Mal Brough

Brough was promoted to cabinet in 2006 as Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, and subsequently oversaw the controversial Northern Territory Emergency Response.

In September 2015 Brough was reappointed to the ministry by Malcolm Turnbull, who replaced Tony Abbott as Liberal leader and prime minister.

However, his second stint as a minister lasted only until December 2015, as he resigned from the ministry following revelations that the Australian Federal Police had investigated him over his dealings with James Ashby.

Brough was one of a number of government MPs including Prime Minister John Howard who lost their seats at the 2007 election.

[8][9] Brough switched to the seat of Fisher and won it back from Liberal turned independent and the Speaker of the House of Representatives Peter Slipper at the 2013 federal election.

On 26 September 2008 he resigned from his post, saying: "You try and do the right thing and, quite frankly, at this point it's all over the shop and it's no wonder voters get so disenchanted with the non-Labor side of politics.

[13] In mid-2012, following the defection of Peter Slipper from the Liberals to become an independent MP and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Brough announced that he was seeking LNP preselection for the seat of Fisher for the 2013 federal election.

In an early 2014 appeal ruling the full bench of the Federal Court found that Justice Rares had "no basis to conclude that Brough was part of any combination with anyone in respect to the commencement of these proceedings with the predominant purpose of damaging Slipper in the way alleged or at all", and that there was "nothing untoward about those matters".

[17][18] In March 2013, Brough was the subject of controversy after posting a mock menu ahead of a Liberal Party fundraiser, which included an obscene characterisation of the body of then-Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

[19] On 29 December 2015 Brough stood down from the Turnbull Ministry and moved to the backbench pending the completion of an investigation by the Australian Federal Police over the alleged copying of the diary of former speaker Peter Slipper.