Eric Abetz

Eric's grandfather was Karl Abetz, a professor of forestry science, who joined the Nazi Party in 1933 and became general consultant of the Reich Forestry Office in 1942.

Eric Abetz (born 25 January 1958) is a German-born Australian former politician who was a Senator for Tasmania from 1994 to 2022, representing the Liberal Party.

The youngest of six children, Abetz emigrated from Germany to Australia with his parents in 1961.

His father, Walter Abetz, a radio technician, who lost a leg fighting with the German army on the Russian Front, came to Australia to work for Tasmania's Hydro Electric Commission, which had advertised for skilled workers in German newspapers.

He served as president of the University of Tasmania Liberal Club, and in 1980–1981, he became the first Tasmanian to become national president of the Australian Liberal Students' Federation, during which time he came into political conflict with Nick Sherry and Sue Mackay, both later to be Australian Labor Party senators.

Abetz studied at Taroona High School, Hobart Matriculation College and the University of Tasmania, earning degrees in law and arts in 1981.

He won preselection as a candidate for the Senate in the 1984 and 1993 elections but did not win a seat.

He is a former national president of the Australian Liberal Students' Federation and was state president of the Tasmanian Liberals from 1990 to 1994.

Abetz married Michelle Oates in 1991, and they had three children.

He was then chosen to fill the casual vacancy caused by the resignation of Brian Archer in 1994, and was elected in his own right at the subsequent 1998 election and re-elected in 2004, 2010 and 2016.

He was a member of a Parliamentary Delegation which visited France and Belgium in June and July 1997, and made an official visit to the United Kingdom in September 1999.

Abetz was Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Defence 1998–2001 and was Special Minister of State from January 2001 until 2006.

He has served as Chairman of the Native Title and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Land Fund Committee and Chairman of the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee.

He also served as Chairman of the Attorney-General and Justice Government Members' Committee.

He previously also served as Special Minister of State in the Howard government from 2001 to 2006 and as Minister for Fisheries, Forestry and Conservation from 2006 to 2007.

Born in Germany, Abetz emigrated to Australia as a small child, when his father came to work for Tasmania's Hydro Electric Commission.

He was educated at the University of Tasmania and was a barrister and solicitor before entering politics.

He was Minister for Forestry from a reshuffle of the Howard ministry in January 2006 until its defeat at the 2007 election.

He commenced his portfolio by attacking the Australian Greens and environmentalists in general as anti-Australian.

He described the campaign against woodchipping as "akin to treason" and branded the Greens an "extreme left" party.

This allowed him to position the government's priorities as mainstream issues which both major parties wanted action on.

Abetz is a member of the National Right faction of the Liberal Party.

Another one of the Abetz children is Peter Abetz, who was the Liberal member for Southern River in the Legislative Assembly of Western Australia from the 2008 state election until 2017.

Eric Abetz's great uncle, Otto Abetz, was a Nazi SS officer, German ambassador to Vichy France, and a convicted war criminal.

In mid-2009 Abetz was a central figure in the OzCar affair, which involved false allegations that Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Treasurer Wayne Swan had improperly given favourable treatment to a car dealer, John Grant, who was a friend of the Prime Minister.

At a Senate inquiry on 19 June, Abetz asked a series of questions of a Treasury official, Godwin Grech, who testified that he had a "recollection" that a member of Rudd's staff had sent him an email in February, asking that he provide preferential treatment to Grant.

Abetz read out the text of what he said was an email, which purported to ask for preferential treatment for Grant.

On 4 August 2009, Grech admitted that he had forged the email.

Abetz then issued an apology, saying: "I am not only sorry to Malcolm Turnbull but to the Australian people and any anguish that may have been occasioned to Kevin Rudd and other people."

On 30 July 2010, Tasmanian resident John Hawkins lodged an objection to Abetz's nomination for re-election, alleging that Abetz still held dual citizenship of both his birthplace, Germany, and Australia and thus was ineligible under Section 44 of the Constitution of Australia.

Hawkins subsequently withdrew the petition to the High Court of Australia.

He was the Minister for Employment and the Leader of the Government in the Senate in the Abbott government from 2013 to 2015.

In September 2013 Abetz was appointed Minister for Employment in the Abbott government and oversaw the drafting of legislation to reestablish the Australian Building and Construction Commission, the establishment of a Registered Organisations Commission following the Craig Thomson Affair, and the launching of the Royal Commission into trade union governance and corruption and Fair Work Act Review.

Abetz also designed and implemented the Government's Jobactive Employment Services Reforms.

In August 2014 Abetz received criticism from the media and politicians such as the Greens' Adam Bandt for making claims of a link between abortion and breast cancer when appearing on The Project.

He had been on The Project to discuss his association with the World Congress of Families.

It was reported in May 2015 that Abetz was quoted as saying of Joe de Bruyn, national president of the SDA, the largest private sector trade union in Australia, that "he is a role model of trade union officialdom. He is the type of official that gives trade unionism a good name."

De Bruyn spent 36 years as National Secretary of the SDA, known for its close relationships with major employers such as Coles and Woolworths.

His wife died of cancer in 2019.

He is a Christian.