alleged in a report byVictoria Police's organised crime squad to belong to a crime family involved in blackmail, extortion and murder. The report was aired in 2000 at a court hearing during Francesco's fight against deportation, but was later dismissed by an Administrative Appeals Tribunal judge as containing information from unnamed and possibly unreliable police informers. Vanstone justified her decision to grant Madafferi a visa because of a mental illness he was said to be suffering. However it is alleged that relatives and associates of Madafferi donated up to $100,000 to the Liberal Party, and that four Liberal party politicians had discussed the visa case with Madafferi's supporters or Vanstone's office.[9] In August 2008, Madafferi was arrested and charged, along with several of Australia's other suspected crime bosses (including Australian 'Ndrangheta boss Pasquale "Pat"Barbaro), after Australian Federal Police made the world's biggestecstasy haul, seizing drugs with a street value of $440 million.[10]
In January 2006, a ministerial reshuffle saw Indigenous Affairs transferred toMal Brough. Vanstone's title was changed to Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs. In January 2007, the Senator was removed from the cabinet after an election-year reshuffle, withKevin Andrews replacing her as the Immigration Minister in the newDepartment of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC).[citation needed]
In July 2006, Vanstone was criticised for holding shares in the South Australianagribusiness Wasley's Piggery.[11] Wasley's had come under fire after the group, Animal Liberation Australia, revealed footage of animal conditions which they say did not adhere to the state'sanimal welfare regulations. Vanstone responded stating that she is 'simply one shareholder in the business'. TheRSPCA later conducted an inspection[12] and found that while thesow stall sizes were smaller than regulation, the size was only a recommendation and could not be enforced.[citation needed]
In February 2007, she released the lyrics to her "Ode to Australia",Under Southern Stars.[13]
On 26 April 2007, Vanstone announced her immediate resignation from politics, telling reporters, "It is always important to look to the future and with that in mind it is important for me to move on to the next phase of my life".[14]
It was announced that she was to be appointed an Ambassador to Italy.[15]
In October 2012, Vanstone joined the board of thePort Adelaide Football Club.[16]
In 2012 Amanda Vanstone was the guest presenter on theABC Radio National program 'Counterpoint', and as of 2013 is now itsfull-time presenter every Monday at 4pm.
 | This article needs to beupdated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(June 2021) |
In 2013 and 2014 she was a member of theAbbott government'sNational Commission of Audit, which was established to improve the Australian government's budget.[17]
She is the Chairwoman of Vision 20/20 Australia.[18]
Vanstone is a former Liberal Party politician who, as host of theCounterpoint radio program since 2013, has become a political journalist at the ABC. She supported the leadership ambitions ofMalcolm Turnbull over those ofTony Abbott in the2015 Liberal leadership spill that saw Turnbull take the Prime Ministership. She describes herself as a "liberal" rather than a "conservative".[19]
She was a leading member of theLiberal Party of Australia's moderate faction and a mentor to younger Liberal moderates, including fellow South AustralianChristopher Pyne.[20]
| Parliament of Australia | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Minister for Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs 1996–97 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister for Justice (andCustoms) 1997–2001 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister for Family and Community Services 2001–03 | Succeeded by |
| Minister assisting the Prime Minister for the Status of Women 2001–03 | ||
| Preceded by | Minister for Immigration and Multicultural (and Indigenous) Affairs 2003–07 | Succeeded by |
| Diplomatic posts | ||
| Preceded by | Australian Ambassador to Italy 2007 – 2010 | Succeeded by |
