David Grabovac rarely finds the time to watch Sydney United soccer games, listen to dance music or learn to drive, because unlike other 19-year-olds, he is running for the NSW parliament.
Grabovac, the Liberal candidate for Bankstown, is the youngest standing for office on March 22. And, despite his youth, he insists he is up to the job.
“It’s not about age, it’s about ability. Age is just a number. It’s what you have on the table, what your vision is for the area, your drive and your leadership skills that count,” he says.
Appearing from around the corner of Bankstown Library, he wears a long-sleeve blue shirt and black pants. His hair is slicked back neatly and he introduces himself with an extended hand.
He says his interest in politics goes back to the second grade at school, when he asked his teacher why Australia went to fight a British war in Gallipoli.
“I still remember that was my first political argument,” he says. He even recalls the name of that teacher. “It was Mr McGrath.”
His interest in politics developed further during Croatia’s war of independence against Serbia in the 1990s had on his family. “Except for my immediate family everyone else lives in Croatia,” he said. “It was a very political war.”
He joined the NSW Young Liberals at 17, and soon after became the vice-president of the Kingsgrove-Earlwood Young Liberals. He points out that this is where John Howard also began.
“I don’t really have idols but I’ve come to respect certain people like John Howard. He has had to make some difficult decisions,” he says.
Now, just a few years later, he is challenging one of the safest Labor seats, going head to head with an opponent who has three terms under his belt and is many years his senior.
Picking up the local newspaper from the table he reads aloud, “Bankstown State Labour MP Tony Stewart believes experience is what counts for the state election.
“It’s exactly things like this that suggest that I’m too young to be a candidate,” he says.
David sees the age issue as overblown, and likens the age difference between himself and Tony Stewart to the age gap between Opposition Leader John Brogden and Premier Bob Carr.
“I like to think a lot of people are open minded but to be honest some people don’t take me seriously because I’m young.
“They just dismiss me because they say he doesn’t know what he is talking about,” he says. “I don’t blame people for thinking like that because that’s what I expect.”
He hopes to use this election to turn himself into a credible politician by swinging a sizable chunk of the electorate away from the Labor party. Even if he loses, he intends to stay in politics.
“Whether its state or federal politics, I’m here for the long run. In the next election I’ll give it another go, and I’ll give it another go in the one after that,” he says. ” I’ve got this whole life ahead of me so the earlier I start the earlier I get there.”
David believes there are more advantages than disadvantages to being a young candidate. He suggests that his youth helps to keep him in touch with some of the area’s important issues.
Confessing that he only got his learner’s licence two months ago, David says: “I understand the needs of the community because I walk the streets. I’m a person who has to use the train and public transport.”
And there are other advantages to his youth.
“You have plenty of years ahead and more drive. The other thing is that young people look at the world from a different perspective,” he says. “The danger of politics is sometimes you lose touch with your grassroots and you become stagnant,” he says.
Grabovac is aware of the pitfalls of complacency and cynicism. “I’m not going to let politics change who I am. I’ve come in as an innocent person. I don’t want to be rude and all that or have a hidden agenda or let my ego get ahead of me.
“It’s important for me to listen to the people and I don’t want to betray them. I’d be an embarrassment to myself, my faith and my family,” he says.
But despite this idealism and his desire to remain in politics, he admits that his first foray into state politics hasn’t been easy.
“It’s much harder than I thought it was. It’s very time consuming because you have to know about everything from education to food poisoning. Politics is sometimes a lonely thing. There are so many things against you and it’s not rewarding until you win,” he says.
In addition to his political ambitions, he says he is committed to non-profit work and is a member of the Ethnic Communities Council of NSW and the education foundation at Macquarie University.
“It takes up a lot of my time but it’s something I’m passionate about because I’m giving back to the community,” he says.
He still finds time to go to university and run his own communications business.