How long was kristina keneally premier

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Chair of Basketball Australia from to Member of Souths Cares Board from to CEO of Basketball Australia from to Ambassador of Opportunity International Australia from to Ambassador of the John Berne School from to Member of the Referendum Council on Constitutional Recognition from to Chair of the Souths Cares Board from to Member of the McKell Institute Board from to Personal Born So it was that sense of roll up your sleeves, pitch in, get involved, give of yourself.

At university, Kristina studied politics and religion and contemplated a career in political journalism. But by the time she left university, she had decided to become a theologian and advocate for gender equality and other liberal ideas within Catholicism. Kristina is also a vocal critic of the Church's handling of sexual abuse.

Yet, in spite of the disagreements, Kristina maintains, there has always been "enough there to keep me in the fold… I have a stubbornness that says the Church is not the Vatican, the Church is not the bishops.

The Church is the whole of the people of God and I'm not going to walk away from that just because some celibate men in white robes think they've got a stranglehold on it … What sits at the core of my faith is a belief in the Gospels and in Jesus, who said to look after the poor, to look after those who are oppressed. That's what inspires me as a Christian. It was the Church that brought Kristina and Ben together.

She was 22 and he was 20 when they met at the World Youth Congress in Poland in I wouldn't say it was love at first sight but it was an instant recognition that this was somebody who was going to be important in my life. It was across a crowded room and, yes, I thought he was attractive, but there was something about him that was compelling too. Senator Keneally and husband Ben have been together for 27 years.

There were shared values around politics and social justice, and a shared faith, and Ben was Australian, which was both a pro and a con. Kristina was living in a remote part of New Mexico, teaching at an underfunded, underprivileged school. If that happened today, you'd be texting and Facebooking.

Instead, I have shoeboxes of letters in my storage cupboard. We fell in love by writing letters and that was a very special way to do it. Then, after a few years and a couple of visits back and forth, we decided that one of us needed to move. The pair married in , settled in Sydney and began their family.

Marriage, family, a career in the Church — life was going pretty much according to plan — until , when Caroline's death changed everything. Most crucially, it "fundamentally challenged" Kristina's belief in God and led to months of despair. With Bill Shorten and Sam Crosby in the lead up to the election. Then, she remembers, one day, out of that despair, her understanding of God shifted and she began to heal. The week before, Keneally ridiculed the government's criticism of Labor's electric car policy, to the delight of Shorten who was standing nearby and barely able to contain his glee.

The strategy is clear: unleash Keneally to let Shorten appear positive and largely above the fray of grubby politics. Outside the blunt attack, Keneally is a key element of Labor's campaign videos - the latest of which includes 80s pop music references and Bunnings. They point to the Bennelong byelection of late when, despite huge resources poured into the battle by Labor, Keneally was unable to defeat incumbent Liberal MP John Alexander.

Sixteen months on, the victory does not seem so emphatic. None of the MPs forced to a byelection because of their Section 44 problems were defeated. Keneally lost the Sydney seat but she quickly filled a vacant Senate spot.

She laughs off the suggestion she's a political negative, arguing it's time for the Liberals to move on. The prevailing view within the opposition is that Keneally is an asset not just on the hustings but inside the bus dealing with Shorten, his advisers, and the media.

She's at ease with people," notes one senior insider. Labor operatives have been impressed by the former premier who has come to Canberra as a backbencher and knuckled down in areas as important but mind-blowingly boring as Senate estimates.