Gladys Berejiklian: Leader without equal in push to take charge during pandemic

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian. Picture: Getty Images

Gladys Berejiklian can leave with her head held high, knowing that as Premier of NSW she led, not just the state, but the country during the pandemic. Where other premiers cowered in the face of Covid, and the Prime Minister was relegated to third-line management, Berejiklian forged a way that has showed others that we cannot hide from this virus, but we can live with it.

Of course, Berejiklian was responsible for, and has made, mistakes. The early errors around the Ruby Princess cruise ship are a case in point. Not a single leader in this country hasn’t made mistakes during this crisis. As Gemma Tognini tweeted on Friday: “Adding insult to injury, Daniel ­Andrews is still Premier”.

The leadership scorecard during Covid carries Berejiklian’s name at the very top.

Gladys – yes, we call her Gladys in NSW – led the country during Covid in five critical ways.

First, her starting point at ­almost every stage was to impose restrictions only when absolutely necessary. When there was an outbreak on Sydney’s northern beaches, there was a localised shutdown. When in early June numbers rose in the east, only local government areas in and around Sydney were shutdown. When numbers then skyrocketed in west and southwest Sydney, harder ­restrictions were put in place.

Annastacia Palaszczuk, Daniel Andrews and Gladys Berejiklian after a national cabinet meeting.

Other leaders said they were only doing what was necessary too, but patently, they didn’t ­behave that way, imposing statewide lockdowns when only a handful of cases arose in a small area of their state. The cruelty was almost matched by the stupidity. When Steven Marshall locked down South Australia, he prohibited people from walking for an hour a day. Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk required people driving alone in a car to wear a mask, until she was shamed into reversing that rule. The trigger-happy hectoring approach to lockdowns by other premiers will be their legacy.

While, the Prime Minister ­refused to budge on the international border, locking Australians out of their country and setting up the same model for premiers to close their borders, Berejiklian pushed back against this cruel ­national obsession. She didn’t save the federation from fracturing, but she gave it a good shot, privately in national cabinet and in front of the cameras.

Secondly, Berejiklian had a different tone to her peers. Don’t ­imagine this is some small matter. How a leader speaks to his or her people matters a great deal. Who can forget Daniel Andrews lecturing Victorians during Melbourne’s long, dark lockdown last year that if two people were in a relationship, and wanted to visit each other during the lockdown “that is not care”.

The NSW Premier empathised with citizens about the economic damage, the heartache of being separated from people you love, the loneliness, of lockdowns. She, well ahead of Morrison, was the first leader in the country to genuinely empathise with families separated by international borders.

Thirdly, Berejiklian was the first leader to warn Australians that case numbers are not the real measure of this virus – that we should focus on the number of hospitalisations and deaths. When she suggested this new way to measure Covid to national cabinet, she was ignored by every other leader, state and federal

Fourthly, Berejiklian was the first leader to educate Australians about the reality that the Delta variant had to bring an end to the idiotic pursuit of zero Covid, a policy pursued by the federal government and mimicked by the states and territories. She was the first leader to stop daily press conferences during a lockdown. Again, an important step in educating a public that had, for too long, been fed a dangerous diet of fear and hysteria by the media and politicians alike.

Flowers and signs left at the front of the office of former NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian after her resignation. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Bianca De Marchi

Sections of the media went into meltdown. Pressers are their crack cocaine. The Premier was accused of abandoning a sinking ship as Delta spread, refusing to stick around for cameras when hospitals would surely crash under the weight of Covid cases. Berejiklian stared down the confected hysteria, and she helped citizens in NSW take another step towards getting on with their lives without a daily 11am presser.

Finally, Berejiklian has shown other states that Australia cannot hide from the world. When the international border opens soon, it will happen in NSW first. That is a testament to the public, and ­behind the scenes, leadership of Berejiklian. If Victoria plays catch up on that front too, the Victorian Premier will be following Gladys’s lead.

As someone who lives and works in NSW, just about every single business owner, small and large, every citizen, who has spoken to me about responses to this pandemic over the past year has expressed gratitude that Gladys led NSW during this horrendous time. Sure, we’re fed up with lockdowns. Yes, business is hurting badly, and people want to get back to work, and return to their lives. The tireless Gladys is not perfect. Far from it. She has also had critical support from Kerry Chant and Brad Hazzard. None of that ­detracts from the fact that other leaders stand small in Gladys’s shadow.