DON’T JUDGE CANDIDATE BY FIRST APPEARANCE

Northern District Times
November 7, 2007 Wednesday
Australia

WEST Ryde resident Rose Torossian is the first to admit that people
see her as an unlikely Liberal Party candidate for the Federal
seat of Fowler, which includes suburbs in Liverpool, Fairfield and
Cabramatta West.

People who know her migrant, working-class background think she should
be a Labor Party member.

Nor does it faze the 27-year-old that she lives outside the
electorate, a situation she explains away by saying she is "Green
Valley aspirational" because her married sister already lives in the
area and she, too, would like to live in the area.

"When people know my background they think I should be Labor," Ms
Torossian said.

Describing her background as "Armenian by nationality, but born in
Lebanon" the 27-year-old Macquarie University tutor in international
communications lives in Department of Housing accommodation with
her mother.

She sees no disparity in her political ties nor an address that will
see her cast a vote in a far different electorate, that of Bennelong,
held by Prime Minister John Howard.

"I have a working-class background. My family came here from Lebanon
when I was five and we lived in Redfern," she said.

As far as living outside the electorate it was only a matter of time –
and money – before she moved there.

Labor’s Julia Irwin has a 13.3 per cent margin in Fowler, with the
seat the party’s sixth strongest in NSW.

"What I hope to do is bring the margin down into single figures,"
Ms Torossian said.