Tanya Plibersek has a gift for doing many things at once. “My personal favourite was writing a speech, talking on the telephone and breastfeeding,” says Labor’s 43-year-old MP for the federal seat of Sydney, whisking egg yolks, lemon juice and olive oil into a home-made mayonnaise.
It’s lunchtime at Plibersek’s inner-city home and the mother of three is rallying the troops. “Yes, you can have a baguette, Joe,” she says to her hovering eight-year-old. She calls upstairs – “Mum, would you like a sandwich?” – and then says to the photographer, “Are you sure I can’t offer you anything?” He declines politely, then tosses over his shoulder, “Don’t ask her why she’s not running as leader of the opposition.”
Why not indeed? Within hours of the ALP losing government in September, Plibersek emerged as a potential new leader. A few weeks later, BRW magazine described her as a “powerful candidate” due to her “warmth, intelligence … and, let’s not be shy, her undoubted charisma”. Then former PM Julia Gillard all but endorsed Plibersek, calling her one of the most gifted communicators in politics.
So when Plibersek offered herself as deputy – leaving two men, Bill Shorten and Anthony Albanese, to contest the Labor leadership – political observers were left asking why she didn’t step up for the top job. “Are there many working mothers asking that? I don’t think so,” says Plibersek, who was elected deputy leader last week. “I’m away a lot already, at least one or two nights every week, and if it was the leadership as well I’d be away every weekend.”
Juggling work and family has been the mainstay in Plibersek’s life since she entered Federal Parliament in 1998, aged 29. In that time she has had three children – Anna, 12, Joe, 8, and Louis, 3 – and breastfed each of them for the first year. Her family loyalty has only strengthened her public image as a capable and compassionate politician. “If you were to draw up a shortlist for the next PM, it would have Tanya Plibersek’s name on it,” says political commentator Lachlan Harris, a former press secretary to Kevin Rudd.
This is an edited extract of a story which originally appeared in The Sun-Herald’s Sunday Life magazine on 20 October 2013. You can read more here.
Photo: Hugh Stewart