Scott Morrison

Biography

Scott Morrison was born in Sydney in 1968 and took an honours degree in applied economic geography at the University of New South Wales. He worked for the Property Council of Australia and in tourism bodies, ran New Zealand's Office of Tourism and Sport from 1998 to 2000, was state director of the New South Wales Liberal Party from 2000 to 2004, and then became the first managing director of Tourism Australia until he was dismissed in 2006.

Elected for the Sydney seat of Cook in 2007, he joined the shadow cabinet. After the Coalition won in 2013 he became immigration minister and launched Operation Sovereign Borders to stop asylum-seeker boats. He moved to social services in December 2014, where he oversaw the setting up of the Robodebt scheme, later found unlawful, and was treasurer from September 2015 under Malcolm Turnbull.

When Peter Dutton's challenges forced Turnbull out in August 2018, Morrison won the party ballot as a compromise candidate and became prime minister. He led the Coalition to an unexpected win in 2019. His government created the National Cabinet and was initially praised for suppressing COVID-19, though the vaccine rollout was slow, and it was criticised over his holiday during the 2019-20 bushfires and its record on climate change. Abroad, he joined the AUKUS security pact with the United States and the United Kingdom in 2021, at the cost of tensions with China and France.

The Coalition lost the May 2022 election and Morrison gave up the Liberal leadership. Soon afterwards it emerged that he had secretly had himself sworn in to five additional ministries during the pandemic, and in November 2022 the House censured him, a first for a former prime minister. He left parliament in February 2024.