Who is Geoffrey Winters?
Image: Lay of the Land is on a short season for Midsumma
BY MICHAEL FORNO
There is nothing particularly unusual about a Sydney Law School alumni gaining pre-selection in the Liberal Party. But when they’re 27-years-old, openly gay and indigenous, people take notice.
Geoffrey Winters is the Liberal candidate in the historically safe Labor seat of Sydney held by Deputy Leader Tanya Plibersek.
Mr Winters’ story is nothing if not unorthodox. Born in Orange, he was raised mostly by his single mother. She worked tirelessly to put him through private school. His father is indigenous and separated from his mother when he was a child. Mr Winters was raised and still is a practicing Anglican.
Growing up he experienced bullying and racism first hand. He was taunted at school about his Aboriginal heritage.
Having graduated from high school in Richmond, he studied law at University of Sydney and became president of the Law Society.
His strong sense of justice, particularly regarding indigenous affairs, saw him practice law with indigenous law firm Chalk & Fitzgerald.
His path to politics was laid early having joined the Liberal Party at 16 years of age.
While his membership to the Liberal Party surprises many, he insists that such thinking is shallow and flawed.
“People are obsessed with the idea that somebody who has a male partner, who has aboriginal heritage, could be a member of the conservative party,” he told SBS.
Mr Winters believes people are wrong in thinking that his background is at odds with his Liberal Party membership.
On the contrary, Mr Winters believes that it is the Liberal Party whose indigenous affairs policies have been most successful in recent years.
He argues that the Liberal Party is right in encouraging economic growth in indigenous communities and that the Labor Party is misguided in thinking it has a monopoly on doing the right thing when it comes to indigenous policy.
Mr Winters isn’t an anomaly as an openly gay Liberal candidate in the Sydney area, at either state or federal level, nor does he think there is any dissonance between being gay and being a Liberal candidate.
He strongly supports marriage equality and hopes one day to marry and raise children with his partner, supporting the Liberal party position for a plebiscite on the issue.
Winters’ pre-selection serves as a clear message that being gay is not a barrier to candidacy for federal parliament.
For over 10 years, Winters and his partner have rented in Forest Lodge, making him acutely aware of an increasingly unaffordable rental market.
However he rejects the policies of both Labor and the Greens on negative gearing, saying that he would have had to pay even higher rent if it weren’t for negative gearing.
Despite the near 50-year Labor stranglehold on Sydney, Mr Winters believes he can make headway against Tanya Plibersek.
Winters made headlines yesterday after it was revealed by Fairfax media that the Greens would preference votes to the Christian Democrat Party lead by Fred Nile and not the Liberal Party. However Winters says that members have become complacent in such safe seats and that this election will be a genuine three-way contest between Liberals, Labor and the Greens.
“I wouldn’t have put my hand up if I didn’t think I could win,” he says. 00
Mr Winters insists that his pre-selection is not tokenism on the part of the Liberal party, and if he is right he could serve as an agent for change within the party.
