The Woman Who Always Likes To Win

An interview with the former leader of the Australian Democrats and ALP parties

by Jodee Fong

Whoever has seen her with that professional suit in the senate would say she is ‘strong’, ‘powerful’ or perhaps ‘resilient’. But today, standing in front of me, is a down-to-earth woman with slightly messy, blonde curly hair and her comfortable sandals.

It is hard to imagine that Cheryl Kernot, the once powerful Australian political leader for 11 years, is now looking for something other than being in power and “keeping the bastards honest”.

After her defeat in the federal ALP party in 2001 because of the extramarital affair with Gareth Evans, she once said “it is very hard for politicians to carve out a life after politics...And women aren’t as good at preparing their exit path as men.” Luckily today, she has found herself creating a satisfying life out of politics.

With her current directing position at the Centre of Social Impact at UNSW, she now can put a combined 23 years of experience as a political activist and a controversial politician into good use. “I love [teaching] fantastic post-grad students who want to go out and operate differently in the landscape from the way their previously generations did.”

Despite her new love of teaching and directing, anyone in the room could smell her hunger for getting back in politics.

In 2012, Kernot campaigned with a slogan ‘change politics’. She claims “I just wanted to be a catalyst. I didn’t expect to be elected,” though. She expresses enthusiastically that the idea was like a rush of blood to her head. “[I] really wanted to change the conduct of question time...because I think that they help [restoring] some parts of trust between voters and the political system.”

Kernot feels that she is doing a better job to achieve goals now than she did during the time in the parliament. “I'm doing things which are meaningful to me now, umm, and I don't have to stand up and talk talk talk in parliament or go through all the media - [the] circus [of] politicians manipulating and agendas being set on both sides,” she says.

Disappointed by current institutions, Kernot finds herself embracing new forms of solutions. “I used to think that if you were in parliament you might able to change something like bring a criminal like [Joseph Kony] to justice, I used to think that collective global will would do something [...and] that the UN was effective. I don't think that any more.”

“I'm a great believer. If you can't work within the system, you have to do what you can without it. I don't mind revolution.” Perhaps this is the reason Kernot left the politics in 2001?

When asked about her scandalous affair with Gareth Evans , Kernot simply performs what politicians do best. After shifting to a bunch of unrelated facts and comments, she manages to say “[it keeps] reminding me that there was much more to my life than just one episode like that...Oh gosh here we go again - the trivialisation of life to the sexual and the sensational - I'm just as determined by working with my daughter to write an alternative obituary - to move beyond being pigeon-holed as just that.”

In spite of her ambitions and the controversies, under the floral-patterned, chiffon top, Kernot is just like us.

In a 2002 interview Kernot confessed that there is no such thing as the biggest regret in her life. Due to limited time during our interview, I could not bring the question up. But upon the deadline of this article, I still wonder what her answer would be.....