Brendan John Nelson (born 19 August 1958) is an Australian business leader, physician and former politician. He served as the federal Leader of the Opposition from 2007 to 2008, going on to serve as Australia's senior diplomat to the European Union and NATO. He currently serves in a global leadership role with Boeing.
A medical doctor by profession, he came to public prominence as the Federal President of the Australian Medical Association (1993–95), and served as a Minister in the third and fourth terms of the Howard government, serving as Minister for Education, Science and Training (2001–06) and Minister for Defence (2006–2007).
Nelson was a member of the House of Representatives from 1996 to 2009, as the Liberal member for the Division of Bradfield in northern Sydney.
Following the 2007 federal election, at which the Howard government was defeated, Nelson was elected leader of the Liberal Party in a contest against former Minister for Environment and Water Resources Malcolm Turnbull, and became the Leader of the Opposition on 3 December 2007. On 16 September 2008, in a second contest following a spill motion, Nelson lost the leadership of the Opposition and the Liberal Party to Turnbull.
Nelson retired from politics in 2009, and was Ambassador to Belgium, Luxembourg, the European Union and NATO from 2009 to 2012. He was then Director of the Australian War Memorial from 2012 to 2019, subsequently serving as its chair until the end of 2022.
In February 2020, Nelson was made the President of Boeing Australia, New Zealand, and South Pacific. In September 2022, it was announced he would move to London to become President of Boeing International.
Nelson was born in Coburg, a suburb of Melbourne, as the eldest of three children of Des Nelson, a marine chief steward active in the Seamen's Union, and his wife, Patricia. In his infancy, his family moved to his mother's home town of Launceston, Tasmania.
In his early teenage years, the Nelson family relocated again to Adelaide, South Australia, where he matriculated at Saint Ignatius' College before going on to study economics at the University of Adelaide. However, he dropped out in his first year, working in various casual jobs in retail and hospitality before returning to university to study medicine. He switched to Flinders University to complete his Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery (MBBS).
Nelson then relocated to Hobart, Tasmania, taking up practice as a medical practitioner from 1985 until 1995. In 1986, he married for a second time, and became a father to twins. In 1987, he and David Crean, brother of Labor politician Simon Crean and later a Tasmanian state Labor minister, established an after-hours locum service which he worked in until 1991.
President of the Australian Medical Association
In 1988, Nelson joined the Australian Medical Association, and in 1990 became the Tasmanian State president of the organisation, taking a reformist approach to the role, and assisted the State branch in growing its membership. In 1991, he replaced Michael Jones, a former AMA president from Western Australia, as federal AMA vice-president. He took a strong public stand against sponsorship of sports events by cigarette companies, lobbying politicians directly for legislative change, and also encouraged airlines to increase the number of non-smoking seats.
On 30 May 1993, Nelson was elected unopposed as federal president of the Australian Medical Association, at 34 being the youngest ever holder of the office. He came to the office after significant hostility between the AMA and the federal Labor government, which peaked at the 1993 election under former AMA president Bruce Shepherd and former Health Minister Brian Howe. Nelson attempted to establish better relations with the government and its new Health Minister, Graham Richardson. He pledged to make Aboriginal health and the effects of unemployment on health a high priority during his term as federal president, and would appoint a full-time worker based in Canberra to look after these issues.
In an address to the National Press Club on 30 September 1993, acknowledging the AMA's reputation for conservatism, he said he would not "lead the AMA safely", but believed doctors should "lead the way in showing that national progress can be made by placing the welfare and consideration of other human beings ahead of their own," asserting their obligation to speak out on issues for the public good. In the address, he advocated gay law reform, greater concern for the environment, more attention to Aboriginal and unemployed health, and greater co-operation between the medical profession and politicians of all sides to build a better health system. In November, he told a national Aboriginal conference in Sydney that he was ashamed of the medical profession's track record on Aboriginal health, arguing that "doctors need to ask themselves how a person can be well when they've been denied their land, their hunting grounds, their citizenship and freedom and even their own children. Of course Aboriginal people's health has suffered when you look at this litany of misery". As president, while personally opposing euthanasia, he supported the right of doctors to withdraw treatment from consenting critically ill patients, and supported euthanasia campaigner Philip Nitschke's case against the Royal Darwin Hospital.
The role of private health in the health care mix, Aboriginal health, the AMA's ongoing campaign against cigarette sponsorship of sports events, and the size of the Medicare levy were other significant issues which occupied a lot of Nelson's time and attention as federal president, as they did the various Ministers for Health in the final years of the Keating government. Nelson took ministers and shadow ministers around Central Australia to view Aboriginal communities. In October 1994, the World Conference on Tobacco and Health in Paris unanimously adopted an AMA resolution calling for a formal United Nations strategy on tobacco control.
Early involvement with the Australian Labor Party
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 megaphone 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 the safest Coalition seat in Sydney and one of the safest Coalition seats in metropolitan Australia. He was supported in his bid by former AMA president 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 also declared that he intended to be a high-profile member of Parliament, saying "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".