A Liberal dose of influence for Adelaide’s ultimate power couple, Simon Birmingham and Courtney Morcombe
They wield immense influence in Adelaide and Canberra and may be the most politically powerful couple in SA history, but on some things Courtney Morcombe and Simon Birmingham will never agree.
SA Weekend
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He’s a federal minister, she helps Steven Marshall run South Australia. That means the stakes are high and the issues important when Simon Birmingham and Courtney Morcombe meet for breakfast. And the most crucial business to hand? “Getting two primary school age kids out the door to school, dressed, with lunch boxes,” laughs the nation’s Trade, Tourism and Investment Minister.
It’s a typical domestic whirlwind as Matilda, 8, and Amelia, 7, are readied for the day ahead. In this shared domestic role, Birmingham and Morcombe are an unexceptional couple, wrestling with competing demands of work, home life and multiple children’s activities — swimming, gymnastics, dance, lacrosse and Chinese lessons.
Professionally, though, the pair are South Australia’s ultimate power couple — and acknowledged as such by Premier Steven Marshall. Arguably, they now have, between them, the greatest influence of any husband and wife in the state’s history.
As trade minister, Birmingham sat alongside Prime Minister Scott Morrison at a dinner meeting with US President Donald Trump ahead of June’s G20 summit. As a US-China trade war threatens to trigger a major global downturn, he is also steering Australia’s direction in this critical area.
As chief of staff to Marshall, Morcombe is the right-hand woman to the state’s leader. Her role is vital to organising and driving Marshall’s political and policy agenda. The Premier is effusive in his praise: “Both Simon and Courtney have made incredible contributions to the Liberal Party and are great individuals. They are the ultimate power couple. Courtney is a fantastic leader of my team and a real pleasure to work with.”
Political experts like Flinders University’s Professor Dean Jaensch struggle to think of a more influential couple simultaneously holding powerful positions in South Australian history. Jaensch offers former Australian Democrats leader Natasha Stott Despoja and her lobbyist husband Ian Smith. But perhaps the only comparable couple is former premier, senator and federal MP Steele Hall and wife Joan Hall. The latter was a state Liberal backbencher while her husband held the federal seat of Boothby, but became a minister the year after he quit politics in 1996. Ironically, Birmingham was her chief of staff, when he was just 24.
Chatting to a relaxed Birmingham over beers at an Adelaide CBD pub, he describes the familiar routine of juggling busy working lives with raising young children.
“Courtney would say that the biggest problem is that there is not really a typical day and that the household just gets accustomed to me not being there and then I turn up and disrupt it all again. I think it’s a little unfair,” Birmingham laughs.
“But a typical morning is the standard domestic chaos of getting two primary school age kids out the door to school, dressed with lunch boxes, and whatever is required for whatever after school activity they may have that day, while getting people off to work. Just with the complication that sometimes there’ll be a couple of radio interviews and a teleconference and multiple WhatsApp messages streaming through the house at the same time.”
But who makes the school lunches?
“Courtney does most of the time but if she doesn’t, I do. The girls, perhaps unfairly, say that I’m the better cook but that might be because I cook when I’ve got time to cook — Courtney cooks when she has to cook,” Birmingham says.
Birmingham and Morcombe’s relationship was forged through politics. Perhaps appropriately, love blossomed in the heat of the 2004 federal election campaign. Back then, Birmingham, then 29, was the candidate for the western Adelaide seat of Hindmarsh. The Gawler High graduate was then the Winemakers’ Federation of Australia director. Part of the Liberals’ Moderate group, he beat the Right’s Cory Bernardi in a preselection contest, helped by the endorsement of retiring incumbent Chris Gallus.
Morcombe was a 26-year-old adviser to Sturt MP and rising Moderate Christopher Pyne, then an ambitious backbencher. The St Peter’s Girls’ graduate, who previously had worked as an accountant at EY for three years, was assigned by the Moderates to be Birmingham’s campaign manager. Ironically, another young Moderate campaign helper, James Stevens, was Morcombe’s predecessor as Marshall’s chief of staff and is now Pyne’s successor as Sturt MP.
Birmingham narrowly lost the election to Labor’s Steve Georganas by just 108 votes — he led on first preferences — but won a heart.
“Somewhere along the line of that campaign, the campaign manager and the candidate got especially friendly and the rest is history,” Birmingham says of the relationship that bloomed with Morcombe.
The internecine Liberal struggle with Bernardi continued in 2006, when Birmingham lost a Senate preselection contest to replace the retiring defence minister and Moderate leader Robert Hill. Ironically, Birmingham cut his political teeth working for Hill as an electorate officer from 1995-97.
By the time Birmingham, then 32, was appointed to the Senate in mid-2007, replacing the late Jeannie Ferris, there was a glimpse into the future for him and his then-partner Morcombe. She was working as chief of staff to Adelaide Lord Mayor Michael Harbison, leading his office, advising on policy and reform priorities, and engaging with stakeholders.
In his first Senate speech, on June 13, 2007, Birmingham thanked Morcombe for “all her love, support, blood, sweat and tears”.
“She would be just as capable, if not more so, of standing in this place today and does more than anyone to challenge me and keep me true to my beliefs,” he said.
Fast-forward more than 12 years and their roles are similar, yet substantially elevated. Birmingham was the Liberal campaign spokesman for the against-the-odds May election victory. Now 45, he is the Government’s Deputy Senate Leader and, as such, part of the leadership team. He has been a Cabinet minister since Malcolm Turnbull, for whom he was a key numbers man, ousted Tony Abbott as prime minister in September 2015.
Morcombe, 41, declined to be interviewed, politely declaring politicians, not their staffers, were public figures. She has been Marshall’s chief of staff since taking over from Stevens in March. She had been the Liberals’ policy director since they won government in March last year.
For most of the time after finishing as Harbison’s chief of staff in 2007, she was EY’s account director, SA Government and public sector — when Labor was in government. Morcombe also was a director of her alma mater, St Peter’s Girls, from 2008 until last year’s election, including a stint as chair of the Board of Governors. She and Birmingham were married at Mt Pleasant in December, 2008.
Speaking to SAWeekend in 2016, though, Morcombe described the peculiar pressures that a spouse’s political career brings to family life. Having been an adviser to Pyne, she said she knew the ups and downs, including that Birmingham “would be away half the year” and the impact on their girls.
“It is hard,” Morcombe said. “I run their lives. I know what events I want him to attend, school events and whatever. So I will send something to him or his diary person saying: ‘This is the event. I need you to be at it’.
“They help Dad drag his suitcase to the car on Sunday nights and help him unpack it and put the washing in the washing basket when he gets home. That’s their normal. They do say, ‘How many sleeps until Daddy gets home’, but they are used to it.”
Despite having joined the Liberal Club at Adelaide University when studying accounting and law, Morcombe, at least in 2016, had no interest in becoming an MP.
“I was interested in politics and I loved campaigning and the friendships I made from that but I never really had any aspirations to become a politician,” she said. “That was never something I worked towards.”
Birmingham reprises his maiden-speech tribute when asked to describe his wife professionally and personally. The two are a contrast, he says, but, as with most people, there’s an overlap.
“In all aspects of her life, Courtney is an organiser, a list maker, somebody who likes to be on top of everything and probably more the controller, whereas I’m more the free-wheeler in the way that life runs,” he says. “I think in terms of driving and organising government, I assume that those professional tendencies come to the full.
“Courtney is direct when required and frank with her advice when necessary. But, equally, incredibly protective of the girls and a deeply caring individual in terms of family life. She absolutely drives us to maintain as much family life as we possibly can and as much normality around that family time as we can sustain.
“The girls are all used to the fact that random people sometimes talk to Daddy while we’re out and about. But the wonderful thing about living in Australia is that 95 per cent of those random engagements are quite pleasant, quite positive. You take comments on board and everybody smiles and moves on.”
There might be great unity of purpose in professional lives and in most areas of family life. But Adelaide’s intense AFL rivalry grips the household, like many others in South Australia. Birmingham and Amelia are Crows fans, while Morcombe and Matilda barrack for Port Adelaide.
“We took that rivalry very seriously with both girls,” Birmingham says, a little sheepishly. “The great secret revelation is that we used to each, when we were singing to them to get to sleep, as you do, we’d sing them the club song.
“Except I’d sing them the Crows song and Courts would sing the Power song. And so both girls can sing both club songs. I think it’s to the credit of their wicked sense of humour that somehow the two girls decided to go one each.
“Matilda has become the annoying Port Power fan who likes to rub victory in my face. And Amelia is the sweet Crows fan who wants a cuddle when it goes the wrong way. But it does make for fun. We’ve only all gone as a family to two Showdowns and, tragically, Port has won both of them.”
The family live in an eastern suburban former “renovator’s delight” — a 100-year-old home they bought in 2016 and extended and restored — while living at Morcombe’s mother’s house for six months. Previously, they had a restored and extended cottage a few drop kicks from the Norwood Football Club.
“We used to live around the corner from Norwood Oval and decided we could unify on Norwood as relatively neutral territory. We both have a home club. Courts being Port and mine being Central District, having grown up north. But each of us had family ties to Norwood as well, so it was good neutral territory. We could all be on the same side. And, most importantly, the girls just love to run on the Oval during the breaks,” Birmingham says.
Morcombe clearly has more than politics in common with Marshall — a Port Adelaide AFL supporter whose electorate includes Norwood. He is a passionate Redlegs fan, deftly treading the tightrope of mixed loyalties with SA’s oldest and most traditional football rivalry.
Birmingham acknowledges there are similar pitfalls to traverse when navigating the potential for conflict of interest between his federal leadership role and Morcombe’s powerful backroom job leading Marshall’s office.
So, what does the deputy Senate leader do if he needs to ring his wife’s boss, the Premier of South Australia? Birmingham insists the dynamic works in an entirely normal way. That is, if he needs to talk to Marshall, he messages him to find a good time to chat or simply picks up the phone.
“I think that’s probably what any federal Cabinet minister from SA would do and it’s what Steven would expect of a federal Cabinet minister from SA,” Birmingham says. “So, I don’t necessarily tell Courtney if I’m ringing Steven, because would I tell any other chief of staff to the Premier if I was ringing the Premier?”
This might be an entirely reasonable position but there is only one other Cabinet minister from SA, Families and Social Services Minister Anne Ruston. Birmingham is the Government’s Deputy Senate Leader, she is Manager of Government Business in the Senate.
Clearly, then, Marshall’s relationship with Birmingham is of considerable importance for a Premier who has made a great virtue of co-operation with a Coalition government in Canberra.
Just days before the March 18 state election last year, Marshall declared: “I don’t think people want to elect a premier to fight with Canberra, I think people want to elect a premier to work with Canberra.”
Given this objective, how does his chief of staff and her husband set boundaries to avoid potential for conflict of interest?
“We both understand there are times where there’s potential for conflict and that you’ve got to be sufficiently conscious of managing that in a way that is within the normal boundaries of probity,” Birmingham says.
“Clearly, part of my role as a Senator for SA is to work on behalf of South Australia. And so, in that sense, the overwhelming majority of what I want and what the Premier would want are in alignment. But in terms of the confidentiality of each other’s processes you’ve got to respect that and make sure that you don’t cross those boundaries.
“We haven’t encountered anything that’s an issue as yet but I think each are mindful of the obligation to essentially protect each other’s role and reputation. Nobody wants anything to ever be suggested as being inappropriate.
“You keep the respectful distance on the professional boundary, as other couples in competing roles may need to do from time to time. Certainly she is both the most trusted adviser and confidant but the most direct and brutal when required. Her understanding of politics, the party, the processes has helped enormously over my time in parliament.”
Morcombe’s role as Birmingham’s most trusted adviser is, according to their friend and former boss Robert Hill, critical to their professional and personal success.
Hill, a former Senate Leader and Cabinet minister in John Howard’s government, says some couples try to separate political and personal life. But Morcombe decided to re-enter politics after a stint in the private sector.
“I think they enjoy their politics. I think they enjoy the political cut and thrust as well as the policy responsibilities,” Hill says. “If you enjoy it, I think it’s easier to manage.”
Birmingham worked as an electorate officer for Hill for two years in the mid-1990s. Morcombe worked for Hill for a short time ahead of his political retirement in 2006 — her federal political experience was mostly with Hill’s ally Pyne, from 2003-05.
Hill’s wife Diana, a psychologist with more than 30 years’ experience working with children, was UNICEF Australia’s president during the final years of his parliamentary career. In 2002, he publicly backed the Howard government’s asylum seeker policies, while she campaigned for removing children from detention.
Hill remembers the challenge of managing political and family life.
“The challenge is more for the spouse than the politician, in many ways. You become the primary carer of the kids, you’re seeking to further your own career and you’re trying to support your spouse,” he says. “I’m sure Courtney has been a great assistance because she’s as much of a political operator as he has always been.”
Asked to assess Birmingham’s political career, Hill says he has earned the respect of his colleagues, noting that he comes across as thoughtful, well-briefed and familiar with procedures. Hill points out negotiations in the Senate require the confidence of colleagues, including those from other parties.
“Even though the portfolios he’s had all have been very different, he’s been able to do well. There are different skill sets, not many people can do these things,” he says. “He’s been able to marry the portfolio responsibilities while, at the same time, being deputy leader in the Senate and earning the respect of his colleagues, while at the same time rising to, with Christopher Pyne, effectively leading the Moderates.”
The year after Birmingham finished working for Hill, he met a newly minted Liberal member at the Prospect branch whose career was, for a time, to mirror his own. Former Mayo MP Jamie Briggs, now PwC Adelaide managing partner, has been friends with Birmingham and Morcombe for about two decades. Birmingham was a groomsmen when Briggs married his fellow former John Howard staffer Estee Fiebiger in 2004. Both Birmingham and Briggs were state and federal political staffers who became MPs and whose wives have been staffers.
While Birmingham has been firmly in the Moderate camp, Briggs was identified more with the Right during his time in Canberra and remains close to Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton and Finance Minister and Government Senate Leader Mathias Cormann.
Asked what the future holds for Birmingham and Morcombe’s careers, Briggs says Birmingham would be the logical successor to Cormann as Government Senate leader, depending on timing and circumstances.
“He’s always modelled himself to a degree on Robert Hill and obviously Robert served in that capacity for a long period of time, very successfully,” Briggs says. “I think Simon would see himself in a similar vein. I think, more importantly, he’s got the capacity to be in that leadership and I think he’s proven that.
“He was part of the leadership team that took them (the Coalition) to the election. He was part of the strategy groups that rolled out through the election and by any reasonable measure they’ve been pretty successful in recent times. I think Simon takes a portion of credit for that, too.”
Briggs, whose staffer career culminated as a senior Howard adviser from 2004-07, describes Morcombe as “very, very, very bright”.
“I think as far as a chief adviser, if you like, from a Premier’s perspective, there’s not many people you would choose before her,” he says. “She understands public policy deeply. She’s got a great capacity to know her own mind, if that makes sense. She’s able to explain and put perspectives on policy issues.
“The challenge of being a staffer is you ultimately don’t stand in front of the camera or in the parliament. So you’ve got to understand who it is you’re working for. How do they best receive messages and understand? (You) play into what is in their mind.
“The art of being a really good staffer is to be able to read their boss as well as they can read themselves. The best chief of staff that we’ve had for a Prime Minister, Arthur Sinodinos (Howard’s COS), that was his great mastery. He was able to understand where Howard’s mind was at before Howard knew, often.
“I think Courtney’s got the intellectual capacity for that and I think she’s got the trust of the Premier in that sense, too. I think that’s a great credit and a great skill. Whether that leads to a step up into a parliamentary career — it’s a different skill set. It doesn’t necessarily mean because you’re good at one that you’re naturally fit for another.”
Amanda Vanstone, also a former Howard government Cabinet minister and leading SA Moderate, says a key strength of both Birmingham and Morcombe is that they are neither brash nor pushy, but understated.
“Isn’t it ridiculous that these days it’s refreshing to find people in influential positions about whom you can say they’re nice people?” Vanstone asks, rhetorically and emphatically. “It’s ridiculous because nice should be the baseline but, sadly, it isn’t.”
Vanstone, like Morcombe, a St Peter’s Girls’ School alumna, was the first Liberal woman from South Australia to become a federal Cabinet minister.
Asked if Morcombe would make a good elected representative, as opposed to senior political staffer, Vanstone is typically blunt. “I’m sure she would but I have no idea whether she wants that. I don’t know,” she says.
Vanstone is effusive about Morcombe’s personal skills. “She can bring sparkle to a conversation and she can bring commonsense to a conversation — so that’s a good combo, really,” she says.
Of Birmingham, she declares him “right across” the trade portfolio, which Vanstone argues has become more important, not only because of global politics but the changed nature of commerce. Intellectual property and knowledge transfers have intensified the portfolio’s difficulty.
“He’s a softly spoken person and I think that goes well when dealing with people from other countries. I think he’s got a lot of emotional intelligence and that’s important when dealing with people,” Vanstone says. “He’s a very quietly spoken person but no one should mistake that for weakness.”
Birmingham has been credited, even by some opponents, for maintaining a respectful approach and eschewing bitter personal attacks. So, then, how does he guard against bombast and bluster?
“I’m surrounded by some strong women who would cut me down in an instant if any semblance of arrogance or entitlement were to be created,” Birmingham says.
“Not only my wife and daughters, but my chief of staff (fellow former Hill adviser Rachael Thompson). We have a pretty strong mix of individuals there who keep us all focused and on track.”
As the couple’s careers have grown, Birmingham says their understanding of the nature of each other’s roles and the commitments have developed, too.
“I think, touch wood, we do a pretty good job of being able to bounce off of each other where it’s appropriate and switch off and focus on the kids where that’s the most important thing to do,” he says.
Unless the trade minister is returning from an overseas mission — a relatively common occurrence — the family tries to have dinners out. They mix it up between the Adelaide Central Market, the Norwood Parade and other venues.
“But sometimes in the depths of winter, take it home, Friday night footy and snuggle up on the couch, where it’s not unknown for the girls and I to fall asleep during the match,” he says.
The household has a small cat, named Ginger for its colour by the girls a few years ago. But there is one area of disagreement, even if it has been resolved by political argument.
“Courtney drew the line years ago. I’d love to have a dog. I grew up with (blue heeler) dogs on the small property that I grew up on (near Gawler),” Birmingham says.
“But Courtney, in her very rational way, delivered the killer line that when I was home for 300 nights a year, she would look after it the other 65 but until then the dog had to wait. And that is a very compelling argument …”