The Liberal candidate for Reid, Fiona Martin, is willing to move back into the marginal seat in Sydney if elected on May 18 - despite finalising the purchase of a family home outside the electorate only six weeks ago.
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Dr Martin, a child psychologist, grew up within the seat vacated at this election by Liberal Craig Laundy, but has been living outside the electorate.
In an interview, she repeatedly declined to say where she lived, attributing her reluctance to privacy concerns for her four children.
"I live five minutes from the electorate," Dr Martin said.
"I like to protect the privacy of my family. Five minutes from the electorate. Five minutes. Five minutes. I can assure you, I'm getting up every morning and I have to time it."
The issue of politicians living outside seats for which they are standing is an election perennial. It was given recent potency by comments from the Home Affairs Minister, Peter Dutton, about his Labor opponent for the Queensland seat of Dickson.
"There are plenty of people with disability living in Dickson," Mr Dutton said of the Labor candidate for Dickson, Ali France, an amputee.
"A lot of people have raised this with me. I think they are quite angry that Ms France is using her disability as an excuse for not moving into our electorate."
According to the Labor candidate for Reid, Sam Crosby, there is keen interest in Reid about where candidates are from.
"The number one thing that people ask me about me is where do I live," said Mr Crosby, who lives inside the electorate in North Strathfield with his wife, incoming NSW Labor upper house parliamentarian Rose Jackson. "The number one issue is overdevelopment."
Dr Martin said no one was interested in the fact that she lived outside the electorate apart from the ALP, which wanted to use it as a political issue.
"This is where I grew up, this is where I went to school, this is where my family live, this is where I spend my time," she said.
Nevertheless she would be "prepared to move back into the area" if she retained the seat for the Liberal Party. Reid was held by Mr Laundy on a margin of 4.7 per cent at the 2016 election.
Dr Martin's preparedness to return comes despite her finalisation of a purchase in March of a family home, on the other side of the Parramatta River from Reid.
Dr Martin has been hampered by a late start to her campaigning, after Mr Laundy only announced he was quitting politics in mid-March.
With a PhD in psychology from the University of Sydney, Dr Martin owns psychology practices in Gladesville and the lower north shore.
- SMH/The Age
