Bronwyn Kathleen Setright was born on 19 October 1942 in North Sydney. Her father, Thomas Francis Setright (1909–1999), was an engineer, and her mother was Kathleen Annie Congreve (1912–1986), an opera singer who worked as a dramatic soprano at the Australian Opera Company. As a child, Bishop was sent to singing lessons by her mother.

Bishop was educated at Roseville Public School, completing her primary education in 1954. She then attended secondary school at Cremorne Girls High School. Bishop enrolled in law at the University of Sydney but gained her professional qualification from the Solicitors’ Admission Board (now Legal Profession Admission Board). Bishop undertook a five-year LL.B. program at the University of Sydney. However, she was deemed ineligible to continue after failing a number of subjects multiple times. Bishop failed a total of 11 subjects over six years. In her first year in 1960, she failed all four core subjects. In 1964, she failed four subjects again and repeated them in 1965, in which she failed three again. The policy of the University of Sydney at the time was that a student was required to show cause why they should be allowed to repeat a subject for a third time, and Bishop was deemed ineligible to continue.

Heavily involved in organised politics, Bishop joined Killara Young Liberals in 1961 and during her association with that branch, she became vice-president. She first became a Liberal Party office-holder in 1973 as president of the Balmoral branch and was later elected as the chairman of the Liberal Party Convention Committee from 1981 to 1985 and as the first female president of the NSW Liberals from 1985 to 1987.

In 1966, she married Alan David Bishop (20 April 1940 – 22 January 2010), with whom she studied law at the University of Sydney. Alan Bishop was a judge of the now defunct Compensation Court and the District Court of New South Wales and was instrumental in the establishment of the WorkCover Authority of New South Wales. He is honoured by the Bishops’ alma mater with the Alan Bishop Scholarship for distinguished final-year undergraduate law students. Alan Bishop also served as an alderman of the City of Sydney and was involved in multiple committees and companies, including the public medical research company AGITG.

During her university years, Bishop was not involved in student politics but was a member of the Killara branch of the Young Liberals. After leaving university, Bishop used the subjects she had previous passed to apply for the Solicitors’ Admission Board and was admitted to practise law as a solicitor in 1967.

At the 1987 federal election, Bishop was elected to the Senate in the fifth position on the Coalition’s ticket in New South Wales. She was effectively a one-to-one replacement for Sir John Carrick, who was retiring from politics. She was the second woman to serve as a senator for New South Wales, and the first to be popularly elected; Sue West had been appointed to a casual vacancy a few months earlier, but had failed to retain her seat. Bishop was elevated to the shadow ministry by Andrew Peacock in 1989, as Shadow Minister for Public Administration, Federal Affairs and Local Government (1989–1990). She proved an aggressive debater against the Australian Labor Party, particularly with Foreign Minister Gareth Evans, who during one debate in 1992 exclaimed to the chamber “I am reminded of the exchange I heard recently in Parliament House when someone said, ‘Why do so many people take an instant dislike to Senator Bishop?’ to which the answer was, ‘It saves time’.”

An affirmed monarchist, Bishop, along with fellow ministers Nick Minchin and Tony Abbott, supported the “No” campaign leading up to the failed 1999 Republican referendum and on one occasion spoke to Australians for Constitutional Monarchy, warning of the “Seven deadly myths of the republican debate”. On 17 July 1991, in response to the infamous debate on the Nine Network’s Midday television show with host Ray Martin, debating on Australia remaining a constitutional monarchy, in a live televised debate with singer Normie Rowe and radio broadcaster Ron Casey, who ended up physically brawling, Bishop issued a media release which said: “It may well have been High Noon on the Midday Show when Ron Casey took a swipe at Normie Rowe but this conduct indicates just how divisive the debate on the Monarchy has become. Not content to see the country on its knees as a result of the recession the Labor Party must be pleased that it is dividing the community on an issue which has absolutely no political relevance.”

When Downer became leader, Bishop became Shadow Health Minister, a senior position, but caused controversy on her first day in office by announcing her support for tobacco advertising, drawing criticism from both the Australian Medical Association and her own party, which supported the Keating Government’s legislation to prohibit tobacco advertising in 1992. Her remarks were attacked by the then AMA president and soon-to-be Liberal MP for the neighbouring seat of Bradfield, Brendan Nelson, who said that: “Mrs Bishop has a lot to learn about health…there are now more than 50,000 pieces of medical research and literature supporting the view that smoking is injurious to humans.” Bishop was dropped from Health and moved to Privatisation and Commonwealth/State Relations (1995–1996).

Bronwyn and Alan Bishop have two daughters; Angela, an entertainment reporter for Network Ten, and Sally. Bronwyn and Alan Bishop divorced in 1992.

Shortly after the 1993 election, Jim Carlton, the Liberal member for Mackellar, resigned. In a move widely seen as furthering her leadership ambitions, Bishop resigned from the Senate on 24 February 1994 to contest the ensuing by-election for the safe Liberal seat. Although she was comfortably elected, her planned challenge to Hewson’s leadership faced a setback when she did not poll as well as expected against author and filmmaker Bob Ellis, who ran as an independent in the by-election. When Hewson called a spill for the Liberal leadership in 1994, Bishop opted not to stand as a candidate, and Alexander Downer successfully challenged for the party leadership.

Nelson bringing back Bishop to the frontbench was in contrast to their past conflict in 1994 when Bishop as Shadow Health Minister defended tobacco advertising which was contrary to the position taken by Nelson, then President of the Australian Medical Association (AMA).

When the Liberals returned to Government in 1996, Prime Minister John Howard appointed Bishop a minister in junior portfolios. She was the first Liberal woman from New South Wales to become a minister. She was Minister for Defence Industry, Science and Personnel from 11 March 1996 to 21 October 1998 and Minister for Aged Care from 21 October 1998 to 26 November 2001. It was in this role that she endured her greatest scandal, the kerosene baths controversy of 2000. The revelation that some residents at Melbourne’s Riverside Private Nursing Home had suffered blistering after being bathed in a weak kerosene solution as a cure for scabies led to a national outcry over the standards of care maintained by Bishop’s department. She was dropped from the ministry after the 2001 election. On 1 January 2001, Bishop was presented with the Centenary Medal “For service to Australian society through parliament and government”. In 2004, she campaigned to succeed Neil Andrew as Speaker of the House, but was not successful.

In August 2005, Bishop called for Muslim headscarves to be banned from public schools, an opinion also expressed by another prominent Liberal backbencher, Sophie Mirabella. However, the Prime Minister, John Howard, said that he did not agree with this view as a ban would be impractical. In November 2005, Bishop expressed the view that “she is opposed to the wearing of the Muslim headscarf, where it does not form part of the school uniform. This is because that in most cases the headscarf is being worn as a sign of defiance and difference between non-Muslim and Muslim students” and then went on to say that she “does not believe that a ban on the Jewish skull cap is necessary, because people of the Jewish faith have not used the skull cap as a way of campaigning against the Australian culture, laws and way of life.”

On 21 January 2006, at a Young Liberals convention in Sydney, Bishop declared her intention to introduce a private members bill to make “destroying or violating” the Australian flag a federal offence. Shortly before the Howard Government lost office, Bishop headed the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Family and Human Services, and released the report “The winnable war on drugs: The impact of illicit drug use on families”. The report was highly critical of harm minimisation and suggested mandatory adoption of children under 5 years of age whose parents were known to use drugs. The report was widely criticised by a range of organisations such as Family Drug Support, the Australian Democrats and the Australian Drug Foundation for lacking evidence, being ideologically driven, and having the potential to do massive harm to Australia.

In 2006, following a flag-burning incident during the 2005 Cronulla riots and a burnt flag display by a Melbourne artist, Bishop introduced the Protection of the Australian National Flag (Desecration of the Flag) Bill 2006. This bill sought to make it “a criminal offence to wilfully destroy or otherwise mutilate the Flag in circumstances where a reasonable person would infer that the destruction or mutilation is intended publicly to express contempt or disrespect for the Flag or the Australian Nation.” The bill received a second reading but subsequently lapsed and did not go to vote in the House of Representatives.

In the 2007 federal election, Bishop was re-elected to her seat with a 0.62-point primary swing and 3.04-point two-party-preferred swing against her on slightly redistributed boundaries. After his appointment as Liberal Leader, Brendan Nelson appointed Bishop to the Shadow Ministry portfolio of Veterans’ Affairs.

Bishop is an amateur actress, having appeared in several charity productions including The Sound of Music (as Baroness Elsa), and Grease (as the Headmistress). In 2007, she sang a duet of Irving Berlin’s A Couple of Swells with then Health Minister, Tony Abbott, and Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party, Julie Bishop, at a fund-raiser in Sydney. Bishop is also a patron of Opera Australia and was 2008 President of the Sydney International Piano Competition Committee.

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 “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 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.

Following the Coalition victory at the federal election on 7 September 2013, Tony Abbott announced Bishop as the Coalition’s nominee as next Speaker of the Australian House of Representatives. Bishop was elected as Speaker on 12 November 2013. She was the third woman, and the first non-Labor woman, to hold the post. She opted against wearing the full traditional attire of the Speaker like her predecessor Peter Slipper, instead continuing to wear ordinary business attire.

In October 2014, Bishop became the longest-serving woman in the history of the Australian Parliament, outstripping the record of 27 years and 3 months previously held by Kathy Sullivan. In November 2014 Bishop lost her bid for presidency of the Inter-Parliamentary Union.

The controversy was fuelled by further revelations of spending on travel. In 2014, Bishop and four parliamentary delegates spent $88,084 on a two-week trip to Europe in her bid for presidency of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, including almost $1,000 a day on private limousines. Bishop also incurred costs of over $3,300 for car expenses in order to attend the opera and other arts events from 2010 to 2013 and $800 for flights to the wedding of Sophie Mirabella in Albury.

In mid-July 2015, Bishop became embroiled in the “Choppergate” expenses scandal surrounding her use of parliamentary travel entitlements that ultimately led to her resignation as Speaker. It had emerged that she had chartered helicopter flights from Melbourne to Geelong and back to attend a state Liberal Party fundraiser on 5 November 2014. The cost of the flights was $5,227.27 for a journey that typically takes an hour each way by road. Bishop refused to resign over the expenses claim, describing it as an “error of judgement”, while expressing disappointment that the controversy had become a distraction from the opposition and its policies. However, she agreed to pay back the sum of the helicopter flight plus a penalty of $1,307.

Bowing to political pressure, Bishop resigned the speakership on 2 August 2015 and moved to the backbench. Commentators noted that Prime Minister Abbott would have had to deal with the probability that “a significant number of government MPs would not support her in a no-confidence motion.”

Though it was initially speculated that the 73-year-old MP would leave parliament at the 2016 federal election, Bishop announced in December 2015 her intent to recontest her seat of Mackellar, claiming she had been “exonerated” over the “Choppergate” expenses scandal, and that the “threat of terrorism” had convinced her she needs to remain in Parliament. Support from the local Liberal branches in her seat had been “dented” following revelations she voted for Malcolm Turnbull in the September 2015 Liberal leadership spill before unsuccessfully lobbying senior Liberals for a ministry in the Turnbull Government, a charge which a cabinet minister confirmed but was denied by Bishop. In challenges for preselection, candidate Walter Villatora was endorsed by Mike Baird and Tony Abbott to replace Bishop, and former Wallaby player Bill Calcraft was endorsed by Alan Jones. Bishop was eventually defeated by Jason Falinski by 51 votes to 39. Falinski retained Mackellar for the Liberals at the 2016 election.

Bishop joined Sky News Live as a political contributor in June 2016, making her debut on Speers Tonight on 2 June 2016.

In November 2016, Bishop attended a party at The Rugby Club in Sydney to celebrate the victory of Donald Trump in the 2016 United States presidential election.

On 26 November 2018, her official Speaker’s painting was hung in Parliament House. It was painted by Jiawei Shen and was attended by Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, current Speaker of the House, Tony Smith, her family and other members of the Liberal Party of Australia including the Liberal Chief Whip, Nola Marino.

Bishop was made an Officer of the Order of Australia in the 2020 Queen’s Birthday Honours, for distinguished service to the Parliament of Australia, to the people of New South Wales, and to women in politics.