Evans avoids his affair with Kernot in new book

Gareth Evans and Cheryl Kernot during the 1998 election campaign. Photo: File

Former foreign minister Gareth Evans tells the story of his remarkable career in Incorrigible Optimist: A Political Memoir, published yesterday:

Australia’s alliance with the United States was not under­valued by the Hawke-Keating governments. But nor did we overvalue it, and we certainly did not accept that its care and maintenance demanded obeisance to all Washington’s whims and wishes.

But Evans has left out a little detail. Troy Bramston in The Australian, yesterday:

It is engaging and insightful and, uncharacteristically, self-critical and deprecatory. There is, however, no mention of his affair with then Australian Democrats leader Cheryl Kernot.

Cheryl Kernot gets only one mention in Incorrigible Optimist.The index pages, yesterday:

Kernot, Cheryl — pg 48

Bravo Gareth Evans! In a league of his own with 'intellectual clarity and substance' of new memoir raves @TroyBramston #auspol pic.twitter.com/nGk1FOOAV2

— MUP (@MUPublishing) October 2, 2017

The Labor legend’s memoir touches on the Senate deliberations over the Mabo act, yesterday:

While a couple of the Democrats sometimes had difficulty distinguishing the wood from the trees, they were superbly led by Cheryl Kernot.

Kernot “superbly led” Evans in a merry dance for a half-decade. The Australian, June 4, 2002:

Former Labor foreign minister Gareth Evans has admitted he lied to parliament about his five-year affair with Cheryl Kernot in order to protect his family.

Incorrigible Optimist, yesterday:

She had a close understanding of all the issues …

Well, she knew Evans all too well. The Australian, June 4, 2002:

According to Nine’s political editor, Laurie Oakes, the affair began when Ms Kernot was leader of the Australian Democrats — before she led the party to the 1996 election — and Mr Evans was foreign minister, and ended in November 1999 after a “long period of recrimination”.

Gareth Evans with then-ALP recruit and former Democrats Senator Cheryl Kernot at the opening of his offices in Dandenong, southeast of Melbourne, in February 1998. Photo: File

If only the Labor Party had known. The Australian, June 10, 2002:

Cheryl Kernot would not have been accepted into Labor if the party leadership had known of her affair with Gareth Evans, former leader Kim Beazley suggested yesterday.

Incorrigible Optimist,continued:

… as I acknowledged in the wrap up of the debate, (Kernot) was a tower of strength throughout the whole process.

Kernot was his tower of strength all right. Brisbane’s The Courier-Mail, November 11, 2002:

Former Democrats leader Cheryl Kernot used taxpayer funds to join her Labor lover, Gareth Evans, on a trip to Europe only weeks before her 1997 defection.

It’s unbelievable Evans papered over his role in one of Canberra’s biggest scandals. The Australian, June 4, 2002:

Rumours of the affair were raised in the House of Representatives in early 1998 by then Liberal backbencher Don Randall, who questioned whether Ms Kernot’s “affection extended to the member for Holt” … an angry Mr Evans told parliament on March 23, 1998, (the rumours) were “totally baseless, beneath contempt …”

Then again, a new memoir started the story all those years ago. The Australian, June 6, 2002:

(Oakes) says he was incensed by Kernot’s refusal to admit to the relationship with Evans in her “tell-all” book, Speaking For Myself Again …