TONY ABBOTT (London, 1957) is an Australian politician who served as a member of the Australian House of Representatives (1994–2019), leader of the Liberal Party of Australia (2009–15), and Prime Minister of Australia (2013–15). Abbott attended the University of Sydney, where he earned a B.A. in economics (1979) and a law degree (1981). He next studied at Oxford as a Rhodes scholar, earning an M.A. in politics and philosophy. Abbott, by then a regular contributor to the Australian newsweekly The Bulletin, became a full-time journalist. He wrote for The Australian, one of the country’s top-circulating news dailies. Having viewed Australia’s political system from both inside and out, Abbott successfully campaigned for a parliamentary seat of his own in 1994. When Liberal Party leader John Howard was elected prime minister in 1996, Abbott was appointed parliamentary secretary to the minister for employment, education, training, and youth affairs in the new government. He changed portfolios in 1998, becoming minister for employment services. Abbott was named minister for health and aging in 2003. In 2009 he was elected leader of the Liberal Party of India and the Leader of the Opposition. In the 2013 elections, Abbott led the Liberal-National Coalition to victory and was named the 28th Prime Minister of Australia on 18th September 2013. He is the author of three books: The Minimal Monarchy (1995), How to Win the Constitutional War (1997), and Battlelines (2009).