She made headlines earlier this year when it was made public her brother is Opposition Leader Tony Abbott. Now, she is making political waves of her own as a Liberal candidate for the upcoming local council elections for the City of Sydney. With her partner Virginia Edwards, Serkan Ozturk meets Christine Forster.
Outed by a newspaper in April as being the gay sister of federal Liberal Party leader Tony Abbott, one could say Christine Forster’s life has come pretty much full circle since then. A private person, the 48-year-old journalist became the centre of chatter around the political world. Here was the country’s potential Prime Minister – a conservative, one-time trainee Catholic priest who only a few years ago claimed to be “a bit threatened” by homosexuality – with a sister who was not only lesbian but also now on the public record of supporting the right of same-sex couples to get married.