.cccordance with Premier attraction When he was a boy OLIN Barnett sinks into a big, next election and the opportunity to win. The difference comfortable chair in the family with politics compared to most other professions is that Opposition Leader room of his Claremont home and everything you do is public. talks openly about the low points of "Lots of people have frustrations and disappointments Colin Barnett wanted his leadership. His darkest moment and triumphs and failures but in politics everything is to be a farmer - was when he came under fire over public. That is the magnifying effect of politics. a Government plan for taxpayers to "If you're in it, you're dealing with it and perhaps and there have been fund political parties and elections. Mr Barnett made develop a bit of a thick skin but the media magnify it the mistake of offering his support to the Government so the people closest to you see a magnified version and times in the past before his own party had considered it. Liberal MPs they perhaps see it as a little more traumatic than what rejected the idea and publicly criticised their leader. it really is." three years when "I was getting belted around over the public funding Mr Barnett is a political enigma who confounds not issue. It wasn't so much the issue, it was the intensity only his Labor opponents but fellow Liberals. He is not he probably wished of it," Mr Barnett says. "When someone like (Liberal what you might call a typical conservative MP. he had, GRAHAME backbencher) Rod Sweetman comes out and calls you Few West Australians, apart from his family, really a liar, I mean, I wasn't too impressed. That got to me a know or understand him. His wife Lyn extols his easy­ ARMSTRONG profiles little bit. It was sustained intensity. That got to me and going nature. the family noticed that." "He's enormous fun but people actually don't see that. the man who hopes to His eldest son Russell was camping with some of his You can give him a hard time and he'll cop it sweet. I mates down at Augusta when he read a story in The give him a hard time all the time," she says. be Premier. Sunday Times about his father being called a liar by one Mr Barnett is happy to talk about his political beliefs of his own colleagues. and what sort of a leader he would make but is less "My oldest son rang me up and said 'Dad, are you comfortable explaining why he went into politics, who okay?'. That was when I realised it was affecting other his political influences were and what underpins his people," he says. "I don't come home in despair ... I political philosophy. It's not a criticism - it's just that mean we talk about it but we don't despair." the Liberal leader is not interested in such background The Opposition Leader insists he is not looking for trivia. Getting the job done is what drives him. sympathy and says the rough and tumble of political life Mr Barnett was never big on books. He is more likely is often exaggerated. to be found mending a fence on his farm at Toodyay than "Everyone says it's the toughest job in politics," he reading Margaret Thatcher's memoirs. But as a young says. "It's the most frustrating job. The problem is it's man he read John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, such a long hauL which left a lasting impression because it was "a great "As Opposition Leader what you're waiting for is the story about the struggle of people in the Depression". Liberal leader Colin Barnett at home with He's enormous fun but people actually don't see that his wife Lyn, left, and the couple, with baby son Sam, below, on the hustings during the 1g90 Cottesloe by-election. Mr Barnett lives with his second wife Lyn and their son Sam, 14. He also has three sons from his first marriage: Russell, 32, Daniel, 28, and Michael, 22. The family home, a white, 1920s two-storey brick home, is planked hard against Stirling Highway. The traffic noise is very noticeable. The house is impressive enough but modest, too, alongside some of the palatial buildings in the neighbourhood. The interior is spacious, with polished floorboards, white walls, high, ornate ceilings and some unusual looking Scandinavian wooden furniture. The interior is best described, Mr Barnett says, as art deco. One of the best features - apart from an 1850s Swedish carpenter's bench decorated with a Dyak wood carving from Kalimantan is a cosy theatre room decked out with a wide-screen and big, comfy chairs. Mr Barnett walks into the kitchen and opens the door to the pantry, which has a window. "This is where Eric Edgar Cooke used to break in," he says with a smile, and a hint of pride. Apparently, serial killer Cook - who was hanged in 1964 - would come in through the pantry window, walk around the house and then sit on a lounge chair. He never stole anything. Almost directly across the road are the Brookwood Flats where jillian Brewer was brutally murdered - a crime Cook confessed to shortly before he was hanged. The house is also not far from where Mr Barnett grew up in the 1950s and '60s. Mr Barnett is friendly bur guarded with those who » THE SUNDAY TIMES, July 18, 2004 11-(3 sr~ ft(~SC<5-~ » don't know him. He's also wary of reporters. Like Cortesloe to replace Bill Hassell. "When I told Dad I Premier Geoff Gallop, he does not have the charisma was going into politics he said: 'Who'd vote for you?'," dt~;;:;~:~i,!:;:l~,:'f;~E:?,i,'i::,i=:~:: of a Bob Hawke or Sir Robert Menzies. Mr Barnett laughs. f Growing up, Mr Barnett never felt politics was his The Barnett household was undoubtedly Liberal, Mr Barnett has not always seen eye-to-eye with his f destiny. He was 40 when he ran for Parliament for no and one that instilled old-fashioned values into the beloved Liberal Party. other reason than he believed he could get things done. Opposition Leader. "I guess in my university days I was nearly called up He has never been part of the Perth establishment, "Dad didn't much like the idea of unions," he says. for national service; I wasn't too well disposed towards which might explain why some Liberal MPs and high­ "Dad had very straight up and down values about the Liberal Party at that time," he says. profile party supporters either don't trust him or honesty - be a man, sort of thing. It was very much "I think that was the only time my mother ever voted misunderstand him. He's also a republican, which is still what I would call that World War II ethos, where you Labor, when she thought I was going to be drafted. rare in the Liberal Party. And his so-called "moderate" do the right thing. " "People who describe themselves as the right wing of views on social issues often put him off-side with the At primary school, Mr Barnett, by his own admission, the Liberal Party tend to be extremely conservative on more hard-line Liberals. was an average student until Year S when he started to social issues - that's not me. But in terms of economic One reason, says close confidant Richard Lewis, a excel. At high school he enjoyed history, geography and policy I' d be one of the drier ones. former Liberal planning minister, is that Mr Barnett economics and, although he doesn't quite know how, "My father was pro-business and pro-farming, you was never the "chosen one". He wasn't expected to gained a distinction in chemistry. know get on with it and take responsibility for get the deputy leadership under Richard Court in 1993 He studied geology at the University ofWA but didn't yourself. I am economically quire dry but I have a social when he'd been in the Parliament only three years. like it and dropped out to work on the wheat bins. conscience and probably a stronger one than many Mr Court's supporters failed - with a brazen attempt He later went back to UWA to study economics, Liberals. to parachute federal MP Julie Bishop into the leadership gaining an honours and a masters degree. It was here "I believe in people making their own choices and - to block Mr Barnett's elevation to the top job. that the Opposition Leader's basic political beliefs - the decisions and the freedom to do that. "He's highly intelligent and he's a little bit self­ free market and economic development - started to "You take that through to business - 1 believe in free conscious about it in a way," Mr Lewis said. "People take shape. enterprise. I don't like regulation. I hate regulation." see it as arrogance but it's not. If anything he's shy." But running for office never crossed his mind at Mr Lewis, a close personal and political friend, says When. told Dad • was going into politics he said: 'Who'd vote for you?' Economic development underpins all of Mr Barnett's university. He was too busy studying and playing Mr Barnett is determined and dogged. He occasionally political philosophy. When asked why West Australians football to get involved in student politics.