Margie Abbott
Abbott in 2015
Spouse of the Prime Minister of Australia
In role
18 September 2013 – 15 September 2015
Preceded byThérèse Rein
Succeeded byLucy Turnbull
Personal details
Born
Margaret Veronica Aitken

(1958-02-01) 1 February 1958
Lower Hutt, New Zealand
Spouse
​
(m. 1988)​
Children3[1][2]
EducationWellington Teachers College
OccupationSchoolteacher, businesswoman

Margaret Veronica Abbott (née Aitken; born 1 February 1958)[3][4] is a New Zealand businesswoman best known as the wife of Tony Abbott, the 28th Prime Minister of Australia (2013–2015). She runs a childcare centre in Sydney.

Early life

Margaret Veronica Aitken was born in Hutt Hospital,[5] Lower Hutt, New Zealand to Max and Gail Aitken, and grew up in Wainuiomata. Both parents worked for the Post Office, Max as deputy chief postmaster of Wellington, and Gail as a typist.[6] She has a brother, Greg, a former private investigator.[6] The family has always been very sport-oriented; Max Aitken is a senior soccer administrator, and Abbott played soccer and netball for a number of years.[6] She is a Catholic, like her husband.[7]

Her father is a member of the New Zealand Labour Party and her mother is a Labour voter.[6] There were pictures of Labour leaders in the kitchen of the family home.[8] Abbott was also briefly a member of the Labour Party.[9][10]

Abbott attended Fernlea School and Wainuiomata College,[5] where among other studies she took part in a pioneering Māori-language course.[6][10] At the age of 16, she entered the Wellington Teachers' College, and after graduation taught primary school in Upper Hutt and Wainuiomata. She taught Māori both there and later in Australia.[9]

Career

After leaving teaching, she worked at a recruitment firm, and in 1983[10] followed her boss to Sydney, Australia. She then moved to the marketing department of a merchant bank in Sydney.[11] She eventually opened a not-for-profit child care centre in St Ives, Sydney,[12] which employs 10 staff and cares for children from around 100 families.[9][10] She continued as a director of the centre after her husband became prime minister.[13]

Marriage and children

She met Tony Abbott at a Sydney pub in 1988; he was then a journalist with The Bulletin and they married on 24 September 1988, and have three daughters (Louise, Frances, and Bridget),[14] and became grandparents in 2021.[15]

Wife of the prime minister

Abbott kept a relatively low profile during her husband's tenure as prime minister, giving only a handful of interviews. She continued living in Sydney – neither she nor her husband lived at The Lodge, the usual prime minister's residence in Canberra, as it was undergoing renovations.[16]

In September 2013, Abbott attracted media attention when she made comments apparently supportive of same-sex marriage; her husband was one of its most prominent opponents. She told the media "I suppose at the end of the day I think that love, commitment, are things that should be recognised and I think it's a conversation that Australia needs to have".[17]

In May 2014, Tim Mathieson, the partner of former prime minister Julia Gillard, gave an interview in which he said he was "disappointed that Margie Abbott is not doing any charity work [...] she has not contributed to any of them". In response, the Prime Minister's Office issued a list of the charities with which she was involved.[18]

References

  1. ↑ "Louise Abbott To Join Father Tony In Campaign8217s Final Week". The Daily Telegraph.
  2. ↑ "Tony Abbott's daughters Bridget and Frances speak about claims their 'daggy Dad' is a misogynist and more". 30 March 2013.
  3. ↑ "Interview with Robin, Terry and Bob, 97.3FM Brisbane". tonyabbott.com.au. Archived from the original on 30 March 2012. Retrieved 13 September 2013.
  4. ↑ "Abbott And Costello Defamation Action". australianpolitics.com. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
  5. 1 2 Ash, Julie; Chapman, Katie (28 August 2010). "Kiwi could be first lady of Aussie". stuff.co.nz. Retrieved 13 September 2013.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 Sydney Morning Herald, 7 September 2013, "From a Kiwi Labour past to Tory Tony's first lady"; Retrieved 12 September 2013
  7. ↑ David Marr, Rudd v. Abbott; retrieved 12 September 2013.
  8. ↑ Anthony Hubbard, "Abbott earns a liberal dose of respect from a Labor-voting Kiwi connection", The Age, 7 September 2013, p. 6
  9. 1 2 3 New Zealand Herald, 8 September 2013, "New PM will have Kiwi at his side"; Retrieved 12 September 2013
  10. 1 2 3 4 Speech by Margie Abbott, The Joy of an Ordinary Life Archived 27 February 2014 at the Wayback Machine; Retrieved 12 September 2013
  11. ↑ "Margie Abbott: PM's Wife and Local Community Champion". Living Local Guide. 2 September 2013. Retrieved 21 January 2019.
  12. ↑ Nicastri, Danielle (11 November 2013). "Margie Abbott, wife of PM enjoys family fun at St Ives Occasional Care". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 30 July 2022.
  13. ↑ Nicastri, Danielle (1 November 2013). "Wife of Prime Minister, Margie Abbott celebrates fun fair at her St Ives childcare centre". North Shore Times. Retrieved 20 November 2013.
  14. ↑ The Age, 25 March 2005, "The Abbott Paradox"; retrieved 12 September 2013
  15. ↑ "Oh baby, there's a new boy in the Abbott family". 12 July 2021. Retrieved 13 July 2021.
  16. ↑ Margie Abbott discusses husband Tony and their future in interview with Women's Weekly magazine, ABC News, 18 March 2015
  17. ↑ "Margie Abbott open to gay marriage". SBS News. Retrieved 21 January 2019.
  18. ↑ Margie Abbott details charity work in response to Tim Mathieson's criticism, The Sydney Morning Herald, 25 May 2014.
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