Page "Bronwyn Bishop" Paragraph 13

However, after the election of Malcolm Turnbull as leader of the Liberal Party, she was dropped from this portfolio, to return to the backbench.

Despite speculation that she would be challenged for preselection in her seat of Mackellar for the next election, this did not eventuate and she later reaffirmed her intention to contest the next election.

On 5 May 2009, Bishop criticised Turnbull's leadership, saying that " Malcolm seems to have been strong at the beginning but now he has gone soft.

" 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 to the shadow ministry as Shadow Minister for Seniors.

Bishop was re-elected at the 2010 Election and was appointed to the outer shadow ministry as Shadow Special Minister of State and Shadow Minister for Seniors.