Jozef Imrich, name worthy of Kafka, has his finger on the pulse of any irony of interest and shares his findings to keep you in-the-know with the savviest trend setters and infomaniacs.
''I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can't see from the center.''
-Kurt Vonnegut
Parliamentary Concordia Club: 'Nothing I will ever do in life professionally will compare': Lunch with Gladys Berejiklian
This week has been peppered with breakfasts at Bills with Andrew Denton, by accident, coffees, by intention, with tax gurus mon and tfa and luncheon with Dr Cope and the Bullabarra May Pole dancers ... I remember Gladys, even then known as the "Northbridge grrl", as a shy and green young researcher when she used to do research at the NSW Parliamentary Library back in the 1980s and 1990s ... Armenian grrls are partial to New Idea Type of magazines and tend to be fond of Blokes from the sunny lands of Joh Bjelke-Petersen
Memories keep flooding back after seeing some of these stories again ... One comes across even Marice Payne one of the best dancers at Press Christmas Parties as Gladys worked On the staff when Marice was a Senator ... All roads seem to lead to the Bear Pit ...
Berejiklian with Catherine Cusack (right) and Ron Phillips (centre), former opposition spokesman for health.Credit:Andrew Meares
Back then if anyone asked me who might be the leading ladies out of all the potential young women in the Liberal Party I would have thought then Cathy Cusack as Cathy was the most social and friendly out of the pool ... But again even in October 1989 if anyone asked me if the Berlin Wall would collapse I would have said not in my lifetime ... So do not take any tips from me.... ( I think the kiwi birds 🐦 🦅 are better than I am when it comes to predictionsNew Zealand Birds Show Humanlike Ability To Make Predictions)
Gladys Berejiklian used to half-heartedly joke to her school friends
that she wanted to go into politics. But she didn't mean it. Her heart
was set on being a science teacher. Berejiklian is a
self-confessed goody two-shoes, which began the day she set foot in
North Ryde Public School. She did not speak a word of English, only
Armenian, but that did not hold her back.
She
loved everything about school. The bookish Berejiklian, who later
attended Peter Board High, was well-rounded, proud of her uniform (a
standard public school navy blazer and green tartan skirt) and revelled
in the camaraderie of being in the softball team, even if she was
anything but sporty.
Gladys Berejiklian has vowed to run again for Premier in 2023, declaring she has not thought about life after politics.
And her competitive streak came
through early. "I was obsessed with school and I was always worried
about making sure I got into the highest class," Berejiklian says. More
than four decades later public education is still the Premier's passion
and she says schools policy will be her focus this year. That and
rebuilding the state after the summer from hell. Berejiklian made history a year ago when she became the first elected female premier in NSW.
Before that she was the state's first female treasurer under former
leader Mike Baird. But Berejiklian, who is notoriously private and
cautious, does not like to focus on her achievements as a woman. Since
rising to become leader in January 2017, Berejiklian has studiously
avoided weighing into the gender debate that has at times engulfed the
Liberal Party. She repeatedly says that she wants actions to speak
louder than words. It's a warm Friday and the small Lotus Dumpling
Bar in Walsh Bay is heaving when we meet. She has brought a media
adviser with her, who assures me she is there to just sit on the
sidelines.
Berejiklian
is apologetic about her outfit (a perfectly acceptable smart purple
blazer and trousers). She is off to the women's T20 cricket later and
tends to feel the cold at night, she explains.
Berejiklian
used to also love gossip magazines but doesn't have time for those
anymore. Instead, she tries to make sure she reads for pleasure, mainly
biographies, and is halfway through Macquarie by Grantlee Kieza, the story of colonial governor Lachlan Macquarie.
Fashion
is her other great love and is just as keen to talk clothes as she is
reality TV. She is at her most relaxed when she is not restricted to
government talking points. "You can't tell by looking at me, but I do follow fashion," she says. "I
love fashion, I love supporting Australian designers. I don't wear a
lot of their clothes but I love Aussie designers who still manufacture
in Australia so I love Carla [Zampatti] and Karen Gee". (Berejiklian
wore a pink Karen Gee dress to her election victory party last year). "I love that they are strong Aussie women, Aussie designers who manufacture here."
Gladys Berejiklian: sky’s the limit for self-made Liberal
Ms Berejiklian as Young Liberals president, 20 years ago.
NSW Treasurer Gladys Berejiklian, tipped to succeed Mike Baird, has a reputation for pragmatism. Picture: Justin Lloyd
In
her maiden speech in 2003, Gladys Berejiklian thanked her Armenian
migrant parents, Krikor and Arsha, “for making me believe, ever since I
can remember, that the sky is the limit”.
Since
her university days Ms Berejiklian has been on a straight linear path
to the top of the Liberal political ladder in NSW through a combination
of hard work, competence, a pragmatic approach to public administration,
and a good sequential selection of mentors.
Half
a dozen other names are floating around as possible challengers for
the job of just-resigned Premier Mike Baird, including the Transport
Minister Andrew Constance and Planning Minister Rob Stokes
But
support for Ms Berejiklian goes beyond her centre-left faction within
the NSW Liberal caucus known as the Moderates, and she is expected to
easily win a partyroom ballot on Monday, which may not even be
contested.
“She has a discipline, she
has a knowledge base, she’s a hard worker, she’s intelligent and she’s
liked, and you usually need only four out of five of those,” an
influential figure in the NSW Liberal Party’s right-wing faction said.
Liberal
sources said in any event, when she became Treasurer and deputy Liberal
leader, Ms Berejiklian had risen above the factions to become
non-aligned, and her upward moves from one echelon to the next had been
based on merit rather than factional manoeuvring.
Ms
Berejiklian’s first political mentor, former NSW Liberal leader and MP
for the seat of Willoughby on Sydney’s lower north shore, Peter Collins,
gave her a part-time job when she “walked in off the street” to his
electorate office one day when she was at university, and later made
her his full-time research director.
“She’s standout competent,” Mr Collins said yesterday.
When
he announced that he would not recontest Willoughby in 2003, “one of
the first calls was to Gladys” to encourage her to run for preselection
in that seat, which she won and has held since.
But
while she had guidance from some influential Liberal figures along the
way, Mr Collins cautioned, “she is very much her own person”.
“She has very seriously trained for this job … she has put together the skill set necessary,” he said.
Ms
Berejiklian, 46 and born in Sydney, represents the classic Liberal
battler story: the daughter of working-class immigrants from a troubled
part of the world who went to a state school, then put herself through
university.
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She earned a bachelor of
arts and graduate diploma in international studies from the University
of Sydney, and a masters of commerce from the University of NSW.
Politically, Ms Berejiklian was a rising star from an early age, being
voted president of the NSW Young Liberals from 1996-97.
After
she moved on from Mr Collins’s office and before entering parliament Ms
Berejiklian worked as a staffer for then Liberal NSW senator Helen
Coonan, and later as an executive with the Commonwealth Bank.
After
a couple of junior portfolios, Ms Berejiklian took on transport where,
sources said, as minister starting in 2011 she was tough in demanding
results from senior public servants, which grated with some of them.
“She asked the CityRail bosses what they would change to make it better-regarded,” a source said.
“They said, ‘we could get rid of the graffiti’, and she replied, ‘good, get me a plan to get it done in a month’.
“She’s very good at identifying the problems and saying, ‘give me the solutions’.”
The
outcomes of big transport projects under Ms Berejiklian were mixed but
mostly positive — a new light rail project has suffered massive cost
blowouts but the Opal-integrated smart card fare system has been a
success.
As Treasurer over the past two years, Ms Berejiklian achieved sterling fiscal results.
Reading
her maiden speech, Ms Berejiklian’s political philosophy might be
divined as social libertarian. She quoted John Stuart Mill, and told
the house: “Liberalism ensures that government will always support those
in need and allows individuals to live freely so long as they do not
impinge on the freedom of others.
“I
strongly believe that governments should strive to achieve the liberal
principle of equality of opportunity as opposed to the Labor Party’s
ideological position of equality of outcome.”
Ms
Berejiklian has kept connected with her Armenian ancestry; her
grandparents were orphaned during the genocide under the Ottoman Empire
in 1915, and she attended the 100th commemoration of that tragedy in
Armenia in 2015.
Ms Berejiklian has never married and has no children.
“I
think Gladys is very single-minded: she has been building her life and
her career, and she doesn’t have a lot of time to socialise,” someone
who knows her well said.
“Mr Right hasn’t come along yet. She’s a powerful woman.”
