After interviewing Angus Braiden, the 18 year old Labor candidate for Wollondilly, I couldn’t help thinking: you’ve got to admire the pluck of young people.
Like most of them, Angus comes across as idealistic and bold at the same time, but unlike older politicians it’s all on the level.
He doesn’t say anything because he’s been advised it would win him votes.
And Angus even dares to dream the impossible dream: become the youngest person ever to be elected to an Australian parliament.
“I grew up in Bowral and went to the local schools there,’’ he tells me when we sit down for a chat in Menangle general store, the village’s social hub.
Whatever happens on March 25, he plans to go to university and study both law and engineering.
“The way I am justifying it is to be a lawyer for an engineering firm,’’ he responds when I observe that it’s an interesting combination.
Angus is the first member of his family to become actively involved in politics.
“There’s no family connections at all for it, but there was talk at home about issues, working class people, that kind of thing,’’ he says.
“I’m probably the most conservative among my siblings, to be honest.’’
In 2019, when he was just 15, terrible bush fires ravaged both Wollondilly and the Southern Highlands.
“Half the electorate burned in the 2019 bushfires, but we got nothing for it, and that was the trigger for me, joining the party and going to branch meetings,’’ he says.
There were two nominations for preselection and Angus won that ballot.
He says the reaction from his friends and others close to him was: cool, what does it mean?
“When we’re door knocking or having stalls it’s been pretty positive,’’ says Angus who now lives in Hill Top.
“Everyone’s been volunteering to do stuff for me, and from everywhere in the electorate, not just Bowral.
“From Picton High, where I work, I even have One Nation supporters helping, just because I know them.’’
That’s great, Angus, but are you a lamb to the slaughter, so young and running in a blue ribbon Liberal seat?
Completely unfazed, Angus responds with: “When you go out in the community – we were in Bargo a couple of days ago, and every single person was receptive and positive.
“Yes, a few mentioned my youthfulness, but there were also a lot of comments along the lines of: we need something fresh in Wollondilly,’’ he says.
“And they talk about the same issues, roads, infrastructure and services that come up again and again in the past 30 years.
“That’s why if I get elected, I want to get in there and get as much done as possible and get out.
“I do not want to be a careerist politician.’’
