Liberal Party is the name for dozens of political parties around the world. Liberal parties can be center-left, centrist, or center-right depending on their location. They can further be divided based on their adherence to social liberalism or classical liberalism, although all liberal parties and individuals share basic similarities, including the support for civil rights and democratic institutions.
Gregory Andrew Hunt (born 18 November 1965), an Australian politician, has been a Liberal member of the Australian House of Representatives since November 2001, representing the Division of Flinders, Victoria.
He was born in Melbourne, Victoria, and was educated at The Peninsula School. He graduated from Melbourne University with a Bachelor of Laws (First Class Honours) and Yale University, where he was a Fulbright Scholar and obtained a Master of Arts in International Relations. He was Associate to the Chief Justice of the Australian Federal Court in 1992.
Hunt was Senior Adviser to Alexander Downer, both as Leader of the Opposition (1994–95) and Minister for Foreign Affairs (1995–98). He worked for McKinsey & Company (1999–2001) and was Director of Strategy at the World Economic Forum in Geneva 2000-01.
Hunt was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for the Environment and Heritage in October 2004. In January 2007 he was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Foreign Affairs.
Philippe Couillard, PC (born June 26, 1957 in Montreal, Quebec) was a politician, and former university professor and neurosurgeon in Quebec, Canada. Until June 25, 2008, he served as the Quebec Minister for Health and Social Services in the government of Jean Charest. Couillard holds a medical degree and a certification in neurosurgery from the Université de Montréal. He was the head of the department of neurosurgery at St-Luc hospital from 1989 to 1992 and again at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Sherbrooke from 1996 to 2003. From 1992 to 1996, he practised in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. In 2003, he left the medical profession to run for a seat in the National Assembly representing the Quebec Liberal Party. He was elected MNA for Mont-Royal in the 2003 election and was appointed Minister of Health and Social Services on April 29, 2003.
Since taking office, he has proven skillful in the handling of his department's public relations and is regarded by a few people as the most popular minister in the Charest government. His accomplishments during his tenure have included a $4.2 billion dollar increase in the Quebec health budget, the prohibition of smoking in public places, and a reduction in the number of union local accreditations in the health sector.
Laurie Oakes (born 14 August 1943, Newcastle, New South Wales) is an Australian political journalist, commentator, and media personality. Since 1966, he has worked in the Canberra Press Gallery, covering the Parliament of Australia and federal elections.
Oakes was educated at Lithgow High School (of which he was the dux in 1961) and graduated in 1964 from the University of Sydney while working part-time with the Sydney Daily Mirror.
At the age of 25 he was the Melbourne Sun's Canberra Bureau Chief and while working for that paper he began providing political commentaries for the TV program, Willesee at Seven. In 1978 he began The Laurie Oakes Report, a televised political journal. In 1979 he joined Network Ten and worked there for five years. He has since written about politics for The Age in Melbourne and the Sunday Telegraph in Sydney. He has commentated for several radio stations.
In 1980, he obtained a draft copy of the Australian federal budget, before it was tabled in Parliament.
In 1997, Oakes used leaked documents to report on abuse of parliamentary travel expenses, which ended the careers of three ministers, several other politicians and some of their staff. More recently he used leaked documents showing the Rudd Government ignored warnings from four key departments about its Fuelwatch scheme.
Anthony John "Tony" Abbott (born 4 November 1957) is the Leader of the Opposition in the Australian House of Representatives and federal leader of the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. Abbott has represented the seat of Warringah since the 1994 by-election.
Prior to entering the Australian Parliament, Abbott studied for a Bachelor of Economics and a Bachelor of Laws at Sydney University and for a Master of Arts as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University. He later trained as a seminarian and worked as a journalist, business manager, political advisor and Executive Director of Australians for Constitutional Monarchy. Abbott has also been an author, ultramarathon runner and member of the New South Wales Rural Fire Service.
Abbott served in the Howard Government as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs from 1996-1998 and Minister for Employment Services from 1998-2001. He joined the Howard Cabinet in 2001 as Minister for Employment, Workplace Relations and Small Business. Following the 2001 Election, he took on the additional roles of Leader of the House of Representatives and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service. In 2003 he became Minister for Health and Ageing , retaining this position and his role as Leader of the House until the defeat of the Howard government at the 2007 federal election.