Graham has owned and operated two businesses, a mobile phone retail store in the late 1990’s and a carpet cleaning company launched in 2002. As a schoolboy he was a champion athlete and in 2004 he walked 100 miles in 24 hours, something achieved by only 57 people on Australian soil. Graham was elected to the Victorian Parliament as the Member for Burwood in 2010.
“As a youngster I lived in public housing in Armadale in WA. I shared a 4 bedroom house with my parents and 6 of my sisters.
I had a happy childhood, the neighbours were friendly and accessible. I remember my mum was good friends with the lady over the back, we had a gate in the back fence so that they could visit each other.
We are all a product of our upbringing and environment, whether that is the physical environment or the family environment. Not everything was easy but I learnt to work hard to achieve my goals.
Public Housing was always a journey not a destination, where you live does not define you. I am more defined by what I have been able to achieve, like being an Australian schoolboy champion in athletics, studying economics and finance at university, operating two businesses or being elected to the Victorian Parliament twice.
Public housing tenants are no different to those in private housing. Opportunities in life are what you make of them. I knew I wanted to be a politician when I was a teenager, I knew I wanted to help people, I had a goals and worked to achieve them, whether it was politics or athletics or just simply having a job as a teenager.”