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Sydney Morning Herald (Australia)
October 27, 2012 Saturday
First Edition
Signals from a careful commuter;
LUNCH WITH GLADYS BEREJIKLIAN
by Philip Clark
There will be no announcements until this Minister has done the track
work, writes Philip Clark.
She's got the toughest job in the government and she's famously shy
about her private life. For some she's going to be the next premier,
for others she's the politician with the unpronounceable surname, but
for a woman who ought to have the weight of the world on her shoulders
Gladys Berejiklian is travelling light.
"I am very customer-focused," she smiles when asked how the job of
fixing Sydney's transport woes is going.
"If I get presented with a proposal the first thing I ask is: how does
it help the customer?"
So far the customers appear to be giving her the benefit of the doubt.
But for how long? A year and a half into her ministry, Gladys
Berejiklian, member for Willoughby, NSW Minister for Transport, knows
public patience can't last.
But if she is feeling anxious she isn't showing it.
We talk over a Friday lunch at the New Shanghai restaurant, downstairs
in Chatswood Chase. It's in the middle of her electorate and she knows
people everywhere. There is even a baby to admire. The place is as
busy as ... well a Chinese restaurant in Chatswood and Berejiklian
wastes little time on the menu. "I'm starving!" she exclaims and
immediately suggests the Rainbow Beef as a specialty of the house. We
settle for that with stir-fried green beans and some salty prawns and
dumplings. I suggest the eel. She's not keen but I go ahead anyway and
end up being the only person who has a go at it.
We sit close together on stools at a small table that is soon crowded
with dishes and chopsticks and her preferred tipple of green tea. As
we talk I notice her acknowledge people with a discreet wave of the
hand or a smile. Such is the political life.
Up close, Gladys Berejiklian is friendly and warm and knows her
ground. She is polite and makes time. She is interested and asks
questions, despite glancing at her BlackBerry to remind her she has
six meetings in a row after our lunch. It's a punishing work schedule
that begins early and finishes late. It can make a mess of your health
but she looks well and says she gets to the gym.
I don't comment on her clothes but do notice a silver necklace with a
name I can't read. I politely inquire; "It's my name in Armenian," she
replies with a laugh. "I had a bet in the office that you would never
bother asking about it!" I feel suitably chastened.
Berejiklian is well aware that success in the transport portfolio is
one of the key measuring sticks by which Barry O'Farrell's government
will be judged.
But what does success mean?
Well for a start she won't be rushed. "I understand that people want
me to announce things but that was what Labor did. Announce things all
the time and never do anything. I won't do that."
In Victoria, Barry O'Farrell's Liberal counterpart, Ted Baillieu, has
earned the sobriquet "Timid Ted" for his hesitancy on the path to
reform. Critics level the same charge against O'Farrell. He's too
cautious; he won't get on with things.
As Nick Greiner once exasperatedly said to me about O'Farrell, "Look,
Barry is Barry."
Berejiklian bristles at the idea that O'Farrell might go down in
history as a do-nothing Premier. "Barry will be remembered very well,"
she says firmly. "He is doing a lot behind the scenes and making the
decisions that set the solid foundations for the future."
After 16 years in opposition and with a landslide on his lap it was
O'Farrell who last year famously brushed aside an interview request
from the ABC's election-night host, Kerry O'Brien, with the words,
"I'm only going to talk to Gladys."
So if the proverbial political bus rumbles along doesn't she have the
inside running over the Treasurer, Mike Baird, for succession? She has
seen this coming and her political discipline kicks in. She doesn't
smile and I get the message.
"Barry is my boss. I don't agree that I have a more favoured
relationship with him than others. He has good relations with all the
Cabinet."
What about leading the party one day?
"I don't have time to take my eye off the job I have," she says. "I
don't want to speculate about the future leadership. I am
concentrating on getting the best job done that I can."
For a person who's been in politics for so long she is strangely
reticent about her private self and is especially reserved about the
issue of gender in politics.
I ask around these issues until she says, "look I've asked you twice,
so please ..."
But I can't resist. After all it's been the week from hell for
misogynists. Julia Gillard has given them a pasting in Parliament and
all over the world her speech has been tweeted, bookmarked and
applauded. So what did Gladys think?
"I haven't watched it."
Really? I look at her but she is quite resolved. It seems hard to believe.
I get a sense of how determined she can be.
"I am not comfortable talking about politics through gender. I have
always felt that the best thing you could do as a woman was to do the
best job possible."
Yes, but surely she has experienced what many talented women feel, the
everyday, commonplace condescension that accompanies the successful
woman?
"As far as the Liberal Party is concerned I have never experienced any
discrimination," she replies with a smile.
The daughter of Armenian migrants who fled from Syria and Jerusalem in
the wake of the Armenian genocide and arrived separately in the late
1960s, Gladys grew up in the midst of the biggest Armenian community
in Sydney, centred on Willoughby. The eldest of three sisters, she
studied hard and stayed at home until she was 30. She worked her way
up in the Commonwealth Bank, was interested in politics from an early
age and had Peter Collins as an early mentor. She is a close friend of
the federal Liberal MP Joe Hockey. There's an Armenian connection
there, too.
She speaks her parents' language and has a strong sense of her
heritage. She worries as they have relatives in Aleppo and Syria now
is a dangerous place.
Berejiklian is single and elsewhere she has said that perhaps she will
meet the right man some day. I don't ask her about it. It's a tough
enough question for anyone in her position and politics doesn't give
you any privilege on the answer.
Right now she is struggling with trying to prioritise Sydney's
transport options. There seem to be so many projects and where is the
capital coming from to fund any of them?
I suggest to her that from the outside it looks as though O'Farrell is
hedging his bets on transport and setting up two competing streams of
advice. First there is her Transport Ministry and then there is
Infrastructure NSW, set up in the middle of last year under the
leadership of Greiner, which has just produced a major report to the
government recommending the WestConnex roads project as its priority.
The Premier says he will go ahead with the WestConnex proposal. But
Infrastructure NSW has plenty to say on buses and light and heavy
rail, too. So where does that leave Gladys?
She insists there is no conflict. That Infrastructure NSW was always
going to be used as a vehicle for identifying the key road project and
that's what it has done.
So how does she want to be remembered after the first term?
"I want the Opal card rolled out across trains, buses and ferries so
it is available for most customers.
"I want to finish the Inner West Light Rail extension, I want the
South West Rail Link well under way and construction happening on the
North West Rail Link."
I ask about how it can possibly take so long for an integrated
ticketing system such as the Opal card to be introduced when other
cities have their Oyster (London) and Octopus (Hong Hong)? She sighs
and I gather has asked the same question.
She says she has been on the front foot with the bureaucracy. "The
first decision I made as minister was to cut the number of agencies,
from 10 to four. I'd been planning what I wanted to do so it was very
early when I did that.
"It's taken a while to get the bureaucracy right - now though they
know that every proposal that comes to me needs to show the benefit to
the customer."
She is "absolutely committed to the North West rail project", agrees
that light rail can "move more people and is definitely better in some
places", but adds that "a quality public transport network is one
where modes are integrated and you have the right mode in the right
place".
She's no ideologue, "There's no one answer to Sydney's transport
issues. We will need everything - heavy and light rail, buses,
ferries, cars, active transport and most importantly integration
between all of these."
Life and times
1970 Born in Sydney.
1991 Joined the Liberal Party.
1996 Becomes only the third female president of the Young Liberals in NSW.
2003 elected as the member for Willoughby in the NSW Parliament,
succeeding Peter Collins.
2005 Joins the opposition front bench.
2006 Becomes opposition spokeswoman for transport.
2011 Appointed Transport Minister.
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/signals-from-a-careful-commuter-20121026-28atf.html
From: Baghdasarian
October 27, 2012 Saturday
First Edition
Signals from a careful commuter;
LUNCH WITH GLADYS BEREJIKLIAN
by Philip Clark
There will be no announcements until this Minister has done the track
work, writes Philip Clark.
She's got the toughest job in the government and she's famously shy
about her private life. For some she's going to be the next premier,
for others she's the politician with the unpronounceable surname, but
for a woman who ought to have the weight of the world on her shoulders
Gladys Berejiklian is travelling light.
"I am very customer-focused," she smiles when asked how the job of
fixing Sydney's transport woes is going.
"If I get presented with a proposal the first thing I ask is: how does
it help the customer?"
So far the customers appear to be giving her the benefit of the doubt.
But for how long? A year and a half into her ministry, Gladys
Berejiklian, member for Willoughby, NSW Minister for Transport, knows
public patience can't last.
But if she is feeling anxious she isn't showing it.
We talk over a Friday lunch at the New Shanghai restaurant, downstairs
in Chatswood Chase. It's in the middle of her electorate and she knows
people everywhere. There is even a baby to admire. The place is as
busy as ... well a Chinese restaurant in Chatswood and Berejiklian
wastes little time on the menu. "I'm starving!" she exclaims and
immediately suggests the Rainbow Beef as a specialty of the house. We
settle for that with stir-fried green beans and some salty prawns and
dumplings. I suggest the eel. She's not keen but I go ahead anyway and
end up being the only person who has a go at it.
We sit close together on stools at a small table that is soon crowded
with dishes and chopsticks and her preferred tipple of green tea. As
we talk I notice her acknowledge people with a discreet wave of the
hand or a smile. Such is the political life.
Up close, Gladys Berejiklian is friendly and warm and knows her
ground. She is polite and makes time. She is interested and asks
questions, despite glancing at her BlackBerry to remind her she has
six meetings in a row after our lunch. It's a punishing work schedule
that begins early and finishes late. It can make a mess of your health
but she looks well and says she gets to the gym.
I don't comment on her clothes but do notice a silver necklace with a
name I can't read. I politely inquire; "It's my name in Armenian," she
replies with a laugh. "I had a bet in the office that you would never
bother asking about it!" I feel suitably chastened.
Berejiklian is well aware that success in the transport portfolio is
one of the key measuring sticks by which Barry O'Farrell's government
will be judged.
But what does success mean?
Well for a start she won't be rushed. "I understand that people want
me to announce things but that was what Labor did. Announce things all
the time and never do anything. I won't do that."
In Victoria, Barry O'Farrell's Liberal counterpart, Ted Baillieu, has
earned the sobriquet "Timid Ted" for his hesitancy on the path to
reform. Critics level the same charge against O'Farrell. He's too
cautious; he won't get on with things.
As Nick Greiner once exasperatedly said to me about O'Farrell, "Look,
Barry is Barry."
Berejiklian bristles at the idea that O'Farrell might go down in
history as a do-nothing Premier. "Barry will be remembered very well,"
she says firmly. "He is doing a lot behind the scenes and making the
decisions that set the solid foundations for the future."
After 16 years in opposition and with a landslide on his lap it was
O'Farrell who last year famously brushed aside an interview request
from the ABC's election-night host, Kerry O'Brien, with the words,
"I'm only going to talk to Gladys."
So if the proverbial political bus rumbles along doesn't she have the
inside running over the Treasurer, Mike Baird, for succession? She has
seen this coming and her political discipline kicks in. She doesn't
smile and I get the message.
"Barry is my boss. I don't agree that I have a more favoured
relationship with him than others. He has good relations with all the
Cabinet."
What about leading the party one day?
"I don't have time to take my eye off the job I have," she says. "I
don't want to speculate about the future leadership. I am
concentrating on getting the best job done that I can."
For a person who's been in politics for so long she is strangely
reticent about her private self and is especially reserved about the
issue of gender in politics.
I ask around these issues until she says, "look I've asked you twice,
so please ..."
But I can't resist. After all it's been the week from hell for
misogynists. Julia Gillard has given them a pasting in Parliament and
all over the world her speech has been tweeted, bookmarked and
applauded. So what did Gladys think?
"I haven't watched it."
Really? I look at her but she is quite resolved. It seems hard to believe.
I get a sense of how determined she can be.
"I am not comfortable talking about politics through gender. I have
always felt that the best thing you could do as a woman was to do the
best job possible."
Yes, but surely she has experienced what many talented women feel, the
everyday, commonplace condescension that accompanies the successful
woman?
"As far as the Liberal Party is concerned I have never experienced any
discrimination," she replies with a smile.
The daughter of Armenian migrants who fled from Syria and Jerusalem in
the wake of the Armenian genocide and arrived separately in the late
1960s, Gladys grew up in the midst of the biggest Armenian community
in Sydney, centred on Willoughby. The eldest of three sisters, she
studied hard and stayed at home until she was 30. She worked her way
up in the Commonwealth Bank, was interested in politics from an early
age and had Peter Collins as an early mentor. She is a close friend of
the federal Liberal MP Joe Hockey. There's an Armenian connection
there, too.
She speaks her parents' language and has a strong sense of her
heritage. She worries as they have relatives in Aleppo and Syria now
is a dangerous place.
Berejiklian is single and elsewhere she has said that perhaps she will
meet the right man some day. I don't ask her about it. It's a tough
enough question for anyone in her position and politics doesn't give
you any privilege on the answer.
Right now she is struggling with trying to prioritise Sydney's
transport options. There seem to be so many projects and where is the
capital coming from to fund any of them?
I suggest to her that from the outside it looks as though O'Farrell is
hedging his bets on transport and setting up two competing streams of
advice. First there is her Transport Ministry and then there is
Infrastructure NSW, set up in the middle of last year under the
leadership of Greiner, which has just produced a major report to the
government recommending the WestConnex roads project as its priority.
The Premier says he will go ahead with the WestConnex proposal. But
Infrastructure NSW has plenty to say on buses and light and heavy
rail, too. So where does that leave Gladys?
She insists there is no conflict. That Infrastructure NSW was always
going to be used as a vehicle for identifying the key road project and
that's what it has done.
So how does she want to be remembered after the first term?
"I want the Opal card rolled out across trains, buses and ferries so
it is available for most customers.
"I want to finish the Inner West Light Rail extension, I want the
South West Rail Link well under way and construction happening on the
North West Rail Link."
I ask about how it can possibly take so long for an integrated
ticketing system such as the Opal card to be introduced when other
cities have their Oyster (London) and Octopus (Hong Hong)? She sighs
and I gather has asked the same question.
She says she has been on the front foot with the bureaucracy. "The
first decision I made as minister was to cut the number of agencies,
from 10 to four. I'd been planning what I wanted to do so it was very
early when I did that.
"It's taken a while to get the bureaucracy right - now though they
know that every proposal that comes to me needs to show the benefit to
the customer."
She is "absolutely committed to the North West rail project", agrees
that light rail can "move more people and is definitely better in some
places", but adds that "a quality public transport network is one
where modes are integrated and you have the right mode in the right
place".
She's no ideologue, "There's no one answer to Sydney's transport
issues. We will need everything - heavy and light rail, buses,
ferries, cars, active transport and most importantly integration
between all of these."
Life and times
1970 Born in Sydney.
1991 Joined the Liberal Party.
1996 Becomes only the third female president of the Young Liberals in NSW.
2003 elected as the member for Willoughby in the NSW Parliament,
succeeding Peter Collins.
2005 Joins the opposition front bench.
2006 Becomes opposition spokeswoman for transport.
2011 Appointed Transport Minister.
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/signals-from-a-careful-commuter-20121026-28atf.html
From: Baghdasarian