NSW: Patience spurs Chikarovskis return from the wilderness

AAP General News (Australia)
12-06-1998
NSW: Patience spurs Chikarovskis return from the wilderness

By Neil Sands, State Political Correspondent

SYDNEY, Dec 6 AAP - Like her political hero, Prime Minister John Howard, New South Wales
Liberal leadership aspirant Kerry Chikarovski has spent her time in the wilderness.

There was a year of self-imposed exile on the backbenches following the coalitions 1995
election defeat and more recently she was demoted by Peter Collins in a bid to curb her
leadership ambitions.

On top of that there was a marriage breakdown and indignity of being subjected to the
rumours that plague high-profile women politicians.

But like Mr Howard, Mrs Chikarovski has learned the importance of patience.

It paid off last week when the cross-factional support that was vital to her leadership
aspirations finally emerged in the face of Mr Collins continued failure to impress voters.

Even she was surprised at her change in fortune.

"Put it this way, I was very surprised at the approach," she told reporters today.

Mrs Chikarovski, 42, the eldest daughter of former Liberal Party general secretary Greg
Bartels, always felt destined for high public office.

"I made up my mind when I was 14 that I wanted to be a politician and I suspect at that
stage I probably thought getting to the top job might be a really good aim," she said.

Mrs Chikarovski won the seat of Lane Cove on Sydneys North Shore in May 1991 and held a
string of portfolios during John Faheys government from 1992 to 1995.

Her fast-track to the senior ministry started only just over a year after she first
appeared in parliament and sparked speculation that she would be the first woman premier in
New South Wales.

A lawyer, she held the portfolios of industrial relations, status of women and consumer
affairs and was made deputy leader of the Liberal Party in 1994.

Following the Fahey governments defeat she declined a position on Peter Collins
frontbench after unsuccessfully running for the deputy leaders position, in the first sign
that she coveted the top job.

She relented a year later and become corrective services spokeswoman but her disaffection
grew after being demoted to environment late last year in what was seen as a bid to sideline
her.

The most recent leadership speculation came in September when her backers were forced to
sign letters pledging their allegiance to Mr Collins.

At that time she received a dressing down in the coalition party room for refusing to end
speculation she would challenge Mr Collins.

Now that she has virtually reached the position as party leader, Mrs Chikarovski has faced
accusations from Premier Bob Carr that her political leadership was untested.

"Mr Carr has forgotten that when I was in government I was a senior minister, I was deputy
leader of the Liberal Party, I think that qualifies me," she said.

At a women in politics lunch last month she accused senior Labor figures of spreading
rumours about her and upbraided the media for concentrating more on her dress sense than her
political message.

The whispers increased when Mrs Chikarovski split from her husband Kris last year, with
whom she has two children, Mark, 12, and Lisa, 14.

But she said today that any attempt to smear her would fail.

"If the Labor Party has a dirt file on me and want to play politics thats their problem,"
she said.

"I mean Ive sat in the parliament for the last three-and-a-half years while the Premier
threw insults at me, they havent worried me in the past I cant imagine that Im going to
react to them in the future."

AAP ns/sb/bjm/de

KEYWORD: LEADERSHIP KERRY (PROFILE)

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