Natalie Ward, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Deputy Opposition Leader, chair of Parliamentary Friends of France and a clear Francophile, was interviewed by François Vantomme, editor-in-chief of Le Courrier australien.
Let’s start with a little portrait. Where are you from? What did you study?
I’m originally from Adelaide. My father had a very small winery in South Australia, in McLaren Vale, family business. I went to University of South Australia and decided to go overseas, I wanted to travel the world, work everywhere around the world. I didn’t want to get married, didn’t want to have children, just travel and work. And my father said that’s fine, but maybe just go to Sydney for a little while, get more senior, make a bit more money, then when you go to Europe, you’ll be more senior.
My father said you can consider two careers. First is oenology, as in winemaking, which is a beautiful profession, not many women. You have a wonderful time and you can travel the world. Or academics. I used to serve in the cellar door, and I used to put the corks in the bottles by hand and put the labels on, and I loved it. But I think when you grow up with something, you don’t appreciate how good it is. So, the other option is keep studying, in law, and be a lawyer. And so I chose law. Sometimes I think, you know, I wonder what my life would be like if I had chosen oenology. I think I would have ended up living in France. So this is always a hard choice isn’t it. But I love wine, and I think that what I love is not just the wine, but the whole profession and yeah, the whole soul and spirit and love that seem in wine and oenology. The fact that it’s worldwide, it’s overtime. It’s a little bit competitive, which I also like, you know, because that brings out the best.
But anyway, I chose law and decided to become a lawyer. So I was working for a little while in Adelaide and then came to Sydney and thought I’ll go to Europe. But I ended up staying in Sydney : I got a job here and met my husband.
Why did you choose law specifically?
I love the law. I think what I like is being an advocate. I love representing somebody who needs help or wants to put their position forward. I specialized in commercial litigation, in the building sector, solvency. All sorts of commercial litigation but ultimately the joy in that is getting a resolution.
You can negotiate, I love negotiating, and getting people to move together. Then at the end of it we can shake hands and we’ve done something good and it’s finished. And there is some joy in that because you bring resolution to these clients. Hopefully you do a good job and hopefully you get a reputation as being, for me, an authentic and reliable and genuine and honest lawyer.
But eventually, you chose politics…
My friend, around the time of the Olympics, got into Parliament and then some time later he said to me, would you like to come work for me in Parliament? I said sure. I was always interested in politics and liberal values because I come from a small business family. The recession that we had in the early 90s was very, very difficult for my family. And I saw, you know, how people really struggled in that time. My father kept the business going, but it was very, very difficult, because he wanted everyone to keep their jobs. I think since I came from that background, I want to help people because I want to know if they’re struggling with something. I want to be able to help them get through those things.
And so then, I got married, had children, did some work in parliament and then we got into government. One day we were in here, a new government which is doing things and changing things and reforming. It’s not just theory. And you could see we were doing things for housing and we were reforming the economy and helping businesses. It is amazing how you go from an idea and discussing in a group to a cabinet minute to making it happen. It’s all those processes. It’s a bit like litigation with the resolution. You get to a point.
Then one day we were sitting in the office, my friend said you should think about doing this. And I laughed and said don’t be ridiculous, I’m going back to law. And he said no, I think you should think about it. He talked to me and a few other friends, said they thought I’d be good. Anytime he was going to finish his term and leave a casual vacancy in 2017. I put my hand up and got elected. So I went from being a lawyer to working on litigation to actually helping to make legislation and make law, which is for me just such a privilege. To be able to serve in either capacity is incredible and the opportunities you get. To meet with community, to meet with people and to make the tiniest changes and the biggest changes.
So you weren’t disappointed when you arrived in politics?
No! You can change things, as long as you can work with people, you can’t just crash through. You have to work with people, and it’s the same in law, it’s the same in the community, it’s the same around the world. I love working with people, you can bring a team together and exchange ideas and still have a good robust argument. I love a good discussion, but if you can eventually bring people to a point where you can change things, that’s for me incredible. So I love that part. There are some parts I don’t love, but that’s OK, it’s like in any world.
You are now in opposition, do you think that it is sometimes useful to be a shadow minister?
Yes, of course. I think fresh ideas and renewal is good and the opportunity to step back for a little while and see. That said, I’d be disappointed to see the infrastructure pipeline stop because it takes a long time. So my fear is that some of those things will pause and it takes a long time to get the funding, get the planning and get it happening, the jobs, the tenders. Get the companies start up, build, and open. That’s a long time story. You need to have a long term vision. It’s the same for transport. For instance, in Australia we are quite aggressive to cyclists. I would like to see us evolve, and become more like France.
Speaking of long term vision, how do you see Sydney in 15 years?
I love this question. Sydney is a beautiful city. What I love about Sydney and a lot of Australia, but particularly Sydney, is that it’s focused around the water. I think we could make great use of our natural amenity so long as we protect it, and this is always a challenge when you have a lot of people. We also need to ensure we have this beautiful green space so that people can breathe, relax.
So my vision is really that we get that balance, but that we don’t slow down on the infrastructure opportunities so that we can expand up the coast and inland, of course we have a challenge inland, but I think the AI may take care of that. So there is this project in place that every year for the next five years there will be five new motorways opened, there is also the construction of the West Harbour Tunnel, the new airport. Just incredible projects that will have a great impact.
But protecting is something we have to be careful of. What I love about the next generation is they are, for me, more worldly. I think that my generation, we were focused too much on ourselves. This generation is all about being kind and working for sustainable businesses. They want a better world, they want to clean up. And that is absolutely the right direction.
So I am excited for the infrastructure that we put in place, but I’m nervous about it slowing down. We need to develop infrastructure in Sydney and around it, while keeping it authentic.
Other countries, such as France, are a great source of inspiration. This is why I love our international partnerships : we can learn from them.
What do you think about the partnerships with French companies?
They are key partnerships for us. We have the international experience and expertise we absolutely need here. Bouygues in NSW is amazing, Transdev amazing. The incredible work Thales in defence. Some incredible works have been done, you have the metro, motorways, the work that is being delivered beautifully by French companies. Keolis Downer is also a great partnership.
So many fantastic companies. I would love to see more of a presence here and you know, maybe that’s an opportunity for us to work together. Transdev is doing incredible work with the ferries, the buses and the motorways, that’s also why I don’t want to see infrastructure slow down.
It’s a great partnership because we learn from that experience. I love dealing with those companies and I welcome them and more. I would love to see more exchanges. My children are talking about going Lyon, which would be an eye-opening experience for them. And then I can go visit, which is great.
Discussion about this post