Greg Hunt

A member of the Liberal Party since 1994, Hunt was first elected to parliament at the 2001 federal election, replacing the retiring Peter Reith in the Division of Flinders. He was first elevated to the ministry following the 2004 federal election, when he was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for the Environment and Heritage. In January 2007, Hunt was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Following the Coalition's defeat at the 2007 election, he was appointed Shadow Minister for Climate Change, Environment and Urban Water.[5] His title was altered to Shadow Minister for Climate Change, Environment and Heritage after the 2010 election.[6]

After the 2013 federal election, Hunt was appointed Minister for the Environment in the Abbott Government.[7] One of his first actions as minister was to inform Tim Flannery, the head of the Gillard government's Climate Commission, that the government was closing this body, as per its election platform.[8] In December 2013, he announced a project to dredge Abbot Point, which was approved by the Marine Park Authority in January 2014.[9] Following the change in Liberal Party leadership in September 2015, Hunt was retained as Minister for the Environment in the new Turnbull Government.[10]

In February 2016, Hunt was named "Best Minister in the World" by a panel established by Thomson Reuters for the 2016 World Government Summit of Dubai.[11]

With the reelection of the Turnbull Government in 2016, Hunt became the Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science in the Second Turnbull Ministry.[12]

Following the resignation of Sussan Ley as Health Minister, Turnbull appointed Hunt as the Minister for Health and the Minister for Sport.[13]

During the Liberal leadership crisis in August 2018, Hunt tendered his resignation as health minister. However, it was not formally accepted and he retained the position in the Morrison Government several days later.[14][15] Hunt stood for the deputy leadership of the party, polling 16 votes out of 82 (20 percent) compared with 46 for Josh Frydenberg and 20 for Steven Ciobo; there were three abstentions.[16]

In June 2017 Hunt, Michael Sukkar and Alan Tudge faced the possibility of being prosecuted for contempt of court after they made public statements criticising the sentencing decisions of two senior judges while the government was awaiting their ruling on a related appeal.[17][18] They avoided prosecution by, eventually, making an unconditional apology to the Victorian Court of Appeal.[19][20][21]

In June 2020, Hunt announced that he would ask the Governor-General in Council to make regulations from 1 July 2020 prohibiting the importation of e-cigarettes containing vaporizer nicotine and nicotine-containing refills unless on prescription from a doctor.[22] Hunt stated on Twitter that the Australian Government committed to shutting down the importation of vaping products on 1 July. By 27 July a petition endorsed by Senator Matthew Canavan and George Christensen and other backbenchers was signed by over 70,000 people, causing Hunt to extend this deadline.[23] Hunt stated in a media release that he will now ask the Governor-General in Council to sign off on these regulations on 1 January 2021 to allow time for a more streamlined process for patients obtaining nicotine through their GP.[24]