At 1.50pm, without warning, Katy Gallagher reaches for her phone, flips open the red leather case and says, “Oh no. It’s not time yet.”
“Sorry for interrupting, but I just wanted to thank you for all your public service,” he says to Gallagher.Does this happen often? “All the time,” she says.Before moving into federal politics in 2016, she was chief minister of the Australian Capital Territory for five years, succeeding her mentor, Jon Stanhope. She’d been in the legislative assembly since 2002.
Being chief minister was an excellent apprenticeship, says the 52-year-old Gallagher, but it was a walk in the park compared with the federal arena. The Greens are likely to collect between 15 per cent and 17 per cent of the vote. Human rights activist Kim Rubenstein will also get a handful. Although the Liberals are usually assured of about 30 per cent of the vote in Canberra, Pocock might be able to pull that back to 26 per cent, perhaps less, which would make Seselja exit the race.
Her family had moved to Australia when her father was offered a job at the parliamentary library. Her English parents, Charlie and Betsy Gallagher, had met and fallen in love on a boat to New Zealand. Charlie was looking for respite from the cold and polluted skies of Stoke City, where potteries blasted bilious fumes from chimneys. Betsy was going to visit her family to escape the pain of a broken relationship.
“I grew up in a family of lefties,” Gallagher laughs. “My mum was left of my dad. She drove around with nuclear disarmament stickers on the car, which drove dad mad.“Dad had these funny cut-through sayings like, “If [Malcolm] Fraser gets his razor gang out, we are off to New Zealand.” I remember thinking, ‘Wow, that sounds terrible! A razor gang. Whatever that is.’”
“An obstetrician, who was very kind, just took a look at me and said: ‘I get it, but you’ve got a human to look after in a few weeks and you are in no shape to do it. You have got to get some help.’ That cut through.”“She was there and she wasn’t abstract any more,” Gallagher says. “I had a reason to get up in the morning.“I remember my sister dropping me and Abby off at home from hospital.
She had joined the Labor Party a few years before, having been inspired by her father’s loyalty and the practical work of federal politicians such as Susan Ryan, also from the ACT. Ryan had introduced the sex discrimination bill, funded advocacy services and thrown her support behind disabled and disadvantaged people.
It was amazing to see her pitted against Brigitte Mackenzie, who was rude, obnoxious and demanding. She shut Brigitte down with a smile and humour, refreshing.