Cheryl Kernot

Cheryl Kernot (born December 5, 1948, Maitland, New South Wales, Australia) is an Australian politician who led the Australian Democrats (AD) from 1993 to 1997.

After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree and Diploma of Education from the Universities of Sydney and Newcastle, she taught in secondary schools for 10 years and worked in the communications industry as a freelance radio producer.

She joined the Australian Democrats in 1979—two years after the party’s founding—in part because she was attracted to an organization that right from the start had set up party administrative processes that were very appealing to women. In an early speech to the Australian Federation of University Women in Brisbane, Kernot recalled that, because of the party’s relative youth, the Democrats had not formed links with unions, business, or farmer organizations and had never had to battle with the sort of vested interests and entrenched male hierarchies that existed in other places. She was the party’s representative in a Young Political Leaders’ exchange tour of the United States in 1986, and in 1990 she was elected to the Senate on her fourth attempt. She became AD leader after 81 percent of the full membership elected her in May 1993.

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In late 1993 Kernot was heavily involved in the successful passage of the historic Native Title legislation that followed the Mabo case (named for its lead plaintiff, Eddie Koiki Mabo), which established land rights for Torres Strait Islander peoples and Aboriginal peoples. She acted as a behind-the-scenes negotiator between the government, the Senate independents, and Indigenous groups. As one of the foremost Australian role models for young women during her time in office and the most popular chief of any Australian political party during her heyday, Kernot highlighted the contribution made by women climbing the ladder of success. In 1994 she launched an “Inspiring Women” calendar for 1995, with herself as Miss April under the rubric “Strength and Courage.” Kernot said that she hoped the calendar would send the message to women that success and inspiration were not necessarily synonymous with fame and wealth and that happiness was not just about being thin or fashionable. She ended by quoting the British suffragist leader Emmeline Pankhurst: “Women will only be truly successful when no one is surprised that they are successful.”

Addressing the Harvard Club of Australia in Brisbane on October 1, 1994, Kernot drew attention to her own main political preoccupation, the widening gap between the “haves” and the “have-nots” in Australia. With the major parties doing battle for the political middle ground, she said, both the government and the opposition coalition were essentially locked into policies and programs that were the most welcome to the greatest number of voters. This ensured that neither of the major parties wanted or would dare to enter into public dialogue with the people of Australia about the fairest way of raising sufficient revenues to continue to fund the services of a civilized society.

Kernot continued as party leader until resigning her Senate seat in October 1997, after which she joined the Australian Labor Party. The following year she was elected to the House of Representatives from the constituency of Dickson, Queensland. She served as shadow minister for employment and training from October 1999 to November 2001, when she lost her parliamentary seat. Kernot moved to the United Kingdom for several years but returned to Australia in 2008 and joined the faculty of the Centre for Social Impact at the University of New South Wales. In 2010 she ran for the Senate as an independent but was unsuccessful. Her memoir, Speaking for Myself Again, appeared in 2002.