Her name is Fiona Barbouttis-Martin and she is the new member of Reid. Her success came as a surprise, much like the re-election of the Coalition.
The Barbouttis family originates from the island Castellorizo. Her grandfather Markos migrated to Australia prior to WW2 and during the war served with Australia’s Royal Air Force.
Her father George was a soccer player in the 60s with Panhellenic (nowadays Sydney Olympic) and other teams.
Fiona Barbouttis-Martin was born on November 17, 1977. As a mother of four children, she has a PhD in Child Psychology from the University of Sydney.
The 'Captain’s pick'?
Mrs Barbouttis-Martin was elected with the Liberals and sources in the Greek community say that she was a “captain’s pick”.
SBS Greek is told that the Liberals approached firstly NSW former Deputy Police Commissioner Nick Kaldas and the television journalist Stan Grant, who both declined the candidacy. The party decided then to go local with its candidate and Mrs Barbouttis-Martin was picked.
The seat of Reid covers suburbs such as Burwood (where the parish-community of St Nectarios is located), Croydon, Lidcombe, Auburn, Strathfield, Homebush, Five Dock, Silverwater and others.
An election against the odds
Her election success probably came as a surprise, as was the victory of the Liberal-National Coalition more widely.
For one year, Labor Party candidate Sam Crosby had developed a strong electoral campaign. The predictions were that he would win comfortably, as was the forecast for the Labor Party throughout the country.
The chances for the Labor candidate were strengthened when the then holder of the seat, former minister and a well-known supporter of Malcolm Turnbull, Craig Laundy, announced that he would not be a candidate again.
Mrs. Barbouttis-Martin received 53.56 per cent of votes after the count of preferences, while her primary vote was 48.93 per cent at the May 18 election.
The third 'Cassie' in Canberra
It should be noted that Fiona Barbouttis-Martin is the fourth person of Castellorizian descent elected to the Federal Parliament.
The previous three 'Cassies' were three and all men. They were the late senator for Queensland George Georgouras (ALP), the first Greek-Australian to be a federal politician, serving from 1968 to 1986, the s South Australian senator and Hawke-Keating era Minister Nick Bolkus, who served in the senate from 1981 until 2005 and Nicholas Dondas who served with the Liberals as the member for the seat of Northern Territory .
