Prue Car opens up about her life and her plans as the deputy premier of NSW

Not even a campaign trail cancer shock could douse the ‘working class spirit’ driving deputy premier Prue Car, a flame ignited as a teenage schoolgirl. Now she is determined to make a difference as the state’s most powerful woman.

When the then Labor leader Kim Beazley addressed the party faithful at a rally in Werrington a quarter of a century ago, at the back of the throng was a young, idealistic schoolgirl named Prue Guillaume who’d skipped classes to hear him speak.

At 15, it was the first Labor rally for Prue Car, the now state deputy premier and education Minister, yet she says the political party – and its working class spirit – is “in her blood”.

Her grandfather, Les, was “a working man, a union man and a Labor man”, who would take his young daughter – Prue’s mother Ann – to rallies at Bankstown Town Hall in the seventies to hear rousing speeches by the nation’s future Labor Prime Minister Bob Hawke, then leader of the Australian Council of Trade Unions.

It was the human touch of the eminently charismatic and affable PM that would ultimately guide the aspiring young female politician from Sydney’s western suburbs, one that she worked to emulate as she carved out her own political career.

“When I’m in my electorate, I hear the same comments time and again: ‘We don’t have politicians like Bob Hawke any more’,” she says.

“His ability to talk to people, to stay in touch with what was going on in the community – I take from that; whether it’s getting out and about and holding listening posts at shopping centres and playgrounds, or regularly interacting with people through social media.

Deputy Premier Prue Car with her son Max, and fiance Brad Hulls. Picture: Tim Hunter.

“I’ve had a seat in parliament for eight years, that has been at times very marginal, but my aim is to try and live that out every day.”

That focus on those at the coalface – constituents, teachers, parents and more – seems to have served Ms Car well; she’s now the most powerful woman in state politics and is working alongside Premier Chris Minns to deliver on Labor’s election promises – to stop privatisation, scrap the public sector wages cap and lift spending on health and education.

As the Minister for education and early learning, fixing the state’s crisis ridden education system is her main priority – no easy feat, given the crippling teacher shortage, overcrowded classrooms and declining standards across NSW.

Already she’s announced a ban on mobile phones in schools from October; binned the previous Coalition government’s multimillion-dollar recruitment program which attracted just 13 teachers from interstate and overseas, and this week started slashing red tape so teachers can focus on teaching, not admin.

That’s just the start, says Ms Car.

“We need to break the back of the chronic shortage of teachers – we will not address declining outcomes if we don’t address that,” she says.

Prue Car in kindergarten.

Bob Hawke was Prue Car’s hero.

“To do that we need to get to the bottom of why we find ourselves in this situation, and we need to make sure the pay and conditions are such that people want to become teachers, and don’t want to leave.”

No doubt she will take to the challenge with the same consistency, strength and determination she exhibited throughout the state election campaign – where she didn’t falter despite a shock diagnosis midway through.

“I had weird symptoms, I was tired and had lots of headaches, but was too busy to go to the doctors,” she says.

“It was my fiancee Brad (Hulls) who urged me to get to the doctor last July, and a scan revealed I had kidney cancer. It was a huge shock.”

The tumour was around 4cm but by the time she went in for surgery a fortnight later, it had grown to 7cm.

“It was very physically and mentally painful time for my family and especially my little boy Max, who was nine. It was hard for him to hear that his mum’s got cancer, kids think the worst possible thing.

“But I was very blessed, I didn’t need any other treatment than surgery. And it turns out you can be okay with one and a quarter kidneys.

“Now I just try and stay as healthy as possible, and am technically in remission, though I’ll need scans for five years.”

Brad helped her through the painful recovery, and remained at her side as she launched herself back on the campaign trail in September.

Prue Car discovered she had kidney cancer midway through the campaign. Picture NCA Newswire / Gaye Gerard

The couple, who met online in 2020, got engaged in October and while there’s no firm wedding date – though a dress has been chosen – they know they’ve found their forever person.

“A lot of people find their person later in life and create a blended family like ours and it’s just beautiful, we’ve chosen our family,” Ms Car says.

“He’s an amazing person, a contemporary veteran who’s served in a way no one can properly understand, and I admire that commitment to service.

“He was thrown into the deep end – he didn’t know I was a politician, yet the next minute he was out putting up campaign posters.

“We share three beautiful kids who are a constant source of joy and entertainment.”

Ms Car was a Penrith City Councillor and national communications manager at MS Australia when she was elected as Londonderry MP in 2015.

She’d had a previous tilt at state government in 2011 when she ran for the seat of Mulgoa where she “lost pretty resoundingly”. Rather than hamper her ambitions, it propelled her on and she said winning the new seat of Londonderry was an “amazing privilege”.

Not to say it’s not been a struggle – juggling her duties in her electorate with her role as a single mum wasn’t always easy. Yet it was the birth of her young son, Max, in 2013 was when politics became truly personal, when she keenly recognised the importance of helping create a better place for future generations – and giving every child the best start in life.

“During the campaign someone said to me ‘You only get one chance at childhood’ and that stuck with me,” Ms Car says.

Apart from being the deputy premier, Prue Car is also the minister for education. Picture: Dan Himbrechts/ Via NCA NewsWire.

“The world our kids are going to walk into after school is something we can’t even understand. Every parent knows how important the best possible education is for our kids; they deserve it.”

In her maiden speech to parliament, Ms Car paid tribute to Max, “the most important person in my life”, her parents “a shining example of the love and commitment of parenthood”, and all the members of ‘Prue’s Crew’ who had campaigned alongside her.

“Labor brought us Medicare, compulsory superannuation and the reformist governments of Wran and Carr,” she said at the time.

“ … Every one of those 499 days I campaigned to come to this place I became more and more convinced that government has a powerful role to play in improving people’s lives — the provision of quality health care, access to educational opportunities that are not based on postcode or income and a helping hand to those who need it most.

“These are all ways that state government can and should have an impact.”

Like many in her electorate of Londonderry, Ms Car enjoys a rich cultural background – her grandfather on her father’s side, Henri, had French and Indian heritage. He brought his young family – including her father Noel, then 14, to Australia from West Bengal, India, in search of opportunity.

Prue Car said she was inspired to do good in the world by her teachers. NCA Newswire / Gaye Gerard

Her parents met at work, and soon after Ms Car was born they moved from Brisbane to western Sydney, to St Marys and later Emu Plains, where they raised her and younger sister Courtney, instilling in them the value of hard work, the importance of standing up for what you believe in and the need to “do good in the world”.

The Guillaumes would spend busy days at work – Ann in retail, Noel at a bank – and work even harder to provide their girls with a happy home, a red brick house in the ‘burbs where ‘Save the seals’ posters adorned the lounge room walls.

“We had a beautiful, uplifting, upbringing and mum and dad remain our biggest supporters,” Ms Car says.

“They worked hard their whole lives and instilled in us not only the value of hard work but the need to give back to the society we live in.”

Ms Car attended Our Lady of the Way Primary School at Emu Plains, where she was vice-captain, before becoming school captain at Caroline Chisholm College at Glenmore Park, which she credits for embedding in her and her peers a strong sense of social justice.

The future education Minister would also learn how a good teacher could not only teach from a textbook, but could help inspire their young charges and steer them to achieve their goals.

“My English teacher Mrs (Michelle) Elborough was pivotal in my life, she changed my life,” she says.

Prue Car says she wants to make a difference to the people of NSW. Picture: Tim Hunter.

“She encouraged my love of English and my interest in current affairs.

“After my mum had taken me to the campaign office of the local Labor candidate at the time, and I’d found out Kim Beazley would be speaking at a campaign rally the next day, it was Mrs Elborough who told me it was okay to take the day off school.

“And once I went to that rally, I knew what I aspired to be, I knew that this was the way that I could ‘do good in the world’.”

The young student threw herself into politics and became an active member of Young Labor alongside the likes of Daniel Mookhey, now treasurer.

She started – but didn’t complete – a degree at Sydney University, something she regrets. And she worked on the campaigns of a few Labor politicians, including former premier Bob Carr.

She was re-elected as member for Londonderry in 2019. In June 2021 she was elected as deputy leader, and on March 25 celebrated a historic win with her team.

The election win “felt big”, Ms Car says, and the Labor team won’t take for granted the opportunity they’ve been handed.

It is a government which has been described as better reflecting the community, with women making up half of all ministers in the NSW government for the first time.

“I hope women see that politics is changing and that they’re encouraged to get involved,” Ms Car says.

“Max was two when I was elected, and I juggled a small child and parliament.

“Now, as a relatively young woman in politics with a blended family with three kids under 12, I hope more women see it can be done.”