Geoffff's Joint : Say Hello To Australia's New Foreign Minister.

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As widely anticipated Australia has a new government. The new Prime Minister is Tony Abbott.

The new foreign minister will be Julie Bishop who is deputy leader of the Liberal Party.

Julie Bishop was born in South Australia and was educated at St Peter's Collegiate Girl's School and the University of Adelaide. She graduated from the University of Adelaide with a law degree in 1978, and subsequently practised as a barrister and solicitor in Adelaide.

Bishop relocated to Perth where she practised as a commercial litigation solicitor.. She became a partner of prominent law firm Clayton Utz in 1985, and managing partner of the Perth office in 1994. In 1996 she attended Harvard Business School in Boston and completed an Advanced Management Program for Senior Managers.

In 1998 she was elected to the Australian Parliament representing the Western Australian seat of Curtin. She became a minister in the Howard coalition government in 2003 and held posts in the Howard ministry until the defeat of the Government in the 2007 elections.

On BDS Julie Bishop had this to say in the Parliament .

Ms JULIE BISHOP (Curtin—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (12:03): I rise to move this motion condemning the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign that continues to be waged against the state of Israel and its people, and reiterating our support for the two-state solution and for the resumption of direct negotiations by the leaders of the Israeli and the Palestinian people for a lasting peace.

The provocative, counterproductive and highly discriminatory actions of this BDS campaign come at a time of increased uncertainty and upheaval in the Middle East and North Africa, as the hopes and aspirations of restless populations have cast aside old regimes. Israel is confronted with a new strategic environment more hostile to its interests and the security of its people than perhaps at any other time in recent history. At a moment when the community of nations should be offering their hands in support, Israel faces renewed pressure on the international stage.

The coalition has never supported and will not support any attempt in the United Nations, other fora or elsewhere that results in Israel's international isolation and that is the purpose of this BDS campaign. We wholeheartedly reject the attempt by members of the Socialist Alliance, the Australian Greens and the 21 trade union movement members and affiliates who seek to hold Israel, its people and its business community hostage to their ideologies and prejudices. This intolerance has found expression in recent times through the BDS campaign initiated in 2005, which now has targeted action against the Israeli owned Max Brenner company, which operates chocolate cafes in Australia.

The whole of the speech is here.

In a recent interview with the Australian edition of the Guardian Julie Bishop said that Bob Carr, the Labor foreign minister, came to the foreign affairs job fifteen months ago "telling everyone the one thing he wanted to achieve as foreign minister was to change Australia's stance on Israel." She said Carr succeeded when he played a leading role in overruling the prime minister's preferred position last December so that Australia abstained from the vote on upgrading the recognition of a Palestinian state., "We will return to what was previously bipartisan support for Israel," .

She has repeatedly condemned the BDS campaign as antisemitic.

And say goodbye to Bob Carr who had this to say early in the election campaign from the Lakemba mosque.

” I’ve been to Ramallah, I’ve spoken to the Palestinian leadership, and we support their aspirations to have a Palestinian state in the context of a Middle East of peace. And that means respect for the right of Israel to exist. But we want that Palestinian state to exist, in the context of a peace in the Middle East, and that’s why we say, unequivocally, all settlements on Palestinian land are illegal under international law and should cease. That is the position, of Kevin Rudd, the position of the Federal Labor Government, and we don’t make apologies for it.”