February 15, 2013 - 7:43AM
Leesha McKenny
Urban Affairs Reporter
A vote for Malcolm Turnbull is a vote for Tony Abbott, Di Smith says. But a vote for Di Smith, pictured, is not a vote for her on-screen character Dr Alex Fraser. ''She wasn't an actor standing for parliament, she was a doctor standing for parliament,'' Smith says of the role she played in the small-screen drama A Country Practice. But two decades after the script had Fraser exiting Wandin Valley to pursue a bright political future, the woman who played her is seeking the same. Smith has put her hand up to run against Turnbull in the federal seat of Wentworth - and so far is the only member of the Labor Party prepared to do so. ''It's very important that somebody give it a red-hot go,'' said the appropriately flame-haired Smith before the close of nominations on Monday. A long-time ''grassroots campaigner'' who has also run for local government, she recognised taking on a man who comfortably holds the blue-ribbon seat would be an uphill race. It's one she describes not so much as a marathon, as a relay. ''The next person who stands is going to have less distance to run,'' she says.
