NSW state election: Gladys Berejiklian succeeds by doing it her way

Newly re-elected NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian in Sydney yesterday. Picture: Tracey Nearmy

Now, this is a genuine clenched fist for women. On Saturday Gladys Berejiklian became the first woman popularly elected Premier in NSW. Her success is etched in humility, pragmatism and strength, not unlike the extraordinary ordinariness of one of her biggest supporters, former Liberal prime minister John Howard. There were never any campaign high-fives celebrating a certain chromosomal mix from this 48-year-old daughter of migrants. No faux complaints about men treating her poorly, no demands for special favours along the way either.

This is a triumph of gender as it should be. A female politician works damn hard, shows steely conviction, has a laser-sharp focus and succeeds in her chosen career.

Berejiklian’s win is the perfect foil for all those high-profile women in politics who imagine they are role models for other women by talking incessantly about gender. Berejiklian has gone one better. By not talking about gender, she has become the perfect role model for women and men.

Berejiklian also buries the bogus claim that the Liberal Party has a problem with women because Julie Bishop did not become prime minister. That obsession among a tiny but vocal circle of mostly disgruntled women in or formerly of the Liberal Party, is confected twaddle. It is fuelled by dirty politics (yes, girls play dirty too), not high-minded principle about the empowerment of women.

In NSW a woman rose to the top, was elected in her own right as premier because she had the right stuff to lead and to win. She stared down the forecasters of Armageddon, survived the inevitable gripes over infrastructure delays, confronted a superior Labor machine, a rising cynicism among voters about the two major parties, and won a third term for the Liberal Party.

Illustration: Eric Lobbecke

With true grit, she outperformed Labor leader Michael Daley, who banked on a win by sledging Alan Jones and the board of the Sydney Cricket Ground. As Jones said on Saturday night, “Thank you for your service, Mr Daley”, whose career ended with Labor’s primary vote dropping to 33 per cent and an arrogant, gormless concession speech.

Daley mentioned more than once the 134 days he has been leader, as if that was an excuse for his racist comments about Chinese migrants and not knowing his own policies. He lacked grace, too, failing to acknowledge Berejiklian as the first woman elected as NSW Premier, yet praising Kaila Murnain as the first female general secretary of NSW Labor. Kudos to political opponents who did mark up Berejiklian’s win for women on Saturday night: former prime minister Julia Gillard, NSW Labor’s Jodi McKay and Labor’s federal communications spokeswoman Michelle Rowland.

In the end, Berejiklian proved the doubters wrong. Pundits said she was awkward, but she never veered from being authentic, even when that meant a few narky words here and there. No charisma, people whispered about her too, but voters chose a quiet,stoic leader who delivers services, balances a budget and has no grandiose ideological plans for voters other than to decide their own destiny.

Berejiklian’s success sparkles with true female empowerment that comes from doing it her way. Merit all the way, no artificial special favours for women. Unlike the unfortunate entry into politics last week of Fiona McLeod. The lawyer slid into the Victorian seat of Higgins as Labor’s candidate only after the preselected bloke, Josh Spiegel, wrote a condescending letter explaining he needed to step aside for a woman. McLeod will never know if she could have made it without this humiliating gender leg-up. Just because McLeod needs a special favour because she’s female doesn’t mean the rest of us do. Because gender is not the reason for her success, inspiration from Berejiklian’s story is not fenced in by chromosomes. One of three daughters of Armenian migrants, her father, Krikor, was a welder and her mother Arsha, a nurse. More than 40 members of their family were among the 1.5 million massacred in the first genocide of the 20th century. A young Berejiklian arrived at her public school in North Ryde with little English but loads of determination to rise above her circumstances.

In a rare speech last year about her personal life, Berejiklian recounted that on her first day of school her mum told her not to worry if she didn’t understand everything. Just make sure you raise your hand and have a go when a teacher asks questions, her mum said.

The young girl had a go, and then some, exhausting the biography section in her school library, inspired by great teachers in a school that had a rough reputation, doing homework for tough kids as part of a self-protection racket, never missing a day of kindy or school, learning self-discipline and driven by a deep motivation to succeed.

“My childhood experience is by no means unique,” she told the Sydney Institute’s annual dinner. But one part is certainly unique. Berejiklian told The Australian’s Andrew Clennell last month that she had a twin sister who didn’t survive. “I’m very lucky … for me every day in life is a bonus,” the 45th NSW Premier said, explaining that she felt like she had to justify her existence by sacrificing. “So I don’t care if I’m not happy all the time. I feel like I’ve got to work hard.”

To a hero’s welcome on Saturday night, Berejiklian repeated her conviction that others should have the same opportunities, even if they don’t enjoy the same love or scaffolding provided by her tight-knit family.

In words that will rightly form part of Liberal Party feminist folklore, the first female to be elected as NSW Premier said: “What is most important to me is that no matter what your background, where you live, what your circumstance — everyone in this state has a chance to be their best. A state in which someone with a long surname and a woman can become the premier of NSW.”

As chants of “Gladys! Gladys!” became louder and louder, the quiet achiever stood awkwardly, not a gloat about gender in sight, adding: “I’m happy to accept that for a minute or two, but it ends here.”

And so it does with the best female role models.

EDITOR’S NOTE: An earlier version of this story stated that Gladys Berejiklian was dux of her high school. Gregory Seil was actually the dux of the Year 12 graduating class of Peter Board High School in 1989.