Right place, right time

BOB Carr is revelling in a role he has coveted since starting out in politics.

Bob Carr

TEN days ago, Bob Carr delivered a master class on the art of politics when he gave the Wran Lecture in Sydney. Carr used the annual lecture established in honour of former NSW premier Neville Wran to reflect on his own career and that of one of his earliest political mentors.

Carr had the audience of Labor faithful enthralled as he stitched together a series of anecdotes to illustrate the secrets of Wran's success as premier, from 1976 to 1986. They were an attention to detail; authority in the party and in parliament; disciplined administration; a deft approach to political management; and a sensitivity towards the electorate, especially by using the media to engage directly with voters.

Last week, Carr applied several of those skills when he led a behind-the-scenes push to ensure that the government did not oppose Palestine's bid to upgrade its status at the UN. It was a position that put him directly at odds with Julia Gillard, but one that had widespread support in the international community and was overwhelmingly agreed to by the UN on Friday.

"Bob Carr stared down the Prime Minister and won," a senior Labor MP tells The Australian. Carr's spirited and unrelenting advocacy behind closed doors upset a few in the government. Others saw it as marking Carr's arrival as a serious political player in Canberra.

After a robust cabinet debate and several meetings with ministers and backbenchers, Gillard wanted to stand firm against the barrage of opposition that she faced. Minutes before Labor's caucus meeting, where Gillard would have certainly been rolled if she had persisted, Carr pleaded with her to compromise and abstain from the vote at the UN.

At the last minute, Gillard yielded to the view of cabinet and caucus and a crisis was narrowly avoided. In the end, it was Carr and several other ministers who saved Gillard from a humiliating defeat.

Carr was in a reflective mood when interviewed by The Australian before the last week of parliamentary sittings a week ago. It was a wide-ranging interview on domestic and international politics and policy, and his lengthy career. "As I have got to know other foreign ministers and I have handled tricky issues, I feel slightly more confident and I am enjoying the role," he said.

His ambition was always to be a senior minister in a federal Labor government. Instead, he served as a minister in two state governments, led NSW Labor for seven years in opposition and for 10 years as premier, from 1995 to 2005.

Nevertheless, he did try on at least four occasions to secure a seat in the Senate. In 1974 and in 1978 he tendered his name to key powerbrokers, but was rebuffed. In 1994, he rang Paul Keating and pleaded for Graham Richardson's vacant Senate seat. In 2006, when Kevin Rudd became Labor leader, Carr privately canvassed the idea of becoming a senator.

In the 1970s and much of the 80s, Carr eyed the southern Sydney seat of Kingsford-Smith, held by Lionel Bowen and, later, Laurie Brereton. But he was trapped in state politics and shoehorned into the leadership after Labor's 1988 defeat. Carr wrote in his diary that he felt "like a doomed man" as leading the party in opposition would "destroy my career". Kim Beazley approached Carr about going to Canberra in 2001. There were similar overtures in 2003.

An extract from Carr's personal diary from November 1984, published for the first time, reveals that a year after Carr entered state politics he yearned to be a minister in Bob Hawke's cabinet. "A few years in a portfolio (especially Foreign Affairs or Treasury or Defence) and participating in federal cabinet," he wrote, "would be the ultimate taste of politics for me."

But the following month Carr secured a place in Wran's ministry. On December 13, his personal diary records the caucus meeting.

"Yesterday I was elected unopposed to the NSW ministry. Polite applause, handshakes; we leave the room. Where to go? Follow the premier down to his suite. I wait with Denise Darlow his secretary. 'You'll be sorry,' she says. Does she know something? No, this is just a comment on ministerial office in general. I'm shown in to the premier's office. The conversation only lasts a moment: he tells me its Planning and Environment. 'There are a lot of problems, but you'll eat it'. I thank him for his support."

Carr learnt the art of politics from Wran. No modern state leader has won more elections or by such big margins. Nor has any leader anywhere been as popular as Wran, often with an approval rating above 70 per cent.

He led a financially prudent government with a lasting legacy of achievements.

Carr says that Wran's ability to engage with the public was fundamental to his success. Carr himself is one of the few ministers who can speak in an authentic, authoritative and arresting manner. His colleagues are often hemmed-in by the circus act of repeating key lines and slogans on rapid rotation.

"Avoiding stale, dead political language is the challenge for politicians today," Carr says. "It simply creates a gulf between you and the audience. Cliches stalk the land. When you throw away the script and you use anecdotes to tell a story, you engage."

Foreign policy is an area where the government is performing well. After several missteps, such as the suspension of live cattle exports to Indonesia and the abortive East Timor asylum-seeker solution, the government has rarely put a foot wrong.

The US alliance is strong and the mutual respect between Barack Obama and Gillard is evident. The Asian Century white paper provides a well-crafted blueprint for elevating regional engagement. Gillard is carefully navigating the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan. She has performed will in bilateral meetings in China, Indonesia and India.

After some early missteps of his own, such as when he contemplated "sanctions" on Papua New Guinea if it delayed an election, Carr has steadied and earned respect within the government.

Carr's priority is to ensure that the US remains engaged in Asia. He often speaks to Australia's ambassador to the US, Kim Beazley, sometimes calling him on a lazy Saturday night for a chat. He rejects the proposition Australia must decide between the US and China. "We foster close relationships with both countries," he says.

He is most engaged when talking about Australia playing a new "constructive" role in Southeast Asia. He is adopting a different approach to some of his predecessors. "Our job is not to lecture ASEAN but to demonstrate how we can be a resource for the region," Carr argues.

"It must be a defter engagement than in the past."

A highpoint for Carr was winning the UN Security Council seat. Carr says that Gillard's presence at the UN had a positive impact and that he built on the work of his predecessors, Stephen Smith and Rudd.

He rejects the idea that winning the vote was always assured. It was not what he was told by his department or the team at the UN. He had discussed what he would do in the event of a defeat.

"Over breakfast on the day of the vote I said to the team, 'If we lose the ballot, I will cop it sweet before the cameras. If you've been premier for 10 years and you have been forced to talk about poison in Sydney's water supply, a ministerial sacking or a police royal commission, then you can explain anything. Leave it to me'."

Carr is making his presence felt in cabinet, within the Right faction and across the caucus as a Labor elder with experience. "What he says matters," says a senior Labor MP. "He does like to engage quietly on strategy and to make his views known."

Heading into an election year, Carr is realistic about the challenge. In Sydney, despite Labor polling showing 10 per cent swings against the government, Carr says its position is "recoverable" if an effective marginal seat campaign is run and if it focuses on job creation, low interest rates and investment in schools.

Despite politics being dominated by mud-throwing from all sides, Carr thinks Labor should steer clear of too much negative campaigning.

"I don't think we should go after Tony Abbott," he says. "I think we should allow Abbott to go after himself. His disapproval rating reflects public judgment on what Abbott has said and done."

Carr also thinks that a negative campaign to link him with the allegations of corruption in the former NSW Labor government after he retired is misguided.

"The record of the government in my 10 years as premier is that there was not a single ICAC finding against any minister," he says. "In 2003 I believed that the cabinet needed a turnover of personnel. I was determined to achieve this and there was no good reason for making an exception in Eddie Obeid's case. It was a relief to get rid of him."

Carr is revelling in his role as Foreign Minister. After all, it was his burning ambition. But 10 years as premier and retiring at a time of your own choosing is about as successful as it gets in politics. A recent Galaxy poll showed that voters rated him as by far the best premier in the past 25 years. Was his youthful ambition to be Foreign Minister misplaced?

"I grew to deeply love the job of being premier," Carr says. "On one single day, for example, introducing four-unit English as a high school subject and then signing-off on saving the southeast forests. I think that was one of the most meaningful days in my public life."

Carr has no regrets. "I'm very happy about the way it has turned out," he says. "Being a state leader and then, after six years in retirement, vaulting into the Foreign Minister's job. I'm not sure how many US governors have become secretary of state."

Now, as Foreign Minister in a national Labor government, Carr is determined to make his mark on the national and international stage as he savours what he wrote in his diary 30 years ago would be "the ultimate taste of politics".

BURNING AMBITION
An extract from Bob Carr's secret diary. Thursday, November 22, 1984

Ideally, I'd like to make the ministry next year, participate in the rejuvenation of this government, do some good in my portfolio and contest preselection for Kingsford-Smith.

Could I then look forward to making a federal ministry before the Hawke reign runs out? Not unreasonably.

A few years in a portfolio (especially Foreign Affairs or Treasury or Defence) and participating in federal cabinet would be the ultimate taste of politics for me That would be the optimal course of events.

What about the minimal? Being stuck in Macquarie Street while we sail into opposition in 1988, I guess.

Or, more likely, going federal, not making the frontbench, growing bitter and jaded while the party splits, eventually losing my preselection.