He may be only 21 years old, but Theo Zographos says his relative inexperience won’t play against him in his campaign for the seat of Oakleigh in the upcoming state election.
To be honest with you, on election day I think we will win.
The seat, in Melbourne’s south-east, has been held by Labor for the past 11 years, since Zographos was 10 years old. The Liberal party needs a 12.4 percent swing to steal the seat from Labor’s Ann Barker.
But Zographos, who joined the Liberal Party on his 16th birthday, sees his freshness as one of the reasons people will vote for him.
“To be honest with you, on election day I think we will win,” he says.
“The government needs to go, the state Labour Government has failed Victoria, the sitting MP has failed the seat of Oakleigh, and what I’m saying is I’m the best person for the job.”
Zographos, a former student at Oakleigh Greek Orthodox College, says he’s enjoying speaking to constituents in Greek, and says he’s getting good feedback from the large Greek Australian population in the electorate.
“I’m the first Greek Australian of either party to contest the seat, so that could play as well,” he says.
He dismisses his youth as an obstacle, adding that he’s known in the community as “a community servant” after running – unsuccessfully – as a candidate for local council.
“I advocated for a number of issues in the community,” he says of his council campaign.
“In the process, we fixed dangerous intersections, we fixed pedestrian crossings, and we lobbied the state government on level crossings,” he says.
He’s anticipating a swing away from the Labor government. But will that translate to a rise in the number of people who are doing as his website suggests, and voting “Theo4Oakleigh”?
“We’ve held it before, in fact we held it the last time we were in government, and we’re very serious about winning it back,” he says.
Neos Kosmos is running an ongoing series of profiles on Greek Australian candidates in the upcoming Victorian state election. To see the list, as it develops, click here.