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Cheryl Kernot Addresses MGHS

Recently Cheryl Kernot gave a presentation to Maitland Grossmann High School's Parents and Citizens Association. In her role as patron of the P&C Mrs Kernot was quoted as saying "ex students should try and give something back to their schools when ever possible". Mrs Kernot also gave an interview for MGHS Online TV.

More about Cheryl Kernot

Cheryl Kernot - Maitland Grossmann High SchoolKernot spent twelve years as a political activist while working as a school teacher in New South Wales and Queensland. She was first elected as a Senator for Queensland at the 1990 election, taking over from the retiring Senator Michael Macklin, who had held the seat for the Australian Democrats following the 1980 election. Kernot was elected as leader of the Democrats after the 1993 election, with Meg Lees as her deputy. Inside the party, she spearheaded a drive for central control of the state-based organisations, which resulted in protest resignations of members and the closure of the West Australian Division. Externally, however, she became a popular media spokesperson, leading the party to one of it’s best-ever results in the 1996 election and obtaining a primary vote of over 13% for herself.

In October 1997, Kernot controversially defected to the Australian Labor Party, resigning her Senate seat and leaving the leadership of the Democrats to her deputy, Lees. In her speech resigning from the Democrats, Kernot did not criticise the Democrats, saying her motivation was due to a "growing sense of outrage at the damage being done to Australia by the Howard Government" and that her position leading a minor party in the Senate meant she "had a limited capacity to help minimise that damage. "She also stated that she was "well aware of the political risks in this course of action".

 Kernot narrowly won the division of Dickson for Labor at the 1998 election, before losing it at the 2001 election to the Liberal Party candidate Peter Dutton.