The Kerryn Phelps enigma: a shape-shifter who may shift balance of power
Kerryn Phelps is one of the great shape-shifters of Australian politics who once flirted with a run for parliament as a Liberal.
Kerryn Phelps is one of the great shape-shifters of Australian politics.
Identifying with small business operators and flirting early on with a run for parliament as a Liberal, Phelps was Bruce Shepherd’s protege when elected president of the Australian Medical Association in the late 1990s.
Shepherd, the tough-minded late Sydney orthopaedic surgeon who famously led others out of the public hospital system, argued doctors should charge what they were worth.
Phelps, who continues to this day charging patients well above the scheduled fee in her Double Bay general practice, said she and Shepherd were “philosophically on the same plane”. Just five years ago, she tweeted that a decline in Medicare bulk-billing rates could be “the best thing to happen to the Aust health system”. Now running as an independent in Saturday’s Wentworth by-election to replace Malcolm Turnbull — which polls suggest she could win — the change seems remarkable.
Phelps says she wants “a secure future” for Medicare and “better delivery of health services”. The same doctor-politician who called herself “business friendly” when elected as a City of Sydney councillor two years ago — and who warned that Labor-supported paid domestic violence leave “would destroy small business” — also now has positions on issues from renewable energy to asylum- seekers that are to the left of Labor, and to some extent the Greens.
Phelps has insisted that, if elected, she would be a “stabilising” influence in parliament, and would not block budget bills. Nor would she seek to bring down the government in a hung parliament.
Yet already there are nagging doubts — about what Phelps really stands for and whether she would be the “moderating force” she claims if the government loses its one-seat majority.
Liberals, claiming the only certainty for Wentworth voters is to stick with party candidate Dave Sharma, cite comments by Phelps when she backtracked by suggesting her support was conditional, and she would deal with issues case-by-case. “Who knows what that means?” said one senior party campaigner. Specifics on how Phelps would vote on a confidence motion against the government, moved by Labor, look unclear as well.
Phelps’s evolving positions on her Wentworth how-to-vote card and allocation of preferences is put forward as a classic shape shift. “Explicitly” ruling out directing preferences when she entered the race, and promising to leave it to voters to choose, Phelps switched to “put the Liberals last”. Then came an uncomfortable revelation that the candidate billing herself as an independent had hired as her campaign spokesman Darrin Barnett, a Labor operative and former adviser to Julia Gillard who has worked on many ALP campaigns, including as a point man for Justine Keay in the Braddon by-election just two months earlier.
It didn’t stop there: the creator of Phelps’s campaign website and launch video was found to be Sofia Madden, co-founder of digital technology company Principle Co with her partner Daniel Stone. The ALP, individual party candidates and ALP-affiliated unions are Principle Co’s main clients and the Madden-Stone team worked inside Labor’s headquarters running its digital campaign in the 2015 state election. Even Phelps’s campaign chair, businesswoman Wendy McCarthy, has “impeccable” Labor connections stretching back decades, more recently as a mentor to Bill Shorten’s wife, Chloe.
Phelps backflipped amid claims she was really a front for Labor, while it “ran dead” on its lesser-known candidate Tim Murray in the belief Phelps had the best chance of stopping a Liberal win. She now confirmed she would preference Liberals over Labor on her how-to-vote card.
Phelps was candid this week when she said her decision on preferences was based on giving her the best chance of victory. But if the contest becomes a two-horse race as expected between Phelps and Sharma, with preferences determining the result, then Phelps’s move would make no difference because her preferences would never be counted.
Licia Heath, another independent in the field of 16 contesting Wentworth, cast doubt on Phelps’s climate change credentials if she could claim the Liberals had no policy on the issue and yet preference them. “I find it a bit disingenuous when I hear attacks against other candidates about climate change when the same candidate (Phelps) is preferencing the people in direct opposition to those policies,” Heath said.
Phelps snapped back, but she has modified her preference position yet again, saying her how-to-vote card is just a guide. Yesterday she said Wentworth voters should vote her No 1 and preference whomever they like. Benjamin Jones tweeted back: “It is hard to keep up with so many backflips.”
Those who know Phelps and challenge the likelihood of her “stabilising” role in Canberra highlight a notable array of disagreements and bitter fallings-out over the years. They recall how Phelps, who first found fame as a pop medicine commentator on morning commercial television, had early battles at the AMA when one councillor, Robert Hodge, called for her to step aside, alleging: “Kerryn’s done well in the media, but we don’t have any runs on the board.” The issue was resolved and Phelps served out her term, but not without threats of legal action against Hodge from the AMA’s executive.
Phelps also threatened legal action against Howard government health minister Michael Wooldridge for saying on ABC radio that Phelps’s “only qualifications is in the media”. Phelps, a qualified GP, secured an apology from Wooldridge, but only after two months’ feuding.
Phelps and her partner, Jackie Stricker, fell out with biographer Susan Mitchell over alleged disagreements, including who the author could and could not interview for the book. Phelps later refused to talk about the difficulties. One area of upheaval fleshed out in detail in the biography, with Phelps’s co-operation, was her “irreparable rift” with various family members.
For many years, Phelps and Stricker were good friends with Sophie Landa, a fellow “power lesbian” and wealthy daughter of late NSW Labor minister Paul Landa. That friendship ended badly with Phelps sending a legal letter, accusing Landa of “spreading damaging gossip”.
Last year, Phelps resigned as Sydney’s deputy mayor to Clover Moore, citing a lack of transparency over the city council’s draft expenses policy. Phelps had been elected on Moore’s independent team ticket in September 2016, but she was “shocked” when Moore would not endorse her beyond 12 months as deputy mayor and did not accept her as successor in the top job.
Phelps appeared to continue amicable relations with a fellow councillor, Liberal Christine Forster, Tony Abbott’s sister, but that friendship is now frosty too. Forster claimed on social media that Phelps is “backed by Labor” in Wentworth.
Phelps has never stood for party preselection, but she has toyed with joining the Liberals and Labor.
Clive Hamilton, in a 2003 lecture when he headed The Australia Institute lamented how image management and spin had overtaken policy and values in modern politics. Criticising careerists who could “comfortably jump either way” and make decisions based on which party would better facilitate personal advancement, Hamilton said Phelps was asked if she would enter politics after leaving the AMA.
“She said she would,” Hamilton recounted. “She was then asked which party she would join. She said she had not yet made up her mind. There are no fundamental differences of principle that make it obvious which party she should join.” Ouch.
