The Sydney Morning Herald from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia • 157

THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD SATURDAY APRIL 5 1997 Spectrum Features 3 one of Janette closest mates' as one of hen too Another case study: in 1990 in die days when John Elliott seemed to own everything including the Liberal Party he hosted a retreat for die paityk Federal executive at a ritzy place at Mount Macedon Victoria As the night wore on and people began to drift away to sleep only two people stayed the distance with die hud-playing hard-nosed liberal preadent: Marne Payne and Oiristopher Pync president and deputy president respectively of the Young Liberals As far as Elliott was concerned anyone who would join him in a protracted ringakmg to his Flame Pune recordings of Andrew Lloyd-Webber who knew all die words was all rixhL They joked They talked pdfidcs Elliott became a staunch defender of Payne and her movement Not everyone is so easily won The hard Right of die NSW party At Bishops Abbotts and Howards will probably always see her as a roe just as me moderates see her as a champion At a Liberal Party function in Parliament House shortly after her win a couple of her moder- ate supporters waxed increasingly lyrical about her She was showing them the way back they said from their current position of subjugation to die illiberal faces die party But as the drinks took had they became indiscreet about their intra-party opponents in a way Payne these days never would She chooses her wads very carefully now That is how she republican feminist sup-pater of other causes many in the party would see as leftish won over a naturally conservative preselection panel And sometimes it leaves her not your typical North Shore Young Ub But the republican feminist political pro has finally on try made it to Canberra MIKE SECCOMBE talks to Senator Bob replacement should be nominated as the Rime Minister representative at the preselection but Bishop She worked the fiwr and when it came time to ask questions of the candidates she and Abbotttag-both asking questions about the republic Payne disposed of them easily Harda fa ha to combat though was die campaign waged against ha in the run-up to die selection Payne is a fibcrel and she was targeted not ha involvement hi but also with die AIDS Council of NSW What she calls "attack" stories appeared in a couple of Sunday papers None chooring someone who publicly has criticised ha leaderT The Herald later obtained a copy of a letter from Jones to Goldsmith three days before he interviewed ha at air and made his Ammwy cnmmmt about Pane which he declared big readiness to give a two people a stab at a Goldsmith declined his offer It was Payne says the nastiest campaign hc has experienced And she has been involved with a few This was ha fourth attempt at getting into Parliament She fist tried for a Senate vacancy when die was 26 She her fourth ling hours at State and Federal level fa some cf the best elected talent in the party after fighting all die election campaigns attending all the party forums in shot devoting almost ha whole life to (he party she had to ret out of politics to get into politics? Well yea But it silenced the people who had advised her she would be a more marketable commodity in the party if she had private-sector experience and even better it was an easy fife compared with politics Tdl that to your average member of a Liberal selection panel and it would not go down welL In many a Liberal mind the -words connote and the words conjure images of bor-style machine politics Robert H31: Liberal Party basically has been slow to give due recognition to political profrqjonak Therefore people who have started off young in the Liberal Party and have wanted to make a professional life of politics have not found it easy To tome extent they have even been devalued try the organisation for that political But if Marise Payncls stint in the private sector helped her gain the nod from die party last month die skills she picked up in 10 years of ReafroBak helped her more When it came to the vote it was professional creative numbers work that won it fa ha Her main competitor fa the Senate porition was the NSW MLC Marlene Goldsmith On from the stereotype of die Noth Shore Young liberal who mistakes attitudes fa policy and fa whom the movement is an adjunct to mating She lived at EidtineviUe she cared about social polity and causes and while she netwaked as well as anyone in die movement did it towards more serious ends The first election she waked on was the 1983 Federal one which ha side lost had elections in 83 84 87 90 and they were pretty intense elections I did lots of on-the-ground campaigning then Debating in schools and media and so on It was great By age 23 she was president of the Young libs and had already worked with Ted Pickering and Andrew Peacock and had been comprehensively educated in politic She held strong opinions on almost everything and say those who have known ha long was then a little too acerbic in ha expression of them But she has learned to bite ha tongue a bit as Robert Hill notes think Marise can still be abrasive but she is now more to pick ha moment I it tike to think all tiie 1 freshness is gate but a bit of worldly experience means she will probably come in a stroma politician than she would have a few yean Truth is though she always had a capacity to win friends unfikety places Fa she counts Jana McDonald of Representatives Payne ran fa the Senate vacancy The party chose Bob Woods But Payne is persistent all of the occasions when this quite gone right fa me I've always stayed very involved in the party and the organisation The worst mistake you can possibly make is take your bat and ball and go Persistent is hardly the word Political obsessive is more 13k it say those who know ha even if Payne herself dislikes the description But the evidence She came from a Liberal-inclined family iWmngh die is die ony card-carrying memba The interest in panties started in high echooL By university she had ambitions to become a barrister and a politician was neva any issue as to which political party I would join What was in doubt at that stage was the level of commitment to Then in 1983 she was involved in a or accident and broke ha neck was one of those tilings which make you change your Neck in a brace she prevailed on ha parents ha friends boyfriend anyone who would do it to ferry ha around an eva-expanding round of political engagements: university politics (she ran fa the position of women'll offica at uni to the horror of the the Young Liberal movement and the senior party aa welL She was (and is) far removed the third-last ballot in the exhaustive process of eliminating candidates ha forces shifted nine votes to the Right's Abraham Constantine to ensure Goldsmith was riimwiateH- Then moderate supporters with nowhere else to go gave Payne the numbers she needed to knock him off The final result was dose seven votes out of 140 odd But a win is a win She had beaten not just Goldsmith but a great mimba of Liberal stereotypes and in a sense the nmole conservative establishment up to and including John Howard Lem than three years ago Howard appeared to be trying to drive ha out of the party fa the simple reason that she became vicochair of the Australian Republican Movement (ARM) Howard accused ha of having a conflict of because die was also a memba of the Liberal State executive While any liberal was entitled to argue fa a republic Howard said it was entirely different matter to become deputy chairman of a body whose sole aim if to fight the liberal Party on this issue and which is dominated by Labor He was was backed by his NSW Right cronies Bronwyn Bishop and Tony Abbott who said ha breach of constitution and policy of the party" Payne refused to quit Three years later and who CONSIDERING it has always been dominated by professional people doctors lawyers accountants the Liberal Party has a rather baffling suspicion of professionalism its politicians The paxtyY leader in die Senate Robert H31 recognises die paradox A career in politics die real world the real wold being the world beyond Marise Payne recognises it tea one of the reasons she aided 10 years of party professionalism a couple a years back and entered die private aecta Payne forma staffer to Andrew Peacock and Robert H31 in Canberra and John Fahey and Ted Pickering in NSW the only female president of die Young Liberu ever schooled and in every facet of political life from counting numbers to negotiating policy from organking campaigns to preparing far question tune found it necessary to get herself a job in the credit union industry But now at just 32 she hat been selected to fin die Senate vacancy created by die tion of Bob Wc fife and use of parliamentary entitlements became respeo-tivety a matter of national media attention and the subject of a Federal Police investigation Doesn't die think it odd that after 10 yean of working gruel worst mistake you can possibly make is take your bat and ball and go makes herself sound naive as she describes die attempt: fronted up to the NSW division and said here I am Td very much like to be a senator would you be so Hud as to listen to my They listened bid gave die job to someone dee Then she was selected tor the unwinnable third spot on the Senate ticket fa die 1993 election The next yew when Bronwyn Bishop moved to the House sounding a little bland a little too pa in ha responses about people she parrot judge people as individuals who changed their minds about me" she says instancing John Elliott also approach their life and politics on nut basis and don't tty to categorise a label people but ratha take them fa what they are and accept they have a contribution to make have to say it has always been my commitment to represent die interests of the Liberal Party as a whole as best I can in the broadest possible cross-section of the Ibis is no tiw sharp-tongued Payne of old Iter bland expression almost makes one wonda if the small warrior of yore has been co-opted But pane it carefully and you can tee she is still saying the same things still believes in the politics of inclusion (to which Howard and tiw pay lip-service but betray i their divisive actions! There is still a fundamental difference between ha and them: always waked an tiw basis that a party that doesn't tty to have tiw broadest possible appeal doesn't try to encourage new support and new voters is signing us own warrant of denuse: Maybe we differ on that Maybe? Such understatement from a woman who spent non than a decade bashing ha head against the brick wall of Liberal Party conservativism bespeaks eitha naivety or dirin-genuousness But shea apoliti-cal pro so it can't be naivety Power SEDA APPROVED NSW SwtaluMl EjMffV PiniliHiMI AMkarity Do you want some PASSION In your iife of tiie authors she says bothoed to call ha fa a response She thinks favours were bong done fa tiw Right Then Alan Jones eternal media mouthpiece of the liberal Right got stuck into ha on sir: is a woman who at a range of fronts has criticised John Howard and his Government which I think is the party she now seeks to represent" he said could die liberal Party consida Now available through a LEADING WRITERS ARE GIVEN THEIR FRAGMENTS OF HONG KONG by Katherine Thomson (auttwr of DMng for Poartd) dtrectsd by Paul Thompson WEMmMBT 9 APRIL 7 J0MI THE STARRY MESSENGER by Justin Fleming (autha of T7m Cobrd) directed by David Barthold You can discover something STUNNING in your bedroom The finished Room can help you with a complete decorating service including cun tains blinds bedspreads and furnishing Let ut bring the paaeion Info your home Call uinowto an fn-housa consultation PhontftOO 244420 4 THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW by Alma da Groan (auttwr of The Girl Who Saw Enrythlni) dbacted by Rodney Ftatier Queer) Walsh Bay DEL DEL by Mary Morris (auttwr of Turn Hfeefcs with the directed by Marion Potts Wharf Pier 4 Hickson Road kkiShj Nurturing a greener future Power Company near you Phone 1800 351 777 for more information Olt iiC ES5SS 7.