"Your time is now. You go, girl."
Gladys Berejiklian received hundreds and hundreds of messages of encouragement and support on Thursday as soon as news broke that Mike Baird would step down as Premier. But there was one particular message from a former politician, a former colleague, who has deliberately kept herself out of the political limelight, until now.
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That message was from Robyn Parker, the former NSW minister for the environment, who says Berejiklian is worth shouting about. Parker has refused to comment publicly about politics since she left NSW Parliament in 2015 but she and Berejiklian started in Macquarie Street at the same time. And she, among others, have all the reasons why Gladys Berejiklian should be the next premier of NSW.
1. Her time really is now. She was a strong contender when O'Farrell stepped down but the numbers didn't stack up. While we know the current NSW Minister for Transport Andrew Constance is busy counting votes, Gladys has spent her time in Parliament in charge of two major portfolios: transport and treasury. She's ready. She's also got a tonne of experience before Parliament.
![Waiting in the wings? Will Gladys Berejiklian be the new NSW premier?](/web/20170122213108im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/u/8/n/5/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gtupdd.png/1484905816398.jpg)
"The extra time has only given her room to grow and mature. She brought stability to her two major portfolios and we are reaping that in NSW," says Parker.
"I think she would be outstanding. For her, it's not about political games, it's about delivering on the ground. It is about solid achievement and stability. I think as a role model for women, she shines."
Like Parker, Anne Henderson, the deputy director of the Sydney Institute and author of Getting Even, has known Berejiklian for decades. She agrees the Treasurer is ready for the top job. "Gladys gave up a good career [in banking] to go into politics. She is a very experienced party member and has worked her way solidly through all the hurdles, been through the hard grind of politics. Gladys is good at all that stuff and she has done it forever. [Former prime minister John] Howard was the same."
2. This is not about how women are better than men – no need to remind us of Margaret Thatcher or Pauline Nyiramasuhuko. But Berejiklian is not a man and that's a bonus. Her colleagues today described her as humble and hard-working without being self-deprecating. She doesn't do the big brash glad-handing thing that men do. Parker says: "She has substance over ego and made politics her life and NSW benefits from that."
3. She's no social conservative. Even a Labor member of NSW Parliament describes her work on reproductive rights as excellent. "She was really good on Zoe's Law and that gives us more hope than the current crop. She is also really good on LGBTQi rights. She's been a strong voice for women within that quite conservative party room and she certainly stood up to them." Also, she's used compassion and refugees in the same sentence. And a former member of Parliament described her as a warrior for the moderate faction, which certainly needs warriors.
4. She has an unpronounceable surname. Think that's trivial? She's in a party filled with straight white men with straight white names and those people don't represent us any more. Her surname is a metonym for Australia's multiculturalism. In her inaugural speech to Parliament in 2003, Berejiklian expressed her great good fortune at being born and raised in Australia to Armenian parents and said she was proud of her cultural background.
"This includes being proud of my surname. I thank the good people of Willoughby who voted for me, even though they could not pronounce it."
Plus, her director of communication is Ehssan Veiszadeh, husband of Daily Life's Woman of the Year, Mariam Veiszadeh.
In Australia, we have moved on from turning to women premiers only when the blokes have trashed the hotel room.
5. It's OK. It's no longer a bad sign to have a women premier and she can actually do the job. In Australia, we have moved on from turning to women premiers only when the blokes have trashed the hotel room. Professor of government at the University of Sydney Rodney Smith says that while that was the case in the past, "the experience of women premiers has been much more diverse since then and this is not a crisis point in NSW politics.
"It is not the case any more that you turn to a female premier when the regime is in trouble." So, this is not a case of a glass cliff and it's over two years until the next election.
Plus Smith says Berejiklian has actual achievements under her belt including improving the economic performance of NSW compared to other states. Introducing the Opal card might sound easy but no previous transport minister ever pulled it off. And she did that.
"She even managed to get transport off the front page," said Smith.
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