A LIBERAL Party office will open in Indi next week and a Wangaratta woman who asked for party membership as a Mother’s Day present has been appointed its field officer.
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Karen Rourke worked with Sophie Mirabella during the last month of her campaign as a volunteer co-ordinator and was Mrs Mirabella’s head scrutineer.
“It was a very challenging and interesting experience. Obviously, I was disappointed with the outcome because I saw myself having a role in her electorate office and now I’ve been given this opportunity,” Ms Rourke said.
It will be Ms Rourke’s job to engage with the community and to gauge and convey the issues of the electorate to party heads.
Ms Rourke, 39, worked in community engagement, public relations and enrolments at FJC College in Benalla.
She grew up in Sydney and 10 years ago she married a Wangaratta man, Pete Rourke, who works at Reece Plumbing Centre in Wangaratta.
They have a son, aged seven, and the couple moved to Wangaratta eight years ago to be with family.
Ms Rourke joined the party this year.
“I got my husband to give me a Liberal Party membership as a Mother’s Day present,” she said.
“It was just after the last deficit came out and it had been years of ongoing frustration. I decided I was going to become active.”
The party’s state director Damien Mantach said the North East was a “crucial” region for the Liberals.
The office, at 71B Ovens Street, Wangaratta, will open Monday.
