Antony Harold Curties "Tony" Windsor (born 2 September 1950), an Australian politician, is an independent member of the House of Representatives since 2001, representing the Division of New England, New South Wales. Prior to his election to the federal parliament, Windsor was an independent member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1991 to 2001, representing the electoral district of Tamworth.

Windsor was born in Quirindi, New South Wales, and was educated at Farrer Memorial Agricultural High School, Tamworth and the University of New England where he graduated with an undergraduate degree in economics. He was a farmer at Werris Creek before entering politics. He was one of three sons raised by his mother after his father was killed in a farm accident when Windsor was eight years old.

In the 1991 election, Windsor was first elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly as the Member for Tamworth. Windsor was originally a National Party candidate for this seat, but allegations in regards to a drink-driving incident arose on the day of his pre-selection, and the National Party endorsed another candidate. In spite of the allegations, Windsor won as an independent candidate and held the seat for ten years. Windsor was one of the four independents who held the balance of power after Nick Greiner's Liberal-National Coalition lost 10 seats, resulting in a hung parliament. His decision to support the Coalition ensured a second term in government for Greiner. After an adverse ruling by the Independent Commission Against Corruption against Greiner for offering former minister Terry Metherell a patronage job, Windsor and the other three independents gave Greiner an ultimatum to resign or face a no-confidence motion in Parliament, and Greiner resigned.

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.

Barnaby Thomas Gerald Joyce (born 17 April 1967), Australian politician, has been a member of the Australian Senate representing the state of Queensland since July 2005. He represented the National Party of Australia until the Queensland divisions of the Liberal and National parties merged into the Liberal National Party of Queensland in 2008, although remains Leader of the National Party in the Senate. He is known for being a highly independent member of his party, having crossed the floor 19 times under the Howard coalition government.

On 17 September 2008, Joyce succeeded Nigel Scullion as the Leader of the National Party in the Senate.

His father, James Joyce, was a New Zealander who moved to Australia to study veterinary science at the University of Sydney, where he met Barnaby's mother, Marie, and they made their living as farmers.

Barnaby Joyce was born in Tamworth, New South Wales, and was brought up at Woolbrook. One of six children from a sheep-and-cattle farming family, he attended St Ignatius' College, Riverview, in Sydney.

Robert James Murray "Rob" Oakeshott (born 14 December 1969) is an Australian politician. He is the independent Member of the House of Representatives for the Division of Lyne in New South Wales, which he won in the 2008 by-election following the resignation of former Nationals leader and Howard minister Mark Vaile. Elected as the Nationals candidate for the state seat of Port Macquarie in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly in 1996, he left the party to become an independent in 2002, and retained the seat until 2008, when he resigned to run as an independent candidate in the Lyne by-election. Oakeshott describes his views as economically conservative and socially progressive.

Oakeshott was born in Lismore. His father, also named Rob Oakeshott, is still a doctor in the area and his grandfather Captain John Oakeshott was a prisoner of war and survived the Sandakan Death Marches.

Oakeshott attended Barker College as a high school student and was a boarder in his latter years there. He then studied at the University of Sydney. He was a resident of St. Andrew's College when the Principal, Peter Cameron, was convicted of heresy by the Presbyterian Church of Australia. Oakeshott describes Cameron as an influence on his thinking:

Sophie Mirabella (née Panopoulos) (born 27 October 1968) is an Australian federal politician. She has been a Liberal member of the Australian House of Representatives since 2001, representing the Division of Indi, Victoria. Mirabella is presently the Shadow Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research.

She was born in Melbourne, Victoria, educated at St Catherine's School, Toorak and was a solicitor and articled clerk from 1995 to 1997 at Riordans. From 1998 until her election to Parliament, she worked as a barrister.

In 1995, she began a live-in relationship with a man forty years her senior, then dean of law at Melbourne University, Colin Howard. The relationship ended in 2001, however they remained close until his death in 2011. Her relationship with Howard was later the subject of a bitter dispute between Mirabella and Howard's adult children.

In June 2006 she married Lieutenant-Colonel Greg Mirabella, a former Army Reserve Officer still working in the defence industry.

She has been a member of the Liberal Party since 1987. She was president of the Melbourne University Liberal Club, vice-president of the Australian Liberal Students Federation, a delegate to the Liberal Party State Council of Victoria and is also a member of numerous Policy Assembly Committees. She became well known during the debate on Australia becoming a republic as a prominent advocate for retaining the constitutional monarchy, and was an elected member of the 1998 Constitutional Convention.