On an early winter's day, Christine Forster and her wife, Virginia Flitcroft, limp into their favourite Sydney restaurant, Manjits at the Wharf, for lunch with AFR Weekend. Indian is Forster's favourite cuisine, Flitcroft says, and they are treated as honoured guests at the Barangaroo venue by owner Manjit Gujral, a turban-wearing extrovert who oversees a small restaurant and catering empire.

Forster, a City of Sydney councillor since 2012 and the younger sister of former prime minister Tony Abbott, is one of the very few prominent conservative advocates for LGBTI rights in Australia. Now, at the age of 56, she is sizing up a full-time political career, and hopes to make history: possibly as the first declared Liberal lesbian in the NSW Parliament.