Cheryl factor irks the ALP
By Glenn Milne
The Australian, October 15, 2001
CHERYL Kernot has now robbed Kim Beazley of two days of campaign momentum. Everybody in the ALP thinks it's two days too many and there had better not be any more.
In the wake of the latest controversy engulfing her – questions about whether she misrepresented her principal place of residence as being in her electorate of Dickson – I asked a Labor frontbencher whether he'd sent her a telegram of congratulations for her contribution to Labor's election efforts. "I would've," he replied drily. "But I didn't know which address to send it to."
Yep. Inside the Labor Party they've just about had enough of Kernot. And you can see why. During the past three years, almost every time she has made a media splash it's been about . . . Kernot.
From the outburst at the media at the ALP conference in Hobart through to the election night dummy spit over not being given a safer seat, on to the hospitalisation for exhaustion – including claims she wasn't being given sufficient support by her colleagues – and her subsequent demand for a new portfolio that didn't require as much travel. From there to her attempt to hide from the public by dyeing her hair red, matched by the red feather boa in a women's magazine. It just goes on.
There are those who will say that Kernot has been targeted because she's a high-profile woman. But consider this: it was Kernot who chose to be high profile, first by her brutal and personal internal campaign to win the leadership of the Australian Democrats, and then by her decision to defect to the Labor Party.
These were her decisions. No one forced her hand.
It wasn't the media that made Kernot a target. It was Kernot herself and the Labor Party. The party used her. And she was prepared to be used in return for a shot at the glittering prize of office. Her defection was accompanied by political pageantry akin to a celebrity marriage. At her first joint press conference with Beazley, Kernot wore white. Down in Hobart she stood at the prow of a ferry as it churned up the Derwent, as Gareth Evans, her political suitor, looked on.
In retrospect, the scene is now more reminiscent of Kate Winslett on the Titanic.
When she did land, Kernot was escorted up to a giant pavilion to declare in her first speech to her new party that on the day she deserted the Democrats, a political fault line had opened all the way from Kirribilli (House) to Canberra. Nobody could ever accuse Kernot of underestimating her own importance. The ALP took the bounce in the polls from her switch in allegiance. Trouble is, ever since it's been dealing with the baggage that came with it.
One can only speculate on what troubles Kernot. One school of thought is that she misses being the fairy godmother of Australian politics – the third party leader in the Senate, a position that allows you to rise above the partisan fray and consistently take the high moral ground without ever being at risk of having to implement your policies.
Kernot has always appeared uncomfortable with the capacity for confrontation necessary to be a frontbench member on either side of politics. And yes, after the initial burst of publicity that accompanied her defection, she's faded from the spotlight.
Her difficulty is, though, that she often fails to reach her own standards. Only the day before it was revealed she had urged journalists to dig up dirt on her Liberal opponent in Dickson, she publicly declared her distaste for personal attacks, urging all sides of politics to get back to the issues.
The ALP and Kernot are right when they say the Liberals have been pushing around the story about her dual residences for months. But the problem for Kernot is that she does face legitimate questions.
Either her Gold Coast apartment was her principal place of residence – as she told the Queensland Stamp Duty Office in order to receive a tax concession on the purchase. Or her principal place of residence is her rented house in Dickson, which is what she was telling voters. She cannot have it both ways. In fact, she wants it three ways. Because she also submitted in her MP's pecuniary interest register that the Gold Coast unit was for weekend and holiday purposes.
The danger for Labor's employment spokeswoman is that this controversy has entered the waters of personal integrity. It certainly looks like she has misled either the stamp office or the voters of Dickson. It's going to be nasty either way and the Government has no intention of letting go. It sees an opportunity here to drag the issue of Beazley's leadership into the campaign. Richard Alston was unleashed as the Coalition attack dog yesterday.
Alston: "To get a stamp duty concession, a person is required to sign a declaration that the property will be their principal place of residence and that they will remain in continuous occupation for not less than six months.
"If they fail to meet those conditions, they are obliged to notify the stamp duty commissioner within 28 days and account for the difference between the duty actually paid and the duty which would have been paid if the concession had not been allowed."
Fair points, really. Kernot's response is to say she sorted the matter out with the commissioner and the stamp office is satisfied that everything is in order. But she will not release the correspondence.
In demanding Beazley stand Kernot down from the frontbench, Alston also tried to make the leadership linkage: if Beazley is the type of man who simply tries to bury his head and hide from dealing with this kind of situation, how's he going to be as prime minister in a real international crisis?
When she spat the dummy on election night about not being given a safer seat, Kernot responded sharply when asked if her intemperance could destroy her political career. "We'll let the people be the judge of that. You're the media," she retorted.
On November 10 the people will get the chance to judge her.
At the same press conference, journalists asked Kernot if she had the discipline to be a significant player in the ALP. She replied: "Ask me that in six months."
Almost three years later, the question is still hanging.
Glenn Milne is chief political correspondent for the Seven network. His column appears in The Australian each Monday
Copyright ã The Australian 2001