[14] Heavily involved in organised politics, Bishop joined Killara Young Liberals in 1961 and during her association with that branch, she became vice-president.

She was the second woman to serve as a senator for New South Wales, and the first to be popularly elected; Sue West had been appointed to a casual vacancy a few months earlier, but had failed to retain her seat.

"[17][18] After the Coalition lost the 1993 election, speculation began to mount over John Hewson's future as leader of the Liberal Party.

In a move widely seen as furthering her leadership ambitions, Bishop resigned from the Senate on 24 February 1994 to contest the ensuing by-election for the safe Liberal seat.

Although she was comfortably elected, her planned challenge to Hewson's leadership faced a setback when she did not poll as well as expected against author and filmmaker Bob Ellis, who ran as an independent in the by-election.

When Downer became leader, Bishop became Shadow Health Minister, a senior position, but caused controversy on her first day in office by announcing her support for tobacco advertising, drawing criticism from both the Australian Medical Association and her own party, which supported the Keating government's legislation to prohibit tobacco advertising in 1992.

[24] Her remarks were attacked by the then AMA president and soon-to-be Liberal MP for the neighbouring seat of Bradfield, Brendan Nelson, who said that: "Mrs Bishop has a lot to learn about health...there are now more than 50,000 pieces of medical research and literature supporting the view that smoking is injurious to humans.

[15] The revelation that some residents at Melbourne's Riverside Private Nursing Home had suffered blistering after being bathed in a weak kerosene solution as a cure for scabies led to a national outcry over the standards of care maintained by Bishop's department.

Not content to see the country on its knees as a result of the recession the Labor Party must be pleased that it is dividing the community on an issue which has absolutely no political relevance.

"[30] In August 2005, Bishop called for Muslim headscarves to be banned from public schools, an opinion also expressed by another prominent Liberal backbencher, Sophie Mirabella.

[32][better source needed] In November 2005, Bishop expressed the view that "she is opposed to the wearing of the Muslim headscarf, where it does not form part of the school uniform.

"[33] On 21 January 2006, at a Young Liberals convention in Sydney, Bishop declared her intention to introduce a private members bill to make "destroying or violating" the Australian flag a federal offence.

[35] The report was highly critical of harm minimisation and suggested mandatory adoption of children under 5 years of age whose parents were known to use drugs.

"[42] However, with Turnbull's loss of the party leadership and the election of Tony Abbott as his successor, on 8 December 2009 Bishop was appointed as Shadow Minister for Seniors.

[44] In April 2011, Bishop stated that she believed former Prime Minister John Howard's decision to include an emissions trading scheme (ETS) in the 2007 Coalition policy platform was a mistake.

In October 2014, Bishop became the longest-serving woman in the history of the Australian Parliament, outstripping the record of 27 years and 3 months previously held by Kathy Sullivan.

[54] In mid-July 2015, Bishop became embroiled in the "Choppergate" expenses scandal surrounding her use of parliamentary travel entitlements that ultimately led to her resignation as Speaker.

It had emerged that she had chartered helicopter flights from Melbourne to Geelong and back to attend a state Liberal Party fundraiser on 5 November 2014.

Bishop refused to resign over the expenses claim, describing it as an "error of judgement", while expressing disappointment that the controversy had become a distraction from the opposition and its policies.

In 2014, Bishop and four parliamentary delegates spent $88,084 on a two-week trip to Europe in her bid for presidency of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, including almost $1,000 a day on private limousines.

[57][58] Bishop also incurred costs of over $3,300 for car expenses in order to attend the opera and other arts events from 2010 to 2013[59] and $800 for flights to the wedding of Sophie Mirabella in Albury.

In response to the controversy, Tony Abbott declared Bishop was on what he termed "probation", calling her behaviour "out of line", though maintaining his confidence in the Speaker.

[60] A transcript of Tony Abbott's comments calling for Prime Minister Julia Gillard to make Peter Slipper resign over a travel expenses scandal was also removed from the Liberal Party's website.

[65] Commentators noted that Prime Minister Abbott would have had to deal with the probability that "a significant number of government MPs would not support her in a no-confidence motion.

[75] In November 2016, Bishop attended a party at The Rugby Club in Sydney to celebrate the victory of Donald Trump in the 2016 United States presidential election.

[1] Bishop is an amateur actress, having appeared in several charity productions including The Sound of Music (as Baroness Elsa),[78] and Grease (as the Headmistress).

[79] In 2007, she sang a duet of Irving Berlin's A Couple of Swells with then Health Minister, Tony Abbott, and Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party, Julie Bishop, at a fund-raiser in Sydney.