Steven Ciobo

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The Honourable
Steven Ciobo
MP
Steven Ciobo Portrait 2013.jpg
Minister for International Development and the Pacific
Assumed office
21 September 2015
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull
Preceded by No Immediate Predecessor
Member of the Australian Parliament
for Moncrieff
Assumed office
10 November 2001
Preceded by Kathy Sullivan
Personal details
Born (1974-05-29) 29 May 1974 (age 49)
Mareeba, Queensland
Political party Liberal National Party
Spouse(s) Astra Hauquitz
Residence Gold Coast
Alma mater Bond University;
Queensland University of Technology
Website stevenciobo.com/

Steven Michele Ciobo (pronunciation: /tʃoʊˈboʊ/; CHOE-boe) (born 29 May 1974) is an Australian politician. He has been a member of the Australian House of Representatives representing the Division of Moncrieff, Queensland for the Liberal Party since November 2001. He served in the Abbott ministry as a parliamentary secretary to the Treasurer between September 2013 and December 2014; and as a Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and to the Minister for Trade and Investment from December 2014 until September 2015, when he was appointed as Minister for International Development and the Pacific by Malcolm Turnbull following the Liberal Party of Australia leadership spill, September 2015.

Early life and education

Ciobo grew up in Mareeba in North Queensland, the youngest of three children in an Anglican family.[1] His parents, Bruno and Joan, ran a tourism business in Cairns.[1] Ciobo is of Italian descent.[2]

Ciobo graduated in law and commerce from Bond University and earned a master's degree in law from the Queensland University of Technology.[1]

According to ABC Television, he worked on the floor of a food processing factory to help support himself while studying.[3] While at university he reportedly considered joining Australia's domestic intelligence agency, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO).[1] He was a consultant with Coopers & Lybrand, a senior consultant with PricewaterhouseCoopers and an adviser to senator Senator Brett Mason.[1][4]

Politics

Member for Moncrieff

Ciobo has been the federal member for Moncrieff since the federal election on 10 November 2001. He frequently voiced his criticism of the plan by Andrew Wilkie, and adopted by the Gillard Government, to require all poker machine players to set a daily betting limit,[5][6][7] telling a Queensland newspaper the plan "will place the entire population that want to have a $10 flutter within arms' reach of big brother government."[8]

In April 2011, Ciobo called for a radical rethink of the tourism strategy for the Gold Coast, calling on the city to focus on more casinos and glitz. He said turning Surfers Paradise into a world-class entertainment precinct to rival Las Vegas and Macau was the solution to save the Gold Coast from rising unemployment and economic doom.[9]

He was critical of the merger of the Liberal and National parties in Queensland, telling ABC Local Radio in July 2008 "I don't believe it's going to have a positive effect on a federal level. But at a state level it certainly is going to make a very big difference."[10]

In 2011 Ciobo and Labor MP Kelvin Thompson were seconded to the United Nations in New York City for 12 weeks.[11]

Ciobo has repeatedly called for the introduction of daylight saving for South East Queensland,[12][13] despite this position being at odds of that of the Liberal National Party in the Queensland Parliament.[14]

In 2005, he urged the government to change the law to strip naturalised Australians of their citizenship if they incite, support or engage in terrorist activity.[15] In 2006, Ciobo called for the first home owner grant to be doubled,[16] a policy which was adopted by the Rudd government in October 2008 as an economic stimulus measure.[17]

In the lead up to the 2007 federal election, responding to a dare from a local radio station, Ciobo and his wife were thrown into the air on a sling shot bungee at the Surfers Paradise Adrenalin Park. While hurled up in the air, Ciobo's wife spotted one of her husband's stolen election signs on the balcony of a Surfers Paradise apartment. The radio station has since posted a video of the dare on YouTube.[18]

The electorate of Moncrieff covers the central Gold Coast and stretches from the suburb of Miami in the south to the suburb of Southport in the north and west to the suburb of Gilston. The electorate includes the tourism landmark Surfers Paradise as well as the Pacific Fair shopping centre, the Conrad Jupiters casino and hotel complex and the marine mammal park Sea World. Steve Ciobo in 2006 voted against legalising the abortion drug RU486. In 2002 he voted for legalising Embryo Experimentation Bill [1]

Election results – Steven Ciobo
Election Share of first-preference vote Share of two-party-preferred vote Notes
2001 federal election 51% 65% [19]
2004 federal election 64% 70% [20]
2007 federal election 60% 64% [21]
2010 federal election 62% 68% [22]

Shadow minister

Ciobo visits the Oakvale Farm tourist attraction in Port Stephens, New South Wales with local member Bob Baldwin.
Ciobo addressing a Financial Services Council conference in Sydney.

In September 2010, shortly after the 2010 federal election, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott removed Ciobo from the shadow ministry, relegating him to the backbench. Abbott refused to answer questions on the reason for Ciobo's demotion, other than to say: "There is something of the quality of snakes and ladders about the business of politics."[23] In an article in The Australian, contributing editor Peter van Onselen speculated the reasons for Ciobo's demotion were that "Abbott has never especially gotten along with Ciobo personally" and that Ciobo was "a Malcolm Turnbull lieutenant."[24] Van Onselen said the demotion reflected poorly on Abbott because Ciobo is "talented, a good media performer and part of the next generation in the Liberal Party."[24]

In December 2009, upon his election as the Leader of the Opposition, Abbott had demoted Ciobo from the shadow cabinet to the outer ministry to be the Shadow Minister for Tourism and the Arts and the Shadow Minister for Youth and Sport.[25] He was previously the Shadow Minister for Small Business, Independent Contractors, Tourism and the Arts on 22 September 2008 as part of Malcolm Turnbull's shadow cabinet.[26] In 2009 Ciobo raised the government's slow pace in acting on a report recommending reforms to the franchising sector[27] as a Matter of public importance in Parliament, saying "I plead on behalf of all those people in the franchising sector for Dr Emerson and this government to start doing something."[27]

He challenged an 11th-hour change to the Rudd government's unfair dismissal checklist, saying it will force many small companies to pay "go away" money to terminated employees with a grievance.[28]

Ciobo said Peter Garrett's move to scrap the Uluru climb would be another setback to the tourism industry which had been hit hard by the global economic downturn.[29]

On 23 November 2009 Ciobo introduced his first private members bill as a shadow minister. The bill proposed changes to the government's producer offset to encourage more local feature film production.[30][31]

He was previously the Shadow Minister for Small Business, the Service Economy and Tourism as part of the first opposition front bench, led by Brendan Nelson, following the defeat of the Howard government at the 2007 federal election.[32] Nelson promoted Ciobo into the shadow ministry despite Ciobo publicly pledging his support for his opponent, Malcolm Turnbull, in the previous month's leadership ballot.[33]

In 2008 Ciobo called the Prime Minister and Treasurer "wimpish" for failing to get Australian banks to pass on interest rate cuts to small businesses.[34]

He attacked the Rudd government over Peter Garrett's decision to axe funding for the Australian National Academy of Music, saying the decision was "the latest chapter in bungled Labor decisions that have ended one of Australia's centres of excellence and left students' futures in limbo".[35]

Ciobo has also called for Captain Cook's landing place at Kurnell in Sydney to be upgraded and promoted as a tourism icon.[36]

Parliamentary secretary

On 18 September 2013 Ciobo was appointed the Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer, Joe Hockey.[37] He was also appointed as Australia's alternate governor to the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.[38] Ciobo was given responsibility for the Foreign Investment Review Board, the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the Royal Australian Mint, the National Housing Supply Council and the Australian Valuation Office.[38] Since his appointment Ciobo has abolished both the National Housing Supply Council, saying the Council's activities were "no longer needed";[39][40] and the Australian Valuation Office, saying "a compelling case for the Commonwealth providing its own valuation services no longer exists, particularly given there is a highly competitive market of private sector providers";[41][42] and announced plans to privatise the Royal Australian Mint.[43]

In December 2014, Ciobo was appointed as the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and to the Minister for Trade and Investment.[44][45]

Personal life

In an interview with Brisbane's Courier Mail newspaper in August 2010, Ciobo revealed he can juggle, his favourite flavour is custard and that, if an animal, he would be a rhinoceros.[46] Ciobo also told the newspaper he believes Australia is defined as "a land of opportunity refreshingly free of pretension."[46]

In an opinion piece he wrote for ABC's The Drum in June 2011, Ciobo declared he was a libertarian who would "attempt to persuasively argue the need for less regulation."[47] In the article he said that "like the Tassie Tiger, personal responsibility has died out"[47] and that "increasingly, I find myself thinking it is not this new law that is required, rather, it is a good dose of 'toughen up and stop blaming others for your bad decision'."[47]

Ciobo is married with two children and lives on the Gold Coast.[48] In 2010, he told a newspaper his happiest moment was when his son, who was born with a heart condition, came through a five-and-a-half-hour operation well.[46] His wife, Astra Ciobo, was a successful[49] businesswoman who co-founded a Gold Coast public relations firm.[50]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ 'Inside Canberra', Interview with Madonna King, 2 July 2008, http://www.craigemersonmp.com/files/inside-canberra-2-july-08.pdf
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ 'Accelerate Your Candidate – Steven Ciobo' http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=F0gLwCLASsA
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  25. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  26. ↑ 'Coalition Shadow Ministry' http://www.liberal.org.au/documents/CoaShadMinList.pdf
  27. ↑ 27.0 27.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  28. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  29. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  30. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  31. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  32. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  33. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  34. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  35. ↑ http://www.theaustralian.com.au/archive/news/new-music-school-to-be-truly-national/story-e6frg6no-1111118076847
  36. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.[dead link]
  37. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  38. ↑ 38.0 38.1 http://smc.ministers.treasury.gov.au/ministerial-responsibilities/
  39. ↑ http://scott-ludlam.greensmps.org.au/content/estimates/fiscal-treasury-group-housing-and-axing-housing-supply-council
  40. ↑ http://www.liberal.org.au/latest-news/2013/11/08/boosting-productivity-and-delivering-effective-efficient-government
  41. ↑ http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/24/australian-valuation-office-to-be-scrapped-with-loss-of-200-jobs
  42. ↑ http://www.smh.com.au/national/public-service/public-service-jobs-cut-as-ato-closes-australian-valuation-office-20140123-31bp5.html
  43. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  44. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  45. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  46. ↑ 46.0 46.1 46.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  47. ↑ 47.0 47.1 47.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  48. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  49. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  50. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

Parliament of Australia
Preceded by Member for Moncrieff
2001–present		 Incumbent
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