Jillian Skinner breaks silence on retirement, insisting no bad blood with Premier Gladys Berejiklian
FORMER Health Minister Jillian Skinner has dismissed any notions of bad blood with Premier Gladys Berejiklian after finally making her resignation official.
Mosman
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AFTER a mysterious 24-day gap between announcing her intention to retire and formally handing in her resignation, former Health Minister Jillian Skinner has finally broken her silence.
In an exclusive interview with the Mosman Daily she spoke about her final days as North Shore MP and what she hopes for the future in the electorate.
And she announced she was backing political unknown Jessica Keen to take over her seat.
Mrs Skinner’s long reign came to an end in Premier Gladys Berejiklian’s first cabinet reshuffle and she insisted there was no “bad blood” between them.
“It’s just the media,” she said.
“Gladys came over to my house, we had an hour’s chat over a cup of tea.
“I’ve supported her for years. I think she’s a terrific person and I hope she gets a chance to show what a wonderful Premier she can be.”
In their discussions she said the Premier put forward several options to keep her at the cabinet table.
However, Mrs Skinner stuck to her promise that one of her primary goals when she stood in 2015 was to continue the reforms in health.
“With that gone I felt OK, 23 years, I have on average two weeks holiday a year, I’ve worked six sometimes seven days a week often until 10 or 11 o’clock at night,” she said.
“And my kids who are now adults and my grandchildren said ‘Mum we deserve you. Come and do stuff with us’.
“So that’s what I’m doing.”
There was much speculation in the media about why Mrs Skinner had not handed her formal resignation at parliament.
Observers suggested a variety of reasons for the hold up — that she was reconsidering her decision to save the Liberals from a potentially difficult by-election and even that she wanted to make a valedictory speech.
Her reasons were a lot simpler than the theories.
She explained that in fact there was “no delay” and pointed out that she never mentioned a date in her January statement, hitting out at the speculation as a “non-story”.
“This is where it’s all been ridiculous and very much double standards,” she said.
“The reason I wanted to take time was because I still had some obligations, particularly in relation to the electorate, that I wanted to complete.”
One of these commitments was her final newsletter.
Representing the north shore has been a tremendous honour for Mrs Skinner. She described how she has met the most amazing people over the years and is proud of her achievements in the health sector across NSW. And a trip to the local supermarket takes a particularly long time.
“I go to Woolies and every second person stops me to tell me how fabulous Royal North Shore (Hospital) is,” she said.
“That’s been very gratifying because you know that makes such a difference to people’s lives.”
The future of the electorate is now on her mind and she is backing one of the five preselection candidates as her successor.
She describes Ms Keen, a mum of four, as “a person who sees a problem, goes away quietly and devises a solution”. And she can see the drive and enthusiasm she had at the start of her political career.
“I said to her ‘Jessica, you are doing exactly what I did 30 years ago’. She’s me 30 years ago.”
Mrs Skinner is keen to have a woman replace her and said her choice is “embedded in the local community”.
“She’s a very bright high achiever,” she said of Ms Keen.
“She’s wonderful. I’ll be happy whoever gets selected, don’t get me wrong. But Jessica I must confess ticks every box for me.”
It will come as no surprise to anyone who has met Mrs Skinner that she has no plans to stop working. She has already been offered board positions and when the timing is right she plans to take up on one or two of the offers.
She also has her beautiful home garden to tend to.
“I’ll never retire,” she said.
“I’m not the kind of person who can do nothing. Absolutely not. I’ve got more energy than people half my age.”
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