THE NEXT POWER PLAYERS
By Andrew Clennell
Sydney Morning Herald
er-players-20100212-nxm3.html
Feb 12 2010
Australia
Shadow ministers Gladys Berejiklian and Mike Baird are being talked
about as future premiers, writes Andrew Clennell.
For Mike Baird, the call to enter politics seemed to come from a
higher power. Well, two higher powers. Having left his Deutsche Bank
job in Sydney in 1995 to spend a year at bible college in Canada,
to the amusement of colleagues Baird was required to write a "life
paper" to explain why he wanted to become a man of the cloth.
His tutor at Regent College in Vancouver, Loren Wilkinson, read the
paper and, after Baird’s last line "that I’m looking forward to a
future as a church minister", Wilkinson wrote a postscript in red ink:
"or in Australian politics".
For Baird, his tutor’s suggestion, at the age of 27, was enough to have
him rethink his path. Wilkinson, the professor of interdisciplinary
studies at the college, explains: "You don’t have to be a minister
to serve God. I have given that [sort of] advice pretty often."
Baird returned to Sydney and resumed life in the banking world but
ran for Liberal preselection for the seat of Manly in 1998. On this
occasion God apparently wasn’t on his side. He lost.
In 2006, Baird decided to have another crack at Manly; he took six
months off his job at HSBC and threw himself into a tough preselection
against Michael Darby, who was backed by the right-wing powerbroker,
David Clarke. At the time, Baird’s father Bruce, the then federal
and former state politician, tried to dissuade him, to no avail.
Bruce had seen the downside of politics. He received death threats
over the M2 as transport minister. On the night of his 25th wedding
anniversary, police relocated him and his family, including Mike,
to a hotel.
Just four weeks away from the vote, with his chances of winning
preselection appearing all but lost, Baird received a lucrative job
offer from his bank – which was already paying him $400,000 a year –
to relocate to Hong Kong for big money. Baird and wife Kerryn agreed
to sleep on it.
Then came the intervention of the second higher power – the Prime
Minister. John Howard at that time was not the biggest fan of Bruce
Baird – the troublesome backbencher had been the bane of his existence
with his stance on asylum seekers. But Howard invited Bruce to his
office and told him to give Mike the message that "he needs to keep
going, we need people like him in politics".
On the strength of Howard’s intervention, Baird decided not to pull
out. He won, 75 to 62.
FOR BAIRD’S senior shadow ministerial partner in crime, Gladys
Berejiklian, the call to serve came from a somewhat lesser power: the
former Liberal leader, Peter Collins. Her association with Collins
began in 1991 when, as a 20-year-old university student, she walked
into the then Attorney-General’s Willoughby electorate office and
begged for a job. She faxed his office every day for three weeks. "I
stalked his office," Berejiklian readily admits.
Finally, she was offered a part-time job. She went on to work for
Collins when he was the state’s treasurer and formed a friendship
with now federal shadow treasurer Joe Hockey.
After the Liberals lost power in NSW in 1995, Berejiklian worked for
federal finance minister Helen Coonan. But Berejiklian did not like
Canberra and came up with an exit strategy. "Having badgered Peter
Collins’s staff to get me a job, I then identified a person in the
Commonwealth Bank who I thought should employ me and badgered her
and after six months she offered me a job. I just knew I wanted to
go into banking."
She rose quickly, finishing up in charge of the Commonwealth Bank’s
entire youth market – two million accounts. When the offer came from
Collins for her to replace him in Willoughby for the 2003 election,
it was a difficult decision.
Berejiklian sounds almost wistful as she explains: "I think very few
people would do politics for the money. I honestly thought that when
my chance had come to run for politics, I would jump at it. But when I
had to make the decision it was by far the most difficult professional
decision I made in my life."
She won the seat against the local mayor Pat Reilly by just 144 votes.
BAIRD AND Berejiklian are the future of a Liberal government in NSW –
two former bankers who decided to throw in the big dough for a shot
at the bearpit in the hope they would end up senior ministers in the
first Liberal government in 16 years.
As they currently stand, Baird would be the state’s next treasurer
and Berejiklian transport minister and perhaps deputy Liberal leader.
Both are already being talked about as future premiers, especially in
the wake of what is being seen as a lacklustre effort as opposition
leader by Barry O’Farrell. Baird has been mentioned more as a contender
but senior Liberals argue people should not discount Berejiklian;
she has more parliamentary and political experience than Baird.
Says Joe Hockey: "This is the new generation. This is the leadership
of NSW for the next decade."
Ironically, the Herald has confirmed Hockey seriously considered
entering state politics to challenge Barry O’Farrell after several
approaches two years ago but decided not to after he was promoted to
the federal shadow treasurer’s job.
There are similarities between Baird and Berejiklian – their
backgrounds in banking, the fact they both had to fight hard
elections against independents to win seats – but there are also
great differences.
Baird, 42, is white-bread son of a politician from the leafy north
shore, via stints in New York and Canberra when his father was a
diplomat. Berejiklian is of Armenian descent, daughter of a boilermaker
from Ryde.
Baird has the wife and three kids, having married at 21; Berejiklian,
39, is single. She jokes that she recently read Denis Thatcher’s book
and does not mind that she may have to endure the sort of flak that
Julia Gillard copped or indeed, Bob Carr, for not having children.
"You can’t always plan out the way your life turns out," she says.
"I think people just take you for who you are and what you are. I
think if I do get married, if I do have kids, that’d be great, for me,
[but] I don’t find the need to have a handbag, put it that way."
The feeling within Coalition ranks, with O’Farrell being a pragmatic
politician, is if there is serious reform should the Liberals get
elected as expected next year, it will be these two, and perhaps
National Party leader Andrew Stoner who will drive it.
Berejiklian says her plans for transport involves turning Sydney into
a city where people do not feel "forced to get into the car". She
says Sydney has a "rump of a system which only services some parts
of the community during peak hour" and is in danger of becoming a
Los Angeles-style city.
The government’s metro proposal should be junked, she says.
"My personal preference is to improve the system we’ve got. I
don’t want to say we would never build a metro but why would you
build another all-stops system when you have an all-stops system? I
think we should be looking at fast trains [like Sydney to Canberra]
or Sydney to Penrith via Homebush."
Baird says he genuinely believes there is waste in government which, if
eradicated, could enable more money to be freed up for infrastructure.
And he gives this chilling warning to those who remember the
opposition’s promise at the last election to cut 29,000 public
service jobs.
"There’s a simple message to everyone in the public service: anyone
that rolls their sleeves up and wants part of something that’s
exciting in turning NSW around they will have a job … if someone’s
not prepared to work hard, how can we say they deserve to remain part
of the team?"
Both rule out challenging O’Farrell before the election and cite Jeff
Kennett and Howard as leaders who struggled in opposition but proved
very successful in government.
Asked if he would be premier, Baird says: "You can’t rule anything
out forever because it’s just not sensible."
He says there is "no doubt" he can see Berejiklian as leader.
She is more cautious: "I haven’t thought about it that much … I
always think about the job I’ve got in politics and the next one I
want, and the next one I want is to be minister for transport."
Baird, despite coming across as a goody-two-shoes type, has a ruthless
streak as his old friend from church youth group days, Graham Stanton,
now head of the Youthworks bible college in Sydney, recalls ruefully.
"He went out with a girl who was my ex-girlfriend so we had a bit of
a falling out … at high school. I don’t know whether he stole her
but it’s true she went out with me first."
Berejiklian is another sometimes painted as pure as snow but the former
state president of the Young Liberals has always been a factional
player and central to deals with the Right faction. She is known as
the leader of the moderates faction in Parliament.
After the last election, she made it clear to former opposition
leader Peter Debnam that she would be moving her support to O’Farrell,
effectively ending Debnam’s hopes of staying on.
Says Stanton of Baird: "I don’t think he’s owned by anybody. He’s
owned by the Lord Jesus, I think I’d say that."
Says Hockey: "With Gladys, I think the people of NSW would be very
proud to have her as premier. She’s not motivated by her own personal
needs. She’s not obsessed with … power or profile. I think we’ll
see great reforms in NSW under Gladys."
http://www.smh.com.au/national/the-next-pow