IN the second of a two-part series on our region’s federal politicians, NATALIE KOTSIOS catches up with Farrer MP Sussan Ley after the Coalition’s first year back in government.
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THE children look up eagerly as the door to Mulwala Preschool slides open, lunches temporarily forgotten — visitors are far more exciting than Vegemite sandwiches.
Some smile shyly as Sussan Ley walks in and offers a warm hello before launching into conversation with the preschool’s director, who invited the Farrer MP.
The attentions of the little ones turn straight back to their lunch-boxes as the adults talk, blissfully unaware how much they’re the centre of discussions: What are enrolments like? What hours do you offer? Is there a parent committee?
Ms Ley absorbs each answer before firing off the next question; it’s a relaxed chat but it’s clear she’s here to work, to gather the information needed to carry on her job as Minister for Childcare.
There is no media, no photo opp. This is one of 400 childcare visits she has made across Australia since being given the role, first in opposition and now in government — this is just part of the job description.
Not 15 minutes earlier, however, Ms Ley wore her other hat; that of local MP as she faced a media scrum alongside Defence Minister David Johnston to announce the renewal of a five-year contract at the Thales factories at Mulwala and Benalla.
Afterward, it will be on to Melbourne for a conference on skills-based training as part of her duties as Assistant Minister for Education.
That’s in between keeping across the issues faced by her constituents in what is one of the biggest electorates in Australia. “It’s not glamorous,” her personal assistant remarks in the preschool, “it’s work. You just do what you’ve got to do and try to keep up with her.”
THIS is now the start of Ms Ley’s 14th year in Parliament. Six years as part of the Howard government, six in opposition and now, following the Coalition’s sweeping victory last year, she’s back on the “right” side of the chamber.
And it feels good.
“I must admit I express sympathy with some of my Labor colleagues now who are going through the same experience,” she confesses. There’s a sense of helplessness that goes with opposition, she says, but determination bubbles underneath.
Now, back in government she feels they can take action.
Not that this first year has been easy — a new Senate and tough budget have seen to that.
“I think quite honestly we could have done a better job selling the budget, we’ve all said that,” she concedes.
“Having said that, it’s not a pleasant message and I think there’s an element of shoot the messenger.”
Many of the budget measures have been criticised as being too harsh on demographics well-represented in rural areas: lower-to-middle class earner, unemployed youth, pensioners. It begs the question: how can you sell something that appears to hurt your constituents?
Ms Ley says she’s always sympathetic to those doing it tough but believes, gradually, people are finding “we didn’t make the tough calls because we wanted to — we made them because we had to”.
She tells of a pensioner who approached her recently to say they’d realised changes to pensions weren’t as drastic as feared.
“She didn’t let me off lightly mind you, she was unhappy about something else,” Ms Ley laughs, “but on this point she could at least say, ‘I understand now why (the government) is doing it’.”
Her roles in education and childcare have elevated Ms Ley’s profile on the political stage this past year and she’s been a strong performer in Question Time. Though her powers relating to childcare are limited, since the states are responsible for its implementation, the Productivity Commission’s childcare review is completed and she will be at the forefront of presenting new federal policy on the topic.
Political watchers believe these junior ministerial roles are preparing her for something bigger — but is that what she wants?
“We all would love to take the next step so I’m not saying it’s something I wouldn’t like to do,” she says. “But expect or seek it? No.
“I’ve been in the game — I’ve seen political careers go from hero to zero, I’ve seen change, I’ve seen expectations not work out — I’ve seen so much on both sides of politics that I’m very happy to be part of the team as set by the Prime Minister and do what’s asked of me.”
MS LEY is not what you’d call a career politician. As she states in her bio, she worked odd jobs for years to help fund getting her pilot’s licence and indulge her “fascination with the skies”.
There was work as an air traffic controller with Sydney and Melbourne airports, aerial stock mustering in outback NSW, not to mention running a dairy farm near Tallangatta for 17 years.
The turning point came when she undertook her first university degree — a Bachelor in Economics — at the age of 30, when her first child was one. The three degrees she would go on to complete were “the difference between what I could have been and what I turned out to be”.
Why economics? She couldn’t say exactly but her fascination with economic policy led to her joining her local Liberal Party branch.
Running for Parliament was not even a thought bubble, until one branch meeting when the then-Benambra MP Tony Plowman complimented her input on a discussion on protection of the car industry.
“The fact I was studying economics gave me confidence to speak up in that forum ... and (Plowman) said afterwards ‘Well done, you made an extremely good point — not a popular point, but a good point’,” she recalls.
“And the fact that he actually listened to me and thought I made sense validated my thinking on a whole range of things that got me thinking well, maybe this is something I’m really interested in and maybe something I could be good at.”
The first opportunity knocked in 2001 when former Liberal MP for Indi Lou Lieberman retired.
“A couple of people in the branch said you should really think about putting your hand up and I thought ‘Well, yeah I could’,” she says. “Two years earlier I wouldn’t have dreamed of it.”
BUT Indi was not to be — the honour went to a young Melbourne lawyer by the name of Sophie Panopoulos, and Ms Ley admits it was “personally devastating” to lose that preselection.
“I thought ‘That’s it, I’ll take my bat and ball and go home’,” she says.
It was while back at work with the Australian tax office that the second opportunity arose — a farmer from Rand, Angus Macneil, called to ask her to run for preselection in Farrer, following news Nationals MP and deputy prime minister Tim Fisher was retiring.
He’d heard about her at a Liberal Party lunch in Wodonga and thought her background made her the perfect candidate for Farrer, a seat no one expected the Liberal Party could win.
“Initially she said ‘No, no, I’ve just lost in Indi’, and that she was going to stick to working at the tax office,” Mr Macneil says.
“But I convinced her to have a chat with us and she did.”
One meeting at Cafe Cosmo in Dean Street later, and she was in.
Mr Fisher had held the seat since 1984 with a convincing margin, and that contest in 2001 was tight — she defeated Nationals’ candidate Bill Bott by just 206 votes.
It was a daunting prospect, coming from “pretty much nowhere to filling these shoes of someone who had been on the national stage”, but in each election since — with the exception of 2007 — the Coalition’s margin in Farrer has increased.
She’s even made headway in the typically Labor-stronghold of Broken Hill, where for the first time last year she won a booth — a huge achievement says Mr Macneil, who is still her campaign manager.
“There’s no airs or graces with her, or thinking she’s better than anyone else,” he says.
“She’s got the common touch, she doesn’t impose her views on others and she listens to what they say... and she’s very hardworking.
“She’s in demand right around Australia so probably can’t devote as much time in Farrer as I’d like, but she doesn’t take it for granted.”
Ms Ley however, reckons her popularity is little to do with her.
“In that very first election, they didn’t vote for me — they voted for the Liberal Party,” she said.
“Anyone who thinks they can outshine the party that they are part of, that chose them and they represent, I think is on shaky ground.”
POLITICAL commentators have noted in passing that Ms Ley is something of a “rising star” for the Liberals. Monash University’s Nick Economou says junior ministerial positions are usually a forerunner to the ministry, and a good indicator the party sees those portfolio holders as important in the future.
“She’s interesting because she’s considered a bit of moderate in a very conservative government,” he says.
“It’s not easy for junior ministers to get a bit of a go ... and now she’s obviously in the position to be promoted further up the track.”
Electorally she is “safe as houses” — under the Coalition agreement, the Nationals can’t challenge until she stands down and Farrer is one of the safest conservative seats out there.
Mr Economou believes how she handles the government’s paid parental leave scheme could be pivotal — the policy is unpopular not only in parts of the community but within the Coalition, and is inextricably linked to Ms Ley’s childcare portfolio.
“If she gets on the wrong side of a fight in (Prime Minister Tony) Abbott’s stuff it could have problems for her promotions down the track,” he says.
Mr Macneil agrees Ms Ley has potential and would like to think in the event of a reshuffle, she’d be considered for promotion to a cabinet position
Not, she insists, that the prospect of rising in the ranks is what drives her. There’s a piece of advice from former defence minister and later Liberal leader Brendan Nelson, that he offered back in 2001 during her first campaign.
“He said ‘I don’t get in John Howard’s ear and ask him for this and ask him for that, I just get on with the job, I’m part of the team and I do what’s expected of me’,” she recalls, “and that’s the approach I take, because it’s not about me... and I don’t think too far ahead.”
Such rhetoric about being a team-player is one oft-spoken by many politicians, and could be easy to react with cynicism. But as she speaks, there’s sincerity that comes across so naturally it’s hard to argue that they’re just platitudes.
“It doesn’t mean I don’t give my opinion ... and I don’t agree with everything the Liberal Party has ever proposed, how can anyone,” she adds matter-of-factly.
For example, while in opposition she disagreed with the Coalition’s plan for the Murray-Darling Basin, telling Mr Abbott it was “almost too much for me to support”. At that table she says they drew up a policy her “constituents could live with”.
“I’ll definitely have my say but I’ll have it where it counts, behind closed doors and not out in the public spotlight because as a team that’s how you work most effectively,” she says.
AFTER 14 years, Sussan Ley has no intentions to stand down any time soon. Rather, she sounds like she’s just getting started.
There will be more childcare centres, more announcements, more responsibility, but she maintains Farrer is her first duty.
“It’s still your role as local member that gives you the really strong sense of satisfaction that I know I’ll feel years on when the job is over,” she says.
“You, know I’ll drive through Mulwala, I’ll see the redeveloped munitions factory and I’ll realise hey, it’s a small part but I had some part to play in that.”