North Shore Power List: Our Most Influential, The Top Ten
THE north shore’s sleepy, leafy demeanour is camouflage for a formidable powerbase. We had a look at our best and brightest and compiled the area’s 20 most powerful people in 2018.
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THE north shore’s sleepy, leafy demeanour is camouflage for a formidable powerbase.
We had a look at our best and brightest and compiled the area’s 20 most powerful people in 2018.
From politicians to authors, cricketers to actors — our patch is home to some of the most successful people in Australia.
Here’s our top ten.
10. Bob Hawke
Former Prime Minister
The former PM, who lives at Northbridge with his wife Blanche d’Alpuget, remains Australia’s longest-serving Labor prime minister.
He held office for more than eight years from 1983, winning four consecutive elections and gaining the highest popularity rating recorded by any prime minister.
The Rhodes scholar and former ACTU leader strongly believed in government by consensus and forged a series of successful accords between business and unions in pursuit of economic growth.
He formed a powerful and productive partnership with treasurer Paul Keating, who eventually displaced him, floating the Australian dollar on international money markets and allowing the operation of foreign-owned banks as first steps in deregulating the national economy.
His government also created Medicare, introduced the family assistance scheme, announced Advance Australia Fair as the official national anthem and initiated superannuation schemes for all workers.
The now 88-year-old can still raise a cheer by downing a beer at the annual Sydney cricket Test.
9. John Howard
Former Prime Minister
AUSTRALIA’S second-longest serving prime minister after Sir Robert Menzies.
His 11-year tenure took the nation through what he called the “second golden age” of economic sunshine and delivered Port Arthur gun laws, GST and immigration and IR reform. He also sent Australian troops to support the US in wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
He served as Malcolm Fraser’s treasurer from 1977-83 before gaining, then losing, the Liberal leadership in opposition.
In the 1990s he reclaimed the party’s top job and defeated Paul Keating at the 1996 election. A sprightly 79, the Wollstonecraft resident has become the Liberal Party’s elder statesman and is still keenly involved in political debate.
8.Hugh Jackman
Actor
Hugh Jackman’s history is classic north shore. Growing up in East Turramurra, he was one of five children and attended Pymble Public School and then Knox Grammar School where he performed in a production of My Fair Lady.
HisEnglish-born parents grappled with marital woes which eventually led to their divorce when he was just eight.
After school, Jackman attended UTS studying Communications and then later moved to Perth to pursue his passion for acting.
He has become one of Hollywood’s biggest stars, starring in films like Wolverine, The Greatest Showman and Les Miserables.
Now 49, he divides his time between LA, Europe, Melbourne and Bondi where he maintains a residence. He is married to Deborra-Lee Furness and they have two children, Oscar and Ava.
7. Ellyse Perry
International Cricketer
At 16, Ellyse Perry bowled onto the international stage as the youngest person to dually represent Australia in cricket and soccer.
Since then, the Pymble Ladies’ College alumna’s trajectory has been nothing short of miraculous.
The 27-year-old currently holds the title of Women’s Cricketer of the Year and has become Australia’s most recognisable and best-known female sports star. The Wahroonga native — who still calls the north shore home — attributes her success to the support of her family, mum Kathy, dad Mark and older brother Damien.
Her rugby-star husband Matt Toomua is also an inspiration. “I just love the attitude of people on the north shore,” she told the North Shore Times last year.
6. Nicole Kidman
Actor, Producer
With the recent success of Big Little Lies and Oscar winning Lion, Nicole Kidman’s career continues to flourish.
After securing her first film role in Bush Christmas and BMX Bandits at the age of 16, Kidman soon became a movie star through her performance in Dead Calm (directed by fellow north shore native Philip Noyce).
In 2002 she became the first Australian woman to win an acting Oscar. Born in Hawaii to north shore psychologist Antony Kidman and wife Janelle Glenny, Nicole and her family relocated back to Sydney and settled in Greenwich in the early 1970s.
Nicole attended Lane Cove Public School and went on to study at North Sydney Girls High where she met fellow star Naomi Watts.
Along with husband Keith Urban and their children Sunday Rose and Faith Margaret, Kidman maintains a residence in Milsons Point where they stay during regular visits to Sydney.
Her father Antony died of a heart attack in 2014.
5. Luke Foley
NSW Labor Leader
The 48-year-old NSW Opposition Leader spent his formative years on the north shore.
He was raised by his mother Helen, along with twin sister Bridget, in the family home at St Ives and attended St Leo’s Catholic College at Wahroonga.
The UNSW arts graduate was president of the National Union of Students before formally entering political life, firstly as an ALP staffer.
He then became a union organiser and NSW Labor assistant secretary before being appointed an upper house MP in 2010. After John Robertson resigned as state Labor leader in 2015 he was elected unopposed to replace him.
He won the safe Labor seat of Auburn at the 2015 state election. A staunch Catholic, he now lives at West Concord with his Irish-born wife Edel McKenna and their three children.
4. Anthony Fisher
Catholic Archbishop of Sydney
SYDNEY’S ninth Catholic Archbishop has attributed many of his accomplishments to the education he received during his north shore upbringing.
He attended St Michael’s Primary School in Lane Cove, Holy Cross College Ryde and St Ignatius College Riverview, where he was dux in 1977, before going on to study arts and law at the University of Sydney.
In 2014, the 58-year-old was appointed Archbishop of Sydney succeeding Cardinal George Pell. He confronted head-on the “gruelling” and “humiliating” inquiry into child sexual abuse as “the royal commission we had to have”.
He had cause to confront his own mortality three years ago when he became paralysed from the neck down with Guillain-Barre syndrome and “really didn’t know if I was going to die”.
3. Liane Moriarty
Author
“Brilliant,” “smart” and “starkly honest” are often the words used to describe Liane Moriarty’s novels.
The eldest of six children, Moriarty grew up in Waitara. At 16, she and her family moved to Kellyville.
The 51-year-old mother-of-two, who now calls Pymble home, has sold more than six million books worldwide but it’s her novel-turned-HBO series, Big Little Lies (produced by Nicole Kidman) which has elevated her into one of Australia’s most successful cultural exports.
She is one of three sisters, alongside Jaclyn and Nicola, to become published authors.
“My father used to encourage myself and Jaclyn to write novels for him,” she told the North Shore Times last year. “I loved it.”
2. Clover Moore
Lord Mayor of Sydney
HER 14-year tenure makes her the longest-serving lord mayor in Sydney’s history. She may be associated with inner-city Redfern now but she grew up in Gordon and went to school at Loreto Kirribilli.
The 72-year-old independent taught at Fort St High before working in London for five years and returning to Sydney with her architect husband.
She was elected to South Sydney Council in 1980 and then on the newly formed Sydney City Council in 1981.
She entered state parliament in 1988 and held the seat of Bligh (later Sydney), resigning only as a result of new rules, labelled in the media as the “Get Clover” laws, preventing dual membership of state parliament and local councils.
She replaced Lucy Turnbull as lord mayor in 2004. She became known for her support for the annual mardi gras parade and her environmental leadership, including cutting carbon emissions and installing bicycle lanes.
1. Gladys Berejiklian
Premier of NSW
THE 47-year-old Northbridge resident succeeded Mike Baird in 2017 to become the 45th Premier of NSW and the state’s first non-Labor female leader.
The daughter of Armenian immigrants attended high school at North Ryde before completing degrees in arts and international studies at Sydney University and a masters in commerce at UNSW. She became involved in politics early, joining the NSW Young Liberals and becoming its third female president.
She went into banking, becoming CBA’s general manager of youth retail banking and government and industry affairs.
She entered state parliament in her early 30s, winning the safe seat of Willoughby which she has held comfortably for the past 15 years.
Within two years she was in the shadow ministry and rose steadily up to the key portfolios of industrial relations, transport and treasury.
She became deputy premier to Mike Baird in 2014 and replaced him unopposed when he stepped down in January, 2017.