Talk:Laurie Brereton
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Brereton's last revenge - smh.com.au June 14, 2004
With exquisite timing, Labor's "great hater" has pulled off the supreme act of political payback, writes Paola Totaro.
Not long after breakfast on the Friday before last, Laurie Brereton decided to take a short stroll and pop in to see his big sister, the former NSW minister Deirdre Grusovin. The Brereton and Grusovin clans have always lived a hop, skip and a jump from each other in Sydney's Kensington but this time, the Labor powerbroker had more than a cup of tea on his mind: "I walked across and I told her what I was doing ... that I was retiring. I told my Federal Electoral Council that night," said Brereton.
There is a long pause then a gale of Brereton's distinctive laugh bursts from the phone line: "Her reaction? Well, let me put it this way: she didn't argue or try and dissuade me. Not for a moment."
Brereton is in Darwin, half a continent away from Peter Garrett, his safe Labor seat of Kingsford Smith and the hundreds of local branch members furious that his explosive, 11th-hour decision to retire thwarted the ambitions of several would-be local candidates. Parked beside a local beach, mobile phone to his ear, he won't be drawn any further on the events of that particular day. Advertisement Advertisement
But if there were any doubts at all that his timing had as much to do with bloody revenge as it did with new blood for the party, that laugh - and the glee in his voice - should dispel them once and for all. "It has been an exquisitely executed act of vengeance," said a NSW minister this week.
Noted another well known Labor figure: "It's a triple hit ... revenge over Eric Roozendaal and Sussex Street who he blames for the end of his sister's career, revenge over the NSW Right as a whole because the faction loses one of its safest seats and let's face it, if Garrett does join a faction, it won't be the right now will it?"
Neville Wran, Brereton's mentor and former premier, would not comment directly on the week's events but he observed: "Laurie is not quick to forgive and he certainly does not forget. And if you want to fall out with him, make sure that you are organised before you do. Very well organised."
Others were not so polite.
"Brereton is nothing but a treacherous piece of crap," said a senior official of the NSW Right.
WHEN Laurence John Brereton leaves Parliament for the last time later this year, he will close the door on one of the longest, most colourful, diverse and controversial political careers in modern Australia. He has been a state minister, a federal member of cabinet, played kingmaker in the election of several Labor leaders, including Wran, Paul Keating and most recently, Mark Latham, and survived some significant storms of his own, not the least the so-called Botany Council affair in the mid-'70s when he was accused of attempting to influence ALP aldermen who were considering an application to rezone a block of land. (He and Geoff Cahill, then Labor's NSW general secretary, appeared in the court of Murray Farquhar on bribery and conspiracy charges but after 17 days of hearings and evidence from high-powered witnesses, including Rupert Murdoch, all charges were thrown out.)
As Wran's public works minister he was implacable, driving controversial projects like the Sydney Harbour Tunnel, Darling Harbour and the monorail, while as his health minister he up-ended the state's hospital system, removing beds from the inner city and into Sydney's poorer but more populous western suburbs.
Under Keating's prime ministership he drove the push to decentralise the wage-fixing system, earning the particular ire of unions over his relentless demands that enterprise bargaining be opened up to non-unionists. Keating today believes the industrial reforms to be one of Brereton's greatest legacies. Later, in the role of shadow foreign affairs spokesman, he was at loggerheads with some in his own party, pushing the ALP to jettison its long-standing support for Indonesia retaining sovereignty over East Timor, adding to the momentum which saw the federal Coalition Government support its independence as well.
Wran's earliest observations of Brereton were of his focus: "It didn't matter what it was, whether he was organising the numbers on a vote or whether it was pushing through the financial structures for the Sydney Harbour Tunnel. Once Laurie focused on the job he stuck with it," he said.
"It was a tenacity, yes, but a controlled tenacity. He knew what he was doing. I would say that throughout his career he was an excellent executive. Indeed, the best I had in the cabinet at any time ... I trusted him with the big jobs. It cannot be denied that he did not have a thin skin..."
Keating argues that one of Brereton's great strengths was that he not only had the courage of his convictions but the ticker to act on them: "He understands power and has understood well the exercise of power. A lot of people can be in politics all their lives but never get it. And with that power he has applied quintessentially Labor principles," he said this week.
"Access and equity in health, in education, university, superannuation ... these kind of things ... his life has been informed by the industrial objectives and concerns of working people."
Brereton was indeed a product of the glory days of the NSW Right - he was secretary of the ALP Youth Council in 1966 when Keating was president - and most of his 31 years in politics have been spent in the bosom of the state party machine.
However, he has also had some legendary barneys with head office, notably in 1986 when he believed he would become Wran's successor. He was stymied by Sussex Street heavies in a deal infamously hatched under the stage of the Sydney Town Hall. Barrie Unsworth was installed in the premiership in his stead and lost government spectacularly less than two years later.
The most recent conflict, however, has its roots in a power struggle with the now outgoing NSW secretary, Eric Roozendaal, who believed Brereton was trying to take control of NSW right-wing affairs via the federal parliamentary party.
This battle played itself out largely behind closed doors but finally exploded into an all-out war two years ago when head office moved to challenge his sister's preselection. Grusovin, the MP for Heffron, had also been a state minister and an upper house MLC and had enjoyed a 24-year parliamentary career, even if it was sometimes turbulent. Roozendaal argued for new blood and moved to instal the young, US-born Christine Keneally, in the seat. Brereton, in New York on a three- month trip, flew back to Sydney in what would ultimately be a failed mission to save his sibling's career.
When it came to the federal leadership contest last year, however, Brereton had a surprise. While Roozendaal and the rest of the NSW head office backed Kim Beazley, Brereton, who had quietly groomed Mark Latham while apparently supporting Simon Crean, triumphantly backed the surprise winner.
"Brereton is an enormously affable person but he is also a prodigious hater," said a long-time Labor staffer. "He has amazing tactical skills in pure, gut politics. No one should have believed for a moment that he wouldn't go back and seek revenge ... he has a hide as thick as a rhino."
For his part, Brereton says that it was neither a grand plan nor was it driven by the desire to repay Roozendaal for his sister's demise. "But there are some ironies associated in how it is playing out. I can't deny that, can I?" he told the Herald.
"This is a decision that I am in a position to take now because of our good prospects, because of Mark's leadership, because it is the right time for me and the right time for Labor."
Brereton says that looking back, the times he remembers as high points are what he calls the "leadership gigs", Labor's electoral wins and, of course, the reforms while in government. Beds to the west, Darling Harbour, the federal labour market reforms, East Timor, all are high on his list: "Getting Wran up in a countback in 1973 then seeing him win in 1975 by a handful of votes ... getting Keating up in the second challenge and winning in 1993 ... the unexpected ascension of Mark to the leadership. They are obviously high points," he said.
"It's been a buzz like no other."
For now, he insists he is not really sure what he will do when he leaves Parliament, knowing only that he wants to enjoy his wife's newly restored health and spend some time in the city he has worked in for so long. (Justice Tricia Kavanagh, his wife, sits on the Industrial Commission and is back at work after undergoing a liver transplant last year.) He says there are no plans to leave Sydney, despite the strong rumour that a Latham win might well deliver him a much coveted ambassadorship to Washington.
Whatever happens, he won't be short of a quid. Thanks to a total of 31 years split among two parliaments, he gets two pensions for the price of one. In short, the 19 years spent in the NSW Parliament get counted twice - once for state super and once for his federal pension. All up, the estimate is close to $1.9 million and his wife becomes eligible for her own, under the generous judicial scheme in three years.
One thing is for sure, it is unlikely that Brereton will be able to resist the seductive lure of ALP politics: "I will still be handing out how to votes, you can bet your sweet life on that. And I will probably find it impossible not to offer advice from the sidelines.
"But I will try not to ... we will have to see how we go."
