Angus Taylor

Angus Taylor (born 30 September 1966) is an Australian politician.

His mother passed away due to cancer in 1988 at the age of 48.

Contemporaneous to her death was a collapse in wool and beef prices due to drought, an event that brought financial stress upon the Taylor family.

Peter's experience of drought drove him to political advocacy on behalf of farmers, and he eventually became President of NSW Farmers and Vice President of the National Farmers Federation.

Angus completed primary school at Nimmitabel's local primary school.

He then boarded at The King's School, Parramatta.

Upon graduation, he studied at the University of Sydney while residing at St Andrew's College, graduating with a Bachelor of Economics and a Bachelor of Laws.

Angus then won a Rhodes Scholarship, and elected to study a Master of Philosophy in Economics at New College, Oxford.

Here, he studied "Smith, Bentham, Burke, Mill, Marshall, Schumpeter, Galbraith, Keynes and Friedman", during his studies he developed an interest in the game theory of John Forbes Nash Jr. He applied Nash's theories to make an analysis of English pubs, to argue that they ought be protected from being dominated by large brewing companies.

Immediately after leaving Oxford, Taylor “spent the best part of two decades in management consulting.” He helped create enterprises for clients, notably Fonterra.

Equally, he experienced "the ignominy of failure" leading starts ups that did not take off, such as agribusiness dotcom, Farmshed.

After consulting, Taylor helped launch a number of agribusinesses with his brothers and other business partners, including Growth Farms.

Taylor joined his brother Charlie at McKinsey & Co, a global management consulting firm, in 1994.

Projects took him to Korea, the US and the UK but most notably to New Zealand, where he worked with dairy farmers to create a new business model for their industry.

Taylor returned to Sydney and was made a partner in 1999.

Around this time, Taylor developed a digital agribusiness called Farmshed.

He convinced his employer, McKinsey, to back the project along with Wesfarmers, Rural Press and, later, JB Were and NAB.

Based in Surry Hills, Taylor was the MD. However, when Wesfarmers merged with IAMA, they began to see Farmshed as undercutting their own business.

The online business failed "with a loss of several million dollars.” The Wesfarmers MD, Richard Goyder, later said Farmshed was "years ahead of its time."

Taylor went on to become a Director at Port Jackson Partners, an Australian management consulting firm.

During this tenure, Taylor was a member of the Victorian government taskforce to investigate the development of a coal seam gas industry in the state.

Taylor “spent four years working on a master plan: to unify the bitterly divided industry into a single national champion." His analysis found “it cost New Zealand farmers around $US12 to produce 100 kilograms of milk product, making them the world’s most efficient producers.” From there he recommended the 10,600 dairy farmers form a multi-national dairy co-operative. Fonterra was launched in October 2001. Two decades later, it was regarded as “one of the most successful strategic decisions in agri-business history" and is used as a business transformation model at Harvard Business School.

He has been a member of the House of Representatives since 2013, representing the seat of Hume for the Liberal Party.

He has been shadow treasurer under Peter Dutton since 2022, having previously been a cabinet minister in the Morrison government from 2018 to 2022.

Taylor was raised in country New South Wales.

He graduated from the University of Sydney and New College, Oxford, attending the latter as a Rhodes Scholar.

Prior to entering politics he worked as a management consultant and was active in agribusiness.

Taylor was elected to parliament at the 2013 federal election.

Reporting in November 2013, the taskforce recommended that the State of Victoria should promote the production of additional and largely on-shore gas supply.

He also served as the Director of Rabobank's Executive Development Program for leading farmers in Australia and New Zealand, as well as their Farm Managers Program which focused on younger farmers.

After leaving Port Jackson Partners, Taylor developed several businesses with family members and fellow investors, largely connected to irrigation and agriculture.

Management of these businesses were relinquished on his taking his seat in parliament.

Taylor was made an assistant minister in the Turnbull government in 2015 and appointed Minister for Law Enforcement and Cybersecurity in 2017.

He supported Peter Dutton in the 2018 Liberal leadership spills, and was subsequently elevated to cabinet after Scott Morrison defeated Dutton for the leadership.

He held office as Minister for Energy (2018–2019), Energy and Emissions Reduction (2019–2021), and Industry, Energy and Emissions Reduction (2021–2022).

He was appointed shadow treasurer after the Coalition's defeat at the 2022 election.

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

Taylor was born to Anne and Peter Taylor, who raised him and his three brothers on their property Bobingah, a sheep and cattle farm in the foothills of the Australian Alps of New South Wales.

His father is a fourth generation sheep farmer.

Taylor's maternal grandfather was engineer Sir William Hudson, whom he regarded as a role model.