When a Prime Minister evacuates his seat, the ensuing byelection process, naturally gets a sense of symbolism. This is not lost on Angela Vithoulkas. The independent City of Sydney Councillor announced her decision to run in the byelection and claim the Wentworth seat. “This is a wonderful opportunity for an independetn to come forward and represent such an important electorate,” she says, promising that, if elected, her first priority would be to “always make sure that the people of Wentworth are heard.”
For her, this is the main thing that is going wrong with Australian politics, that major parties are not listening to people.
“I am not a career politician,” she clarifies. “The reason I got involved in local government politics is because of the disastrous behaviour of politicians; people are sick and tired of politicians making their behaviour the story, instead of just doing their job.”
A striking example of this has been the steep rise in power prices. “For years, both political parties did not plan well for our future,” Cr Vithoulkas argues.
“They knew where this power problem was going to go, they were aware of it. It was their responsibility, as caretakers of public money, to take care of big things. They have not done that, they have not done their job. Why have they left us at the mercy of the big power companies? They are making billions of dollars in profit and we have pensioners who can’t even turn on their heating.”
This kind of empathy for the elderly is an unmistakable trait of a Greek australian and Angela Vithoulkas is aware of that. “My greek background makes me more empathetic,” she says, explaining how she can identify with people of diverse backgrounds and understand what other minorities might be going through. “At the same time, I’m proud of my Australian heritage,” she adds. “I know why my parents came to this country and I appreciate what I have compared to what they didn’t have.”
Setting off to claim the Wentworth seat, Angela Vithoulkas is making a point in presenting herself as a voice of the everyday people, and more importantly as someone with a three-decades-long experience in small business. “Small businesses are facing big problems,” she says. “The data shows that there are less small businesses now than ever and that is an early indicator of how bad our economy is, because we know that economies are much more prosperous when there are many small businesses, and they are flourishing and successful.”
“I have been in business 30 years and it is much more difficult now to start a business from a compliance perspective; funds are less readily available, and the amount of red tape that a small business owner has to do weekly and monthly and yearly is expensive and time consuming,” she adds, identifying some of the problems that need to be resolved and that she will raise, if elected.
Having said that, she is the first to say that she is the underdog in this byelection. “I’m very much aware that the odds are not in my favour,” she admits. “However, I have always fought impossible odds and have been elected twice In the city of Sydney. Being outnumbered doesn’t scare me and, being outresourced doesn’t scare me. My mother comes from Sparta,” she adds. And that pretty much explains everything.
