Leanne Castley's reaction to being told she is not a typical politician is a big sigh of relief.
The country music singer, former business owner and self-declared "chick from Charny" wants to convey the message to the public that she is just like them.
"I want to be relatable to the people that are voting for us," she said.
"I've lived a very similar life to most people in my electorate and that is one of hard work. You go for broke and you just work every single day to make sure you can put food on the table for your kids.
"It's really important that people understand I will never forget where I come from and I'm really committed to staying very normal."
But this normality might be a bit different after her surprise elevation to the role of ACT Opposition Leader.
'Time to admit that we did lose'
Ms Castley became the Canberra Liberals leader late last month in a leadership spill following a shock move.
Until the eleventh hour, Ms Castley was expected to support the incumbent opposition leader, Elizabeth Lee. Ms Castley had been Ms Lee's deputy for nearly a year and was poised to continue in the role.
But the day before the leadership spill, which the party does following every election defeat, Ms Castley decided to put her hand up.
Earlier the same day Ms Lee posted an image on Facebook of the pair, highlighting some of the gains of the Liberals, including outpolling Labor in three electorates, being only 0.7 per cent behind Labor in the overall vote and the Liberals having a lower swing against them than Labor and the Greens.
Ms Castley was starting to see things differently.
"I'd told Elizabeth that I would support her as her deputy if she would have me if we had gained ground, if we'd had a win," she said.
"As the week went on I just kept hearing we had gained ground ... and I thought 'no, I think it's time to admit that we did lose and there has to be some lessons from the losing not just forging down the road of saying we did gain ground'.
"I think it's pretty crystal clear we didn't."
Ms Castley's ascension to the leadership has been likened to that of former federal Liberal leader Scott Morrison, who initially had an outside chance of being leader but was swept into power ahead of Peter Dutton.
In the Canberra Liberals scenario, Jeremy Hanson was the Peter Dutton. He and Ms Lee were the only people expected to contest the leadership. Mr Hanson did not have the numbers and would have lost.
"Jeremy had put his hand up to be leader and I had a really clear conversation with him and I said 'I can't support you as leader' but he is a great bloke with so much experience," Ms Castley said.
There were suggestions Mr Hanson had approached Ms Castley to block Ms Lee from the leadership. This is strongly denied by Ms Castley.
Ms Castley said she decided to run for the role around 4pm on the day before the party room meeting. She said Ms Lee was the first person she called and then she called Mr Hanson.
"When I chatted to Jeremy I did ask if he would consider being deputy," she said.
"He has so much experience in the electorate, in the Assembly, his military qualifications and the life he has lived are very helpful and we do work well together. It's a good team, a strong team."
One of the reasons Ms Castley said she could no longer support Ms Lee as leader was due to discussions she had with the Greens following the election.
"As a Liberal, I don't believe that it's possible for us to be in government with the Greens. We've spent the last four years prosecuting why most of their policies are not aligned to our values," she said.
Ms Castley said she could work with the Greens on motions in the Assembly but considered this to be very different from forming government with them.
"I just don't believe that's right for the Canberra Liberals," she said.
'Sick of complaining'
While people have different motivations for getting into politics, Ms Castley's was fairly simple.
"I became a politician to make changes in my community because I was sick of complaining about things," she said.
She was elected to the ACT Legislative Assembly as a Liberal member for Yerrabi in the 2020 election. She had previously run in the 2019 federal election as a candidate for Fenner.
As the Liberal leader, Ms Castley will have to bring a divided team together. She won the leadership spill five votes to four.
There was a lot of disunity in the last term after Mr Hanson was ousted from the deputy leadership in 2023. He lost a snap party room vote to Ms Castley.
Ms Castley is hopeful she can be a uniting force for the party.
"I think it's easy to fight for unity when it's just who you are. I have no interest in internal fights," Ms Castley said.
"We're Liberals, we have different ideas on things but that doesn't mean we should be fighting with each other."
Ms Castley has listed health, education and housing affordability as priorities. It was the shadow health ministry that thrust Ms Castley into the spotlight. She became the opposition's health spokeswoman in early 2022, taking over from Giulia Jones.
It is a role she will continue as Opposition Leader.
"We are the nation's capital, we deserve nation-leading health care," she said.
"The government have been in government for 23 years and things aren't getting batter and that's a shame... it does seem that something dramatic has to happen before they take action."
She also wants her children to be able to afford a home.
"We need to do something about affordable housing and work on that ... I want my kids to be able to afford a home ... they're still renting and have no thoughts of buying a home and I find that disappointing," Ms Castley said.
'It's my golf'
In Ms Castley's new office, there are biographies of John Howard next to Dolly Parton.
Ms Castley is a big Dolly fan, her staff say they have learned to not bring up the American superstar as it will set her off on a tangent.
It's fitting she is a Dolly fan, given Ms Castley is a country music singer. She has continued to do gigs around Canberra even after becoming a politician, calling it her "golf". She admits it will have to slow now.
"I'll definitely keep singing. We're working on a country show ... the full band gigs they will certainly continue but probably not as often because they tend to be the very late-night ones," she said.
"It's my golf, other politicians are allowed to have their golf and I'm going to have my golf. It's a great way to connect with the community."
Ms Castley has two adult children, Lachlan and Beth, and she has recently become a grandmother to Ty, who is 12 weeks old.
"I was 22 when I had Lachlan and then I had Beth, there's almost five years between them," she said.
"Obviously they are very proud of me but they're happy. They're off living their life, they're doing a great job and I'm really proud of them."
Ms Castley referred to herself as the "chick from Charny", a reference to growing up in Charnwood, in her maiden speech and it's a title that has stuck with her.
She went to Charnwood High, her first job was at the Charnwood dentist and the first home she bought was in the suburb.
She is now the member for Yerrabi, living in Gungahlin and in her first speech as Opposition Leader, Ms Castley has hinted at a rebrand.
"As the self-declared 'chick from Charny' in my very first speech I am maybe moving on to the 'chick from Yerrabi'," she said.
