Abbott’s wife a Kiwi

The Dom Post reports:

She could well be Australia’s next first lady – and she hails from Wellington’s “nappy valley”.

Margie Abbott has fond memories of trudging off to school in Wainuiomata in her galoshes with her slippers tucked in her school bag – and says her Aussie children can do the haka.

The wife of Liberal Party leader and hopeful prime minister Tony Abbott was born in Hutt Hospital and grew up in Wainuiomata before moving to Australia in 1983. She attended Fernlea School in the 1960s and then Wainuiomata High School.

“I can just remember things like every weekend I went down to Richard Prouse Park and I was very much involved in athletics,” she told The Dominion Post last night. “I played soccer for the Wainuiomata club for years and loved that.”

Former classmates remembered Margie Aitken as a quiet, academic girl. “She was a good student,” said one. They are now watching avidly to see if she becomes Australia’s first lady.

Ms Abbott trained as a teacher in Wellington and taught in Wainuiomata and Upper Hutt. She moved to Sydney in 1983 and met her future husband in a pub. They have now been married for more than 20 years.

I had never picked up that Mrs Abbott was from NZ. And not just for a few years as a kid, but well into her 20s.

If Abbott does become Prime Minister, that will be a useful link – he may be less inclined to stick it to us, as Paul Keating did.