Bridget McKenzie

Bridget McKenzie (born 27 December 1969) is an Australian politician.

She served as the president of the Deakin University Student Association in 2003.

McKenzie subsequently taught physical education and mathematics for several years at Yarram Secondary College, Gippsland.

She later lectured in education at Monash University.

She first stood for parliament at the 2004 federal election, unsuccessfully standing for the House of Representatives in the Division of McMillan.

McKenzie joined the National Party at the age of 18, and was a junior vice-president of the Victorian branch from 2006 to 2009.

She was elected to the Senate at the 2010 federal election and served as a whip from 2011 to 2013.

At the 2010 election, McKenzie was elected to the Senate in the third place on a joint Coalition ticket.

She is a member of the National Party and has been a Senator for Victoria since 2011.

Her term began on 1 July 2011.

McKenzie was her party's Senate whip from September 2013 to June 2014.

McKenzie replaced Fiona Nash as deputy leader of the Nationals during the 2017 parliamentary eligibility crisis, and as a result was elevated to cabinet.

She served variously as Minister for Rural Health (2017–2018), Sport (2017–2018), Regional Communications (2017–2018), Regional Services, Local Government and Decentralisation (2018–2019), and Agriculture (2019–2020).

She was elected deputy leader to Barnaby Joyce in December 2017, replacing Fiona Nash after her disqualification from parliament due to dual citizenship.

Under the terms of the Coalition Agreement with the Liberals, McKenzie was elevated to cabinet as Minister for Sport, Minister for Rural Health, and Minister for Regional Communications.

When Scott Morrison became prime minister in August 2018, McKenzie was appointed Minister for Regional Services, Decentralisation and Local Government.

She also retained the sport portfolio.

She has held ministerial office in the Turnbull and Morrison governments, also serving as the party's Senate leader since 2019.

McKenzie grew up in Benalla, Victoria, and worked as a schoolteacher and university lecturer before entering politics.

After the Coalition retained office at the 2019 election, she was appointed Minister for Agriculture.

McKenzie is the first woman to hold the position.

McKenzie is a shooting enthusiast, and is chair of the Parliamentary Friends of Shooting.

She is opposed to same-sex marriage, and publicly campaigned for the "No" vote in the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey.

McKenzie's gay younger brother confronted her on her views in a letter to the Bendigo Advertiser and on the panel discussion program Q&A.

As Agriculture Minister McKenzie was instrumental in protecting Australia's pork industry from African Swine Fever.

On 11 December 2019 McKenzie announced $66.6 million to boost Australia's defences against the virus which has a high mortality rates in domestic pigs.

On 12 September 2019 the Australian Senate passed the Criminal Code Amendment (Agricultural Protection) Bill 2019 which introduced new offences for the incitement of trespass, property damage, or theft on agricultural land.

McKenzie said the Bill sent a clear message that animal activists who use the personal information of farmers to incite trespass risked jail.

“Australians expect the farmers who feed and clothe us – and many millions around the world – should not be harassed, or worse, as they go about their work.

The time has come for activists to understand that you can’t just descend on someone’s place of work and home, interfere with their business and steal their animals—and think that you can get away with it.

When protests become acts of trespass and theft, you’re not a protestor, you’re a criminal and deserve to be punished." Australia's peak agricultural body the National Farmers Federation welcomed the new laws and said the Bill sent a clear signal to anti-farming activists that the invasion of farms and harassment of farmers, their families and workers, running lawful businesses, would not be tolerated.

In December 2019 McKenzie announced Australia's first national Mandatory Dairy Industry Code of Conduct.

McKenzie resigned from cabinet and as deputy leader in 2020 as a result of a scandal surrounding the administration of community sporting grants.

She was reappointed to cabinet in 2021 following a Nationals leadership spill as Minister for Emergency Management and National Recovery and Resilience and Minister for Regionalisation, Regional Communications and Regional Education.

McKenzie was born in Alexandra, Victoria.

She spent her early childhood in Benalla, where her mother was a primary school teacher and her father was a dairyman.

She attended Tintern Grammar, an elite private school in Melbourne's eastern suburbs, where she was a house captain and swimming captain.

After starting a family, McKenzie began studying at Deakin University as a mature-age student, completing a double degree in applied science (specialising in human movement) and teaching (specialising in mathematics).

Australia's ASF Response Package saw 130 more frontline biosecurity officers deployed from January 2020 to do half a million more passenger screenings a year; six new detector dogs deployed at airports and mail centres and two new 3D x-ray machines at Melbourne and Sydney mail centres.

Biosecurity officers were given a new capability to issue infringement notices on the spot at airports.