Meni Christofakis may be the only Greek Greens candidate in the Victorian state election, but she’s keen to see more ethnic diversity among her peers.

We’re looking at raising funds and educating other Greens about multiculturalism, as well as educating the community about the Greens.

“We’re working on that,” she says, adding that the Greens have an active recruitment campaign involving advertising in ethnic media and translated how-to-vote cards.

Christofakis is the Greens candidate in the seat of Prahran, and she’s also the co-convenor of the Greens Multicultural Working Group in Victoria.

“We’re looking at raising funds and educating other Greens about multiculturalism, as well as educating the community about the Greens,” she says.

Prahran, in Melbourne’s inner south-east, is widely tipped to be a contest between the ALP’s Tony Lupton and the Liberal Party’s Clem Newton-Brown, but, as Christofakis points out, the Green vote has been steadily increasing over the past three state elections.

In 2006, it was at 20 per cent.

In an election where the Greens are a hot tip in the inner city seats, Christofakis says Prahran is the party’s fifth most-winnable seat.

“I think people are very unhappy with the Labor government for various reasons – education, planning, transport, lack of consultation in the community,” she says.

“But I also think the Liberal party has failed to come up with any real alternative.”

A traditional Labor voter, Christofakis joined the Greens in 2002 after the Tampa crisis.

She has had a varied involvement in the Greek
community, including working at the English Edition of Neos Kosmos some 25 years ago.

But it’s her work as a TAFE teacher that she says best prepared her for politics.

“TAFE is a ruthless place,” she says, laughing.

“And also it’s very closely aligned with community needs because it’s vocational, so it’s very tuned into what the community wants.”

Neos Kosmos is running a series of profiles on the Greek Australian candidates in the Victorian election. To see a list of the profiles, as it develops, click here.