By Deborah Snow & Alexandra Smith
Every bookcase tells a story. In Gladys Berejiklian’s corner suite, which overlooks yet another CBD construction site, the shelves display three of her most precious mementos, tucked away in corners. Two are deeply personal: a child’s drawing of her in a superhero cape, done by a friend’s son when she first went into politics; and a Madam President Barbie doll, still in its box, a gift from a beloved friend who lost a battle with cancer. The third, sitting on the shelf below, is the one with the sting. It reminds her of how thin the line can be between defeat and victory. Set out on flimsy paper and framed, it’s the official record from the electoral office of the votes cast in her electorate of Willoughby the first time she stood for office, in 2003.
Her margin was just 144 votes – a margin she has since increased significantly. It’s a daily reminder, she says, of “a lesson that I learnt 16 years ago: never take anyone for granted”.
Measured on diligence and hard work alone, that lesson seems as much at the forefront of her mind as ever. She rarely stops, to the point that some of her friends suggest she try and build in more downtime. But along with the busyness, the relentless drive to get things done, the frenetic schedule and the seemingly effortless mastery of facts and figures, comes a reputation for micro-management. There is also criticism that her office operates in a “bubble”, and that she takes advice from too narrow a circle.
More significantly, there is growing concern, even among some of her strong supporters, that the government lacks an overarching narrative beyond offering “more of the same” as it heads towards the state election in just under 100 days’ time.
For Berejiklian, it will be her first campaign as party leader and toughest test yet. “We are trying to counter history,” she concedes. “The last time you had a Coalition government in the state that [successfully] went for a third term was in 1971, nearly 50 years ago.” Yet she claims, Pollyanna-like, that she is looking forward to the contest. “Really, state elections are positive in that they give you a voice, an opportunity to express where you have come from, what you are doing now and what you are going to do into the future.”
That outward confidence is not, it seems, widely shared. “Petrified” is how one former senior Liberal official describes prevailing sentiment inside the party.
Another talks of the Wagga Wagga byelection, held in September, as a “shock out of the blue for everybody. Overnight, people went from being convinced she would win to thinking she might lose. What it showed was the fragility of their hold on power.”
That seemingly safe Riverina seat, Liberal-held since the 1950s, went to an independent, Joe McGirr, on a massive 22 per cent swing away from the government. It was a sharp reminder that only six seats stand between the Coalition and minority government, with marginal seats such as Coogee, East Hills, Lismore and Upper Hunter at risk. A strong push by One Nation, under the Mark Latham banner, also increases the threat of a fragmenting conservative vote in the state’s regions.
Berejiklian does have the ingredients of a good message to craft for voters, her closest supporters insist. The state’s budget is in enviable good health, there is $80 billion of infrastructure being built, and NSW has the lowest jobless rate at 4.4 per cent.
But there is a counter narrative building as well: congestion, overdevelopment and the rising cost of living, a perceived tone-deafness on the part of a government too driven by a quest for deals with the private sector, and a lack of coherence around strategy and vision.
The toxic state of the federal party is not helping and Labor’s exploitation of the state government’s commitment to spending $1.5 billion on demolishing and rebuilding Sydney Football Stadium at Moore Park and refurbishing Sydney Olympic Park at Homebush feeds the narrative that Macquarie Street is out of touch with the everyday concerns of ordinary people. The state’s economic performance – top of the pack a year ago – has slowed as the downturn in the Sydney property market starts to bite.
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