by Piers Ackerman (November 1997)
She calls herself a Democrat and all of us (her betters) are willing to concede her that. Except the first five letters. With apologies to Bartlett Adamson.
Cheryl Kernot’s streamlined ride into the Labor Party has upset more than a few members who want to question her commitment to the ALP platform.
Noting that she had no difficulty voting against or opposing Labor as recently as last month on such issues as greenhouse gases and migration regulations on work for the dole in June, on retirement savings accounts and Hindmarsh Island in May, to list just a few issues, they haven’t embraced her with the same enthusiasm as has the Opposition leadership team of Kim Beazley and Gareth Evans.
The attitude of Mr Beazley and other senior ALP figures towards long term ALP member David Colston, the son of former Labor Senator Mal Colston, who has announced he would stand for pre-selection against Mrs Kernot in Dickson, has also raised a few eyebrows.
Mr Beazley said that the ‘name of Colston’ would be enough to gain Mrs Kernot support, whilst the failed former member for Dickson, Michael Lavarch, questioned ‘which rock’ David Colston had crawled from.
The Labor heavyweights seemed to have jettisoned the proprieties which used to govern selection ballots within the ALP, particularly those which outlawed all attacks, let alone attacks in this vein, on candidates for pre-selection.
‘Attacking someone because their father’s reputation is particularly loathsome,’ one elder statesman of the Labor movement said.
Weekend polls indicated that some voters believe that Mrs Kernot will be an asset to the ALP but the reality is that she will have to be constantly campaigning for the next two years to retain her high public profile.
Almost 15% of those polled by A C Neilsen McNair for the Sydney Morning Herald weren’t even aware that she had abandoned her former party to join the Labor secretariat.
The polls run by the Herald deducted those people before calculating its results, a practice which caused some statisticians to shake their heads, and in doing so failed to present an accurate picture of public sentiment.
The Herald is not noted for its care with statistics however, having twisted figures in a poll on Pauline Hanson to indicate she had far greater influence on Asian leaders than she had in fact.
After this skewing of the facts was pointed out here, a Herald reporter told the ABC’s Michael Carlton that no mistake had been made but refused an invitation to explain the curious methodology to this column so a correction could be published.
Pollsters analysing public sentiment in the wake of Mrs Kernot’s defection put her move in the same bracket as Carmen Lawrence, the Joh for Canberra push and the Bronnie for PM frenzy.
They say she will do well in the local seat but won’t have any wider impact unless she becomes party leader.
‘Hanson rated as much as 6% support when she was on the front page but she has fallen back to 3% now the media has lost interest,’ a top numbers man said.
But Cheryl is still number one in the hearts and top of the charts with one group of men in Sydney, those she taught English and History at St Leo's Wahroonga in 1974 and 1975.
As Cheryl Young, Mrs Kernot apparently captivated a number of young lads and is remembered with great fondness.
They hope she'll join them for an Old Boy's dinner on November 11 and share some memories of their educational excursions.