In the race to Victoria’s State Parliament, the Liberal candidate for the seat of Oakleigh in Melbourne, Cr Theo Zographos, told Neos Kosmos he has always been passionate about the issues faced by the people in his constituency, which have spurred him to strive.

“My vision and my commitment is to the people of Oakleigh and I am focused on explaining what I stand for and what the government stands for, that’s my first priority and aim, and actually explaining what we’ve achieved.”

He has been involved with the Greek community his whole life and had an interest in politics from a very young age, which led to him joining the party at the age of 16.

“I joined the Liberal Party when I was 16 so I had an interest in politics quite early on. I was involved in the student representative council at Oakleigh Grammar, which was called Oakleigh Greek Orthodox College. I got interested in debating and I was honoured to be elected as school captain in my final year and after that I studied at university and volunteered for Liberal members of parliament,” he said.

If elected, he said, he will tackle the biggest issues faced by his constituency, which he believes are public transport, community safety and economic growth. Public transport, particularly, is something he feels was ignored by the previous Labor government.

“Labor ignored fixing level crossings for 11 years and as I travel around the electorate that is the constant feedback that I get – that level crossings are an enormous nuisance for constituents in Oakleigh – and they’re very happy that the Napthine government is actually fixing them.

“I was proud to be a part of that back in 2010 when I was the first person to get funding for the Murrumbeena level crossing and now we are delivering on Murrumbeena, Carnegie, Clayton, and we’ve just completed Springvale. So that’s the biggest issue in terms of public transport, and of course we’ll have new stations built at Clayton, Murrumbeena and Carnegie.

He believes that there are still many challenges to be met in the face of ensuring public safety.

“We’ve seen enormous success with our protective service officers at train stations, we have record police, however, there are still enormous challenges
faced in our area and we are committed to delivering on that into the future, because one of the most important things, generally speaking, is that people should feel safe.”

And personally meeting and greeting his constituents is paramount to his election message push.

“The best thing a candidate can do is to meet with people face to face and since I’ve been a candidate, earlier this year, I’ve been door knocking houses in Oakleigh. I’ve done over 5,000 houses so far, I’ve stood at train stations, I’ve had mobile offices in every part and corner of Oakleigh, I’ve attended many events, I send out letters to people to speak about issues. And I get a good response.

“People know I’m a hard worker, they can see that I’m a hard worker, they know I’ve got a good record of delivering on issues, delivering on commitments and I feel extremely confident, particularly because the Napthine government has been such a good government and I believe at the moment we’re doing very well.”

He holds the Greek community very close to him. He was the raised in the Oakleigh area, attended a Greek Orthodox college and was an alter boy at the local church. If elected in November he will become the youngest Greek Australian member of parliament in Australian history, and he believes his party has best represented the values of Greek Australians.”

We have a very strong record as the Liberal Party, over many years, of being there for the Greek community when it counted. During the Kennett years when he stood up for Greek rights in Macedonia, or whether it was Malcolm Fraser who brought in a lot of Greek migrants or whether it was Petro Georgiou, who created the modern SBS.”

I think that by having me as a candidate we have a very great opportunity to have someone who’s passionate about the Greek community in the Liberal Party, in government, and that’s why it’s something that will work for our cause if I’m elected.”

When it comes to the November 29 election, Cr Zographos believes his party is in good stead to win.

“The record speaks for itself in terms of what has actually been achieved and what was ignored by Labor.

“The state budget has delivered a lot for Oakleigh, it’s the biggest public transport investment in Oakleigh ever.

“He also flagged the building of a new children’s hospital in the area as one of the great projects his party has pledged whilst in government, and is hopeful that voters will see that as his (and his party’s commitment) hard work. Hard work which, according to him, will continue to be delivered.

“I look forward to the future in Oakleigh, hopefully as a member.”