Riding the bus with NSW Transport Minister Gladys Berejiklian from her home in Willoughby to the city. She uses public transport three to four times a week. Picture: Adam Taylor Source: The Sunday Telegraph
She is the single, well-dressed MP of Armenian heritage who never swears and is known in her office as a "bit of a goody-goody".
Gladys Berejiklian, the minister tasked with fixing the state's ailing public transport system, is breaking down the blokey, blue-collar culture that she believes has hindered desperately-needed reform.
The former Young Liberals president has the ear of federal Opposition finance spokesman Joe Hockey and the respect of her colleagues.
The question is, will her smooth ride soon come to an end?
It was Friday afternoon and Gladys Berejiklian was late. The train to take the NSW Transport Minister to a transport forum in Sutherland Shire had not yet arrived.
As she waited, a smallish crowd of office workers waiting on the Martin Place platform began to swell. The mood was growing tense. Mobile phones were being checked. Calls made. Finally, a public announcement. Something about buses. The message could barely be heard because the public address system was faulty. Standing among the crowd, Berejiklian had a thought.
"I was thinking: These poor people," she says. "No one knows what's going on. Then I thought: `Oh my God. I'm the Transport Minister and they don't realise I'm down here too'."
This wasn't about a late train. It was the treatment of customers. In Berejiklian's mind, it was, at that moment, "disgusting". A question she has to put to her Labor predecessors is: "Why didn't you just fix it?"
Berejiklian joined the Young Liberals in the 1990s while studying for an arts degree at Sydney University. She remained active in the party while completing a diploma of international studies, followed by a masters in commerce.
After six years working as a Commonwealth Bank executive and a stint in the officer of former Liberal leader Peter Collins, she was encouraged to put her hand up for the seat of Willoughby. The Liberal Party at the time was desperate for fresh faces. It had been taken over by John Brogden in the hope he would depose Bob Carr. He needed a new team.
Berejiklian was the perfect candidate and she won her preselection easily. The north shore MP is about as a scandal-free as they come. One of her staffers says she is known as "a bit of a goody-goody".
The public face is the same as the private face. Her staff assure me there are no Kevin Rudd-style dummy spits ready to be uploaded on YouTube occurring behind the scenes. "She doesn't even swear," a staffer said.
At 42, Berejiklian is the perfect role model for how she expects her bureaucracy to dress and behave. She is seemingly ageless, although notes that she found a grey hair two years ago: "Luckily there haven't been any more." She is fiercely protective of her private life, but says she is close to her family and open to having her own - despite working around the clock.
She laughs when I ask if she's on RSVP. "God no," she says. "I don't think you choose these things. You live your life as best you can. When you are much younger, you have a different view of the world. The world isn't easy."
Riding a crowded bus with her from her Willoughby electorate to Martin Place last week, we are yelled at by a commuter to "move down". She ushers us near the side door. "I don't want to annoy them." She believes people, on the whole, are good. As we are pushed back, she rejects an offer by her staffer to retrieve her handbag, left at the front of the bus.
"Oh, it'll be OK," she says. "People are honest."
Berejiklian admits she never aspired to be transport minister. "If you told me that when I became a member, I wouldn't have believed you," she says. In Opposition, the portfolio was "offered, in inverted commas", she says. She says it was a good grounding. "I had no illusions when I became minister."
One thing that bugs her is why Labor did so badly in fixing some of the problems. Simple things, such as improving mobile phone reception at stations, to take RailCorp out of what she describes as "the dark ages". "Optus approached the government 15 years ago, but they put it in the too-hard basket," she says. "It took us a few months to fix. It was too hard for them. I often wonder: Why didn't they look at quiet carriages, light rail? They put them all in the too-hard basket."
She cites her other achievements as the introduction of more than 2000 new weekly bus, train and ferry services a week, starting the long-awaited North West Rail Link. "We're at point of no-return with 22 major tenders released and 44 key contracts awarded" and merging six separate transport agencies to form Transport for NSW.
Other changes have been refocusing the bureaucracy from just on-time running to include customer service. A new grooming policy means workers can no longer turn up looking dishevelled or unshaven. No sunglasses worn on heads. Commuters need to be spoken to with respect. Public announcements needs to be audible. Trains and stations need to be cleaner. Cleaners are now called "presentation service attendants". They also need to have "good verbal and written communication skills" and "a customer focus".
RailCorp has also created customer service attendant positions, whose job it is to respond "confidently, courteously and efficiently" to customer inquiries.
In an organisation that attracts a large migrant workforce, it was a big ask, but one that the notoriously protective Rail, Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) has somewhat surprisingly accepted. The union initially pronounced the new uniform policy a waste of money. But RTBU NSW branch secretary Alex Claassens says he sees its merits. "I always wore a tie when I drove trains and I started out as a cleaner so I've always believed in good customer service," he says.
"She is yet to do anything to get us too excited. I've lived through the Greiner years when thousands of jobs were cut. If there's a hint of that happening, she'll hear from us."
However last week's announcements of a review of staffing at 116 stations has the union alarmed. Berejiklian has told the union there will be no overall reduction of frontline staff but Claassens is still nervous.
"I've lived through the Greiner years when thousands of jobs were cut. We will have to wait and see," Claassens says.
Berejiklian says she believes the commuting experience of customers is as critical as the development of new transport infrastructure.
"The front end of transport is just as important as the operational side," she said. "I've had many experiences where I've been disgusted at how customers have been treated and how staff have looked. It's about changing the culture. If staff look good, they feel more valued and customers benefit."
Berejiklian says she knows many of her decisions have the support of union members, if not the union leadership. "I have members contacting me all the time about different things," she says.
Challenges ahead include implementing the Opal Card electronic ticketing trial next month and introducing a new timetable next year. There's also a decision to be made on seatbelts on school buses.
She is also committed to an extra Harbour crossing, a proposal that has drawn the ire of opponents who ask where the money is coming from.
What others say about her is something she says she cares little about. "We are going to hit obstacles down the track, there will be challenging times in getting these major projects off the ground. It will not be smooth sailing and there will be tough times," she says.
"But what people say doesn't really bother me. It's what you do that counts and people are noticing."
Treasurer Mike Baird describes her as one of the hardest-working ministers in cabinet. "She's inspired," he says. Another minister said Berejiklian was a fighter.If she ever wants a job in Canberra, she has the backing of Opposition finance spokesman Joe Hockey, a friend.
"She is a stickler for successful outcomes,'' he says. She is an outstanding performer with a formidable intellect.
Does she have leadership potential? "Of course," he says. Canberra? "Whenever she wants. Wherever she goes, Gladys will deliver."
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