Julie Bishop has confirmed she intends to run at the upcoming federal election and will back Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
“I am the preselected Liberal candidate for the seat of Curtin. I intend to run,” the former Foreign Minister told reporters. Bishop added she doesn’t accept polls that say the Coalition is going to lose, adding that Morrison is the best person to lead the party.
RELATED: Julie Bishop Slams The Liberal Party’s Treatment Of Women
Last month, the PM said Bishop had not updated him since she quit her Cabinet post following last year’s leadership spill which installed him as Prime Minister.
“She said she was going to contest the next election and hasn’t told me anything different since then,” Morrison told Seven’s Sunrise last month
Bishop resigned from the government frontbench after Malcolm Turnbull was toppled as prime minister and her bid to replace him as Liberal leader fell short. Following the leadership spill and her resignation from her role long-serving role as Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Bishop broke her silence by slamming the lack of female representation in Australian politics and condemning the actions that led to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s oust.
Bishop, who was the first Australian woman in the portfolio, opened up at the Australian Women’s Weekly Women of the Future awards last night, saying, “It is not acceptable for us to have in 2018 to have less than 25 per cent of our parliamentarians as female.”
RELATED: Upset After Julie Bishop Resigns Following Liberal Leadership Spill
“It is not acceptable for our party to contribute to a fall in Australia’s ratings from 15th in the world in terms of female parliamentary representatives in 1999, to 50th today,” Bishop continues, per the Australian Financial Review. “I have seen and witnessed some appalling behaviour, that in a law firm I would never have accepted but in Parliament, it’s the norm,” Bishop says, calling for a “much broader debate about workplace culture” including “allegations of bullying, harassment and coercion and the unequal treatment of women.”
“We must defend and strengthen our institutions, and we must treat our Parliament with more respect. Unacceptable workplace practices are the responsibility of us all to identify, to stop it, to fix it.”
WATCH: Malcolm Turnbull Denies ABC Involvement.
