Kristina Keneally – Premier of New South Wales
In 2003, with other newly elected members of Parliament, I wrote to Kristina Keneally to invite her to join the Parliamentary Christian Prayer Fellowship. A number of new coalition members joined and three new Labor parliamentarians. They have all made a significant contribution to the prayer meeting I run each Thursday.
Kristina is a striking blonde with a soft American accent. Her nails are sculptured, her lips have gloss, and the hair sticks out in the fashionable look that suggests an electric straightener has just been used. In this she is like those other powerful women, Julia, Gail, Anna and the opposite to Elle who looks so 1980’s.
What took me back was her reply to my “getting to know you” question about her professional or trade qualification: “I am a trained theologian.”
That is an interesting response. I am an adjunct Professor in an American seminary of renown, but none of the colleagues there would have given that answer. All have studied and taught theology, but no one I know would describe themselves by profession as a theologian.
That is not only a unique title, but it is the only time in Australian history a trained theologian has started as a politician and in a short time become Party leader and State Premier.
Her grandmother was a Brisbane barmaid who married an American GI. They raised Ms Keneally’s mother, Catherine, in Australia. But when she, too, married a US serviceman, they returned to USA. Kristina was born in 1968 in Las Vegas. She lived for a short while in Colorado before her family settled in Ohio, where they still live.
She was educated at the Notre Dame Academy the same Catholic high school in Toledo, Ohio, as Tom Cruise’s wife, Katie Holmes, Toledo’s most famous daughter. Holmes’s dad was her high school basketball coach and the movie star’s older sister, Holly, was one of her friends and teammates. She went on to study at the Catholic University of Dayton, Ohio, where she dabbled in student politics graduating with a BA in Political Science (Hons) and an MA in Religious Studies. She then planned to do her PhD in theology.
Keneally met her husband, Ben, nephew of the author Tom Keneally, in 1991 when they were in Poland for the Catholic World Youth Day. Their long-distance relationship survived on phone calls and letters until she moved to Australia in 1994. They married in 1996. She and her husband have two school-age children, Daniel (11 years) and Brendan. (9 years). Kristina became an Australian citizen in 2000. She surrendered her American citizenship in 2000 so she could become an Australian and joined the Labor Party the same year, following Ben and his family into the ALP fold.
Kristina has taught in a ‘teacher shortage area’ in rural New Mexico and also as the NSW Youth Coordinator for the Society of St Vincent de Paul. Prior to her election to NSW Parliament, Kristina was a full time mum to her sons.
In 1999, Keneally manned the phones in the Ryde campaign office of the former deputy premier John Watkins. He continued to champion her and she won the southern Sydney seat of Heffron in 2003 after a bitter preselection battle with her predecessor, Deirdre Grusovin. It was intended that Ben should stand for preselection, but the new Labor policy of a predisposition for selecting women, indicated that she would stand more chance of being successful if she stood rather than Ben.
Kristina was elected to Parliament in 2003. In her electorate she has delivered new Metro bus services, had trucks diverted from Botany road, and worked hard to get new facilities for local public schools.
On 2 April 2007, Kristina became Minister for Ageing and Minister for Disability Services. Here she continued to deliver Stronger Together Part One, the largest increase in disability services funding in the history of NSW.
Then in a neat turn of historical fortune, in 2008, Kristina was the NSW Government Spokesperson for Catholic World Youth Day, helping to successfully deliver the year’s biggest global event after the Olympics. World Youth Day included some 225,000 visitors and up to 400,000 attendees, spanning six days and multiple venues across Sydney.
On 8 September 2008, Kristina became Minister for Planning and Minister for Redfern Waterloo. Here she focused on urban renewal, land supply and supporting the Government’s plans to create jobs closer to where people live. Over the past 18 months, she has overseen the Government’s major project system, which has supported over 66,000 jobs and almost $23 billion in economic investment.
She activated the independent Planning Assessment Commission. She led the Government’s development of the 22 hectare waterfront precinct in Sydney’s CBD, Barangaroo. She approved the concept plans for the North Eveleigh and the Pemulwuy project, which will improve Aboriginal Housing on ‘The Block’ in Redfern. Kristina added Minister for Infrastructure to her portfolio on 17 November 2009.
On the 4th of December she was sworn in as NSW’s first female Premier following the unceremonious dumping of the former Premier. They live in Pagewood in Sydney’s inner south. From her home she occasionally rides a bicycle to Parliament House and the Premier’s office – also a first.
How did she become Premier after being in Parliament for so little a time?
Firstly, NSW politics of the Labor Party is intricately bound up with the party factions. The former premier, Nathan Rees, was himself catapulted from obscurity into the position. But the community became disenchanted with many of his decisions, and the Party with his belonging to the wrong (left) faction. The powerbrokers wanted someone from the right. Of all others, Kristina offered the most potential in lifting the Party sagging performance.
Her husband Ben, a management consultant with impeccable links in the NSW Right, also was promoted to the highest levels within the Government bureaucracy to join many other spouses who hold high paying jobs within the Government.
Then there is the fact that she performed well in her portfolios that were difficult but not the major ones like Health, Treasury or transport. She showed a willingness to listen, and to visit the local community. She related well with ordinary people. Whether it is drought or flood or bushfire, she visited the area.
Called a “puppet’” of the Right faction and the unions, she declared herself to be “nobody’s puppet, nobody’s girl”. And she says it smiling in a winsome way so loved by the media.
What has impressed me watching her in the Parliament and analysing her decisions, is that her strong Christian faith provide her values and political positions. Her inaugural speech in Parliament quoted sources as diverse as Pope Leo XIII and Friedrich Engels. It is impossible to overestimate the depth of her Catholic faith and her commitment to Christian social justice.
Will she lead Labor to election victory in March 2011? No, the Parliamentary Labor Party is too much on the nose for success. Both she and Ben will be out of a job although the locals will certainly re-elect her.
Will she lead Labor’s rebuilding after 2011 and be leader of the Opposition for the next 8 years it will take to become Premier again? No, there is a Deputy Premier Carmel Tebbut (wife of Federal Parliament’s Anthony Albanese) also a good Catholic Christian who has been patiently waiting for the leader’s position and former Premier Nathan Rees rebuilding his support base from the backbench until the time is right.
Of course, Kristina may surprise everyone and remain with solid support. If so, she could go on to be one of the greatest State leaders we have seen.
Reference: http://www.nswalp.com/labor-people/5/71/kristina-keneally-mp
Rev the Hon. Dr Gordon Moyes AC MLC