Julie Bishop shares the unusual way Shane Warne helped her negotiate with ‘scary’ gang in Zimbabwe

A former senior Australian politician has revealed Shane Warne acted as her ‘lifeline’ during a ‘scary’ stand-off with a Zimbabwean war veterans.

Former foreign minister Julie Bishop told The Project how the mere mention of Warne’s name diffused a tense interview that could have turned ugly.

When a ‘gang’ of men Bishop was speaking with became unhappy at her questioning they immediately lightened up when their thoughts about Australia turned to Warne.

Bishop had to reassure the gang’s ‘glaring’ leader she was Australian and not British – and they immediately associated her nationality with the great cricketer instead of any authority that might interfere with their plans.

War veterans’ fond memories of Warne’s time in Zimbabwe helped smooth a  tough conversation with locals for former foreign minister Julie Bishop

Warne had toured Zimbabwe with Australia before the nation became a tinderbox and was warmly remembered.

Bishop was in Zimbabwe years later as an official Zimbabwean election observer, in an era that mostly white-owned farms were taken over, sometimes violently.

Bishop remembered being asked to interview a gang who took control of a commercial farm about which party they’d vote for in the highly controversial elections.

In 2000 incumbent Robert Mugabe, who was regarded as corrupt towards the end of his time as President, announced the seizure of 804 mostly white-owned farms for the resettlement of poor black farmers. 

Years of turmoil over the rightful ownership of Zimbabwean farms at times turned deadly and Bishop remembered how ‘scary’ a conversation with a group of land rights activists seemed.

‘It was the most rural, isolated part of Zimbabwe and there were some war veterans that had taken over a commercial farm and it was pretty scary but I had to interview them about the election and the leader of this gang, you know, they were kind of like bikies with no teeth and chains around their necks.’

‘The leader, he was glaring at me and he said, “you are British” and I thought, “here is my moment” and I said, “no, I’m Australian!” and he looked at me and the others and said, “Shane Warne!”

‘I can tell you I’ve never been so relieved to hear Shane Warne’s name as I was then.’

‘He was my lifeline and apparently … [Zimbabqweans] just fell in love with the great man. 

‘So his impact is way beyond Australia and I found time and time again that people would raise Shane Warne as part of the great Australian character.’