Mark Bishop

For the character from 24, see Mark Bishop (24 character).

Mark Bishop
Senator for Western Australia
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 July 1996
Personal details
Born	29 June 1954 (1954-06-29) (age 57) Adelaide
Nationality	Australian
Political party	Australian Labor Party

Thomas Mark Bishop (born 29 June 1954), has been an Australian Labor Party member of the Australian Senate representing the state of Western Australia since July 1996.^[1] He was born in Adelaide, South Australia and was educated at the University of Adelaide and Harvard University. He was an industrial officer and union secretary before entering politics.

Bishop has been Shadow Minister for Veterans' Affairs 2001-04, Shadow Minister for Customs 2003-04 and Shadow Minister for Defence Industry, Procurement and Personnel 2005-2006.

In December 2006, Bishop announced that he would not recontest his Senate seat, due to expire on 30 June 2008. However, before the 2007 he decided to recontest and was re-elected for a further six-year term.

In November 2006, Senator Bishop met with Brian Burke after his party's national secretariat had banned contact with the disgraced former Western Australian premier. Although such contact was claimed to be "of a personal nature", Bishop was counselled by ALP leadership in March 2007.^[2]

In the Rudd Labor Government, Senator Bishop is Chair of the Senate Standing Committee for Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade,^[3] as well as being a member of a number of other Joint House and Senate committees.

Notes

1. ^ Senate homepage
2. ^ Rudd grilled over Brian Burke meetings West Australian, 1 March 2007
3. ^ Committee website

Persondata
Name	Bishop, Mark
Alternative names
Short description	Australian politician
Date of birth	1954-06-29
Place of birth	Adelaide
Date of death
Place of death