Brendan Nelson - Political Career

Political Career

Nelson's father's strong involvement in the union movement and the Australian Labor Party influenced his early political development, and he joined Labor at the age of 13. However, he resigned from the Labor Party in 1991 before accepting a role on the AMA executive, on account of his perception of it as an apolitical position. At a rowdy pre-election rally during the 1993 election campaign in Toorak, as vice-president of the AMA, he declared via a loud-hailer that "I have never voted Liberal in my life!" On 25 November 1993, he told journalist and medical writer Steve Dow that Labor governments generally were better for Australia but not always in their handling of health care.

In January 1994, Nelson joined the Tasmanian branch of the Liberal Party of Australia. After initially being tipped for the South Australian seat of Boothby, being vacated by outgoing Liberal MP Steele Hall, he sold his Tasmanian home, and moved to Lindfield in the affluent North Shore region of Sydney, establishing a surgery at The Rocks and switching his membership to the Pymble branch. On 30 January 1995, he announced his nomination for the preselection contest for Bradfield, a safe Liberal seat in which Pymble was located and held since 1974 by shadow minister David Connolly. The seat had been in Liberal hands for its entire existence, and the Liberals held it with a 27-percent majority, making it one of the safest Coalition seats in metropolitan Australia. He was supported in his bid by former AMA president Dr Bruce Shepherd, who served as his campaign treasurer. On 1 March 1995 at a Liberal gathering, he renounced his view that Labor governments had been better for Australia, and stated that he believed Medicare was unsustainable and that voluntary work programs for the unemployed would build self-esteem, and advocated a consumption tax. He declared that "if all I wanted to do was be a parliamentarian, a seat-warmer, I would have gone for a marginal seat." A bitter preselection campaign ensued, and on 13 May 1995 he gained the party's endorsement on a 96-to-93 vote, even though Connolly had the support of Liberal leader John Howard and deputy leader Peter Costello. Nelson claimed his win was "a victory for liberalism".

After the preselection, Nelson worked on an Aboriginal health program for the Cape York Peninsula, and in June, following his retirement as president of the AMA, went to the slums of Nairobi, Kenya, on behalf of World Vision to hear about that country's struggles with AIDS—only three months after losing his younger brother to the disease.

On 14 July 1995, as master of ceremonies for a fundraising dinner supporting Howard, he was criticised for his risque humour concerning then-current entertainment and political events, not having realised that Lady Fairfax, Lady McMahon and conservative business leaders were in the audience. The incident attracted considerable publicity and there were calls from inside the Liberal Party to reverse his preselection, but he was supported by key decision-makers including the president of the NSW Liberal Party.