Frances Esther Bailey (born 21 May 1946) is a former Australian politician. She is a member of the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

and served in the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

from 1990 to 1993 and 1996 to 2010, representing the

Division of McEwen The Division of McEwen is an Australian Electoral Division in the state of Victoria. Classed as a rural seat, the electorate is located in the centre of the state, north of its capital city Melbourne. It includes the outer northern suburbs of ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

. She held ministerial office in the Howard Government as Minister for Employment Services (2004) and Small Business and

Tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tours. The World Tourism Organization defines tourism mor ...

(2004–2007).

Early life

Bailey was born in

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Queensland, and the third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of approximately 2.6 million. Brisbane lies at the centre of the South ...

and attended

All Hallows' School , motto_translation = God and Duty , city = Brisbane , state = Queensland , postcode = 4000 , country = Australia , coordinates = , type ...

there, where she was regarded as a champion swimmer.Gleeson, Peter. (27 November 2004). "Minister to rekindle Coast affair". ''The Gold Coast Bulletin'', Southport, Queensland. p20. She graduated from the

University of Queensland , mottoeng = By means of knowledge and hard work , established = , endowment = A$224.3 million , budget = A$2.1 billion , type = Public research university , chancellor = Peter Varghese , vice_chancellor = Deborah Terry , city = B ...

"Life so far for an All Hallows girl" (26 October 2004). ''The Gold Coast Bulletin'', Southport, Queensland. p5. and Kelvin Grove Teachers' College, later studying sociology at

La Trobe University La Trobe University is a public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Its main campus is located in the suburb of Bundoora. The university was established in 1964, becoming the third university in the state of Victoria a ...

. Bailey worked as a secondary school teacher, retailer and

cashmere goat A cashmere goat is a type of goat that produces cashmere wool, the goat's fine, soft, downy, winter undercoat, in commercial quality and quantity. This undercoat grows as the day length shortens and is associated with an outer coat of coarse hai ...

breeder before entering politics.

Politics

Bailey was secretary of the Yarra Glen branch of the Liberal Party from 1984 to 1988 and President of the branch from 1988 to 1989. She also worked as the campaign director for the Victorian state seat of Evelyn at the 1988 election. Bailey was first elected at the 1990 election, defeating

Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the la ...

incumbent Peter Cleeland in McEwen. She became the first female Liberal candidate elected to a Victorian seat, and the first woman elected to represent a rural electorate. She was promoted to Shadow Minister for Consumer Affairs, and was heavily involved with the Liberals' Fightback! campaign to regain power. Cleeland defeated her in the 1993 election, a rematch of 1990. However, she won the seat back in 1996, defeating Cleeland in another rematch. She served on the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade from 1998 to 2002. Before her return to McEwen, she sought preselection for the 1994 Kooyong by-election but the preselection and then the by-election was won by her future parliamentary colleague Petro Georgiou.

Ministerial career

In 2001, Bailey was promoted to Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Defence. In July 2004 she was promoted to Minister for Employment Services and Assistant Minister for Defence. She became Minister for Small Business and

in October 2004.

Tourism Minister and clash with Scott Morrison

During her stint as tourism minister, Bailey clashed with the future prime minister,

Scott Morrison Scott John Morrison (; born 13 May 1968) is an Australian politician. He served as the 30th prime minister of Australia and as Leader of the Liberal Party of Australia from 2018 to 2022, and is currently the member of parliament (MP) for th ...

, who was the managing director of

Tourism Australia Tourism Australia is the Australian Government agency responsible for promoting Australian locations as business and leisure travel destinations. The agency is part of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and employs 187 staff (includ ...

(TA). It was described that Morrison was trying to "steal the limelight" from Bailey and did press releases without approval of Bailey who was his boss and bypassed her office on key decisions. Morrison and the TA board pushed for the "

So where the bloody hell are you? So where the bloody hell are you? was a A$180 million advertising campaign launched by Tourism Australia in 2006. It was created by the Sydney office of advertising agency M&C Saatchi, under the approval of Scott Morrison (the future Prime M ...

" ad campaign to be awarded to

M&C Saatchi M&C Saatchi Group () is an international communications network headquartered in London, formed in May 1995. With more than 2,400 staff, the network spans 23 countries with major hubs in the UK, Europe, US, Middle East & Africa, Asia and Austral ...

, reportedly bypassing Bailey and government procurement guidelines for three contracts with a total value of $184 million. In 2006, she flew to London with

Lara Bingle Lara Worthington (née Bingle) (born 22 June 1987) is an Australian model and media personality. She is known for appearing in the 2006 Tourism Australia advertising campaign '' So where the bloody hell are you?'' Her own reality television seri ...

to successfully lobby the British

Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre The Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre (BACC) was a non-governmental organisation which until the end of 2007 pre-approved most British television advertising. The work of the BACC has been taken over by Clearcast. BACC approval was applied b ...

(BACC) for the right to use the word "bloody" in advertisements promoting Australia for the "

" campaign, as the word "bloody" breached the BACC's guidelines. However, privately Bailey believed that Morrison and his team had failed to do the proper research into Britain's advertising code before rolling out the ad campaign in Britain. Morrison also repeatedly kept critical information from the Tourism Australia board. As the minister and the TA board lost confidence in Morrison, Bailey advised to Prime Minister

John Howard John Winston Howard (born 26 July 1939) is an Australian former politician who served as the 25th prime minister of Australia from 1996 to 2007, holding office as leader of the Liberal Party. His eleven-year tenure as prime minister is the ...

that Morrison be sacked. Howard accepted the advice and Morrison was fired in August 2006. In 2022, following Morrison's multi-ministerial positions controversy, Bailey revealed that Morrison showed no respect for his colleagues at Tourism Australia and he left her feeling bullied, also confirming that he “point-blank refused” to provide her or the board with any documentation or to answer questions about how the ad campaign was awarded to Saatchi. She said she was "gobsmacked when he became prime minister" and called for Morrison to resign from Parliament. She described that Morrison had "the supreme belief that only he can do a job, the lack of consultation with those closest to him – those characteristics were evident 16 years ago, and perhaps we’re seeing the end result of those now.”

2007 election controversy and final term

Her period as minister ended with the defeat of the Howard government at the 2007 election. Her hold on McEwen was always somewhat tenuous due to its demographics. Although classed as rural by the

Australian Electoral Commission The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) is the independent federal agency in charge of organising, conducting and supervising federal Australian elections, by-elections and referendums. Responsibilities The AEC's main responsibility is to ...

, it is actually a hybrid urban-rural seat. It includes several outer northern suburbs of Melbourne that tilt heavily to Labor, while the more rural portion votes equally heavily for the Liberals and Nationals. However, the 2007 election resulted in McEwen becoming the most marginal seat in the country. Initially, it appeared that Bailey had lost to former Labor state MP Rob Mitchell by six votes. Bailey requested and was granted a full recount, which gave her the win by 12 votes. The result was challenged in the High Court of Australia in its capacity as the

Court of Disputed Returns The Court of Disputed Returns is a court, tribunal, or some other body that determines disputes about elections in some common law countries. The court may be known by another name such as the Court of Disputed Elections. In countries that derive ...

, and was referred to the Federal Court of Australia. Over seven months after the election and a review of 643 individual votes, the court altered the formal status of several dozen, eventually declaring Bailey the winner by 27 votes. Following the resolution of the long-running dispute, Bailey called for a total overhaul of the voting system. Bailey announced in October 2009 that she would retire at the 2010 election.

References

External links

Official website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bailey, Fran 1946 births Living people Liberal Party of Australia members of the Parliament of Australia Members of the Australian House of Representatives Members of the Australian House of Representatives for McEwen Women members of the Australian House of Representatives Women government ministers of Australia 21st-century Australian politicians 21st-century Australian women politicians 20th-century Australian politicians People educated at All Hallows' School 20th-century Australian women politicians Politicians from Brisbane