Bronwyn Kathleen Bishop (born 19 October 1942), an Australian politician, is a Member of the Australian House of Representatives for the Liberal Party representing the Division of Mackellar, New South Wales since 1994. Between 1989 and 1994, Bishop was a Senator for New South Wales, also representing the Liberal Party.

Bishop was born in Sydney, New South Wales as Bronwyn Setright, and was educated in Law at the University of Sydney. Bishop first worked as an articled clerk and played an acting role as a barrister in the 1960s Australian television program 'Divorce Court'. She was later admitted to practise law in 1967 as a solicitor and became a company director before entering politics. Having formed an ambition to become a politician, she joined the Liberal Party at the age of 17.

Heavily involved in organised politics, Bishop joined Killara Young Liberals in 1961 and during her association with that branch, she became Vice President. Bishop first became a Liberal Party office-holder in 1973 as President of the Balmoral branch and was later elected as the Chairman of the Liberal Party Convention Committee from 1981 to 1985 and as the first female President of the NSW Liberals from 1985-1987.

Julia Eileen Gillard (born 29 September 1961) is the 27th and current Prime Minister of Australia, in office since 24 June 2010.

Gillard was born in Barry, Wales and migrated with her family to Adelaide, Australia in 1966, attending Mitcham Demonstration School and Unley High School. In 1982 Gillard moved to Melbourne. She graduated from the University of Melbourne with Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws degrees in 1986. In 1987, Gillard joined the law firm Slater & Gordon working in industrial law, before entering politics.

Gillard was elected at the 1998 federal election to the House of Representatives seat of Lalor, Victoria, for the Australian Labor Party. Following the 2001 federal election, Gillard was elected to the shadow cabinet with the portfolios of Population and Immigration. The Reconciliation and Indigenous Affairs and the Health portfolios were added in 2003. In December 2006, Kevin Rudd was elected Labor leader and Leader of the Opposition, with Gillard as deputy leader.

Anna Elizabeth Burke (born 1 January 1966), Australian politician, has been an Australian Labor Party member of the Australian House of Representatives since October 1998, representing the Division of Chisholm, Victoria. She was born in Melbourne, Victoria, and was educated at the University of Melbourne and Monash University.

Before entering politics, Burke worked as a trade union official. In this capacity, she worked in the Victorian roads department 1988–93 and the Victorian Institute of Technology 1993–94. In 1994, she joined the Finance Sector Union as their National Industrial Officer.

After Labor's win at the 2007 federal election, Burke was elected as Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives.

She successfully defended her seat in the 2010 federal election.

On 24 November 2011, she was nominated by the Opposition for the position of Speaker of the House, which she declined. However, she accepted the Government's nomination for the position of Deputy Speaker on the same day, and was elected to that position following a ballot.

Julie Isabel Bishop (born 17 July 1956) is an Australian politician and the current Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Parliament of Australia. She holds this title as the Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party of Australia. She is the party's first female Deputy Leader and the third woman in Australian history to hold the title of Deputy Leader of the Opposition. She is currently the Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs and Shadow Minister for Trade.

She has been a member of the Australian House of Representatives since 1998, representing the seat of Curtin in Western Australia. She was a minister in the Howard government until the defeat of the Liberal/National Coalition at the election held on 24 November 2007. On 27 November 2007 she announced she was running for the position of Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party. She won the ballot on 29 November 2007 and became the party's first female Deputy Leader.

Julie Bishop was born in Lobethal, South Australia, and was educated at the St Peter's Collegiate Girls' School and the University of Adelaide. She graduated from the University of Adelaide with a Bachelor of Laws in 1978, and subsequently practised as a barrister and solicitor at the Adelaide law firm Mangan, Ey & Bishop, where she was a partner. In 1983 Bishop married property developer Neil Gillion, however they divorced five years later. Bishop has not remarried since. She relocated to Perth after getting married where she practised as a commercial litigation solicitor at Robinson Cox (now Clayton Utz). She became a partner of Clayton Utz in 1985, and managing partner of the Perth office in 1994. In 1996 she attended Harvard Business School in Boston and completed the Advanced Management Program for Senior Managers.

Graham Frederick Richardson (27 September 1949), a former Australian politician, was a Senator for New South Wales from 1983–94 for the Australian Labor Party, a senior minister in Hawke and Keating governments, and is now a political lobbyist, public speaker, and media commentator. During his time in politics, Richardson was often referred to as a right-wing power broker. Prior to entering parliament, Richardson was a Labor Party branch organiser and held the position of General Secretary of the Australian Labor Party (New South Wales Branch) from 1976–1983.

Richardson, born in Sydney, was the only surviving child of Fred and Peggy Richardson, who were respectively New South Wales State Secretary and office manager of the Amalgamated Postal and Telecommunications Union. Raised as a Catholic, he was influenced as an adolescent by the factional fights that arose during the Labor split. His early years of schooling were at Marist College Kogarah, and in November 1965, he was seriously injured in a car accident at Dolls Point where his father was driving, resulting in the removal of his spleen, and a torn bowel, plus 200 stitches to his face. A Catholic priest delivered Richardson with last rites on two occasions in hospital. He later recalled: