Sophie Mirabella

Mirabella was born Sophie Panopoulos in Melbourne, Victoria, her parents having arrived in Australia from Greece in 1956.

She was educated at St Catherine's School, Toorak, while working part-time at her father's milk bar in South Melbourne.

Upon finishing secondary school, she attended the University of Melbourne where she studied law and became involved in student activism through the Melbourne University Liberal Club, of which she was president, and as vice-president of the Australian Liberal Students' Federation.

Sophie Mirabella (née Panopoulos; born 27 October 1968) is an Australian lawyer and former politician who currently serves as a Commissioner on the Fair Work Commission since 24 May 2021.

Mirabella has been a member of the Liberal Party since 1987.

After graduating from Melbourne University with degrees in law and commerce, Mirabella worked as a solicitor and articled clerk from 1995 to 1997.

From 1998 until her election to Parliament she worked as a barrister.

She became well known during the constitutional monarchy/republican debate in Australia, acting as a prominent advocate for retaining the constitutional monarchy, and was an elected member of the 1998 Constitutional Convention.

The referendum that followed saw all states and a majority of Australians support the retention of the constitutional monarchy over the republican model that was offered.

She was previously a Liberal Party member of the Australian House of Representatives from 2001 to 2013, representing the Division of Indi, Victoria.

In 2001 Mirabella won preselection as the Liberal candidate to succeed Lou Lieberman as the Member for Indi, standing against Sussan Ley, which she won in the 2001 federal election with a vote of 61.15% on a two-party preferred basis.

Mirabella received a well above-average 5.6% swing to her in the 2004 federal election, giving her 66.3% of the two-party preferred vote and making Indi a safe Liberal seat.

During this time, in 2005, she attracted public attention as a key member of an informal "ginger group" of Liberal backbenchers.

She chaired this group with Victorian Senator Mitch Fifield.

The group argued for "tax reform" (in essence, tax cuts paid for by reductions in government spending), sparking public debate on the topic.

Although Fifield stepped away from the group after budget cuts in 2005, Mirabella continued for a time as the group's chair.

While on the backbench, Mirabella took a strong stance on the prominent issue of asylum seekers, criticising a group of four fellow Liberal backbenchers, including Petro Georgiou and Judi Moylan, for opposing government policy on mandatory detention.

In August 2005, she called for Muslim women to be required to remove their head dress when posing for photo identification.

Mirabella was an advocate of voluntary student unionism (VSU) and strongly supported the legislation proposed by Brendan Nelson.

After spending a number of years on the backbench, Mirabella moved to the position of Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Local Government after the Coalition lost government in 2007 and to the role of Spokeswoman on Early Childhood Education, Childcare, Women and Youth in 2008.

Within the federal government, Mirabella sat in the backbench until 2007.

In 2007 the Coalition lost the federal election and entered opposition.

After the election, Mirabella was promoted to the role of Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Local Government under the leadership of Brendan Nelson.

In 2007, David Hawker expelled her for shouting at him after being warned twice to resume her seat.

She defied parliamentary orders under Standing Order No. 94A and thus was removed from the House of Representatives for misconduct.

While serving in that role, she attracted controversy in January 2008 when she launched an attack on former Liberal Party Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser, after a speech he gave at Melbourne University on "the Bush Administration (reversing) 60 years of progress in establishing a law-based international system", claiming errors and "either intellectual sloppiness or deliberate dishonesty", and that he tacitly supported Islamic fundamentalism, should have no influence on foreign policy, and that his stance on the war on terror has left him open to caricature as a "frothing-at-the-mouth leftie".

She was also one of five Liberal MPs not present in February 2008, when a motion was passed unanimously apologising to the stolen generations of indigenous children between Federation and the 1970s.

She explained her decision by asserting that there had never been a formal policy in Victoria of removing children from their families and that there is no evidence for any "truly stolen" children, despite the fact that the first laws passed giving authorities the right to take children from their parents were passed and used in Victoria.

Mirabella was one of those who pledged their support to Malcolm Turnbull when he challenged Brendan Nelson for leadership of the Liberal Party in September 2008.

She was promoted as part of the subsequent reshuffle, becoming the opposition spokeswoman on early childhood education, childcare, women and youth.

In 2009, she was appointed as the Shadow Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research.

Her move to the Shadow Cabinet came in 2009 after Tony Abbott defeated Turnbull in a leadership spill.

She was promoted to the role of spokeswoman for innovation, industry, science and research.

Mirabella had joined Abbott in resigning from the frontbench over Turnbull's climate change policy, and her move to the Shadow Cabinet was seen as part of the rise of the social-conservative right within the party.

After the 2010 election, she held her seat with a margin of 9.9% two party preferred against Labor.

According to Fenella Souter in the Sydney Morning Herald, Mirabella is known for her "caustic, confrontational manner".

Her behaviour led her to be ejected from parliament at least twice.

Mirabella narrowly lost her seat of Indi at the 2013 federal election to independent candidate Cathy McGowan.

She also resigned from the Coalition frontbench shortly prior to conceding defeat.

She subsequently attempted to regain the seat, standing again for the Liberal Party at the 2016 election, but was defeated by McGowan again on an increased margin.