The furore unleashed when Labor picked Kristina Keneally to run in Fowler is still palpable in Sydney’s southwest where voters will decide on their new state MPs next Saturday.
In the overlapping state seat of Cabramatta, where Labor’s preselection dragged on until mid-February, one of the hopefuls was Kate Hoang, who sponsored Keneally’s bid to run for Labor in Fowler. Another was the ex-senator’s internal rival, Tu Le.
Keneally’s selection as the Fowler candidate over Le was roundly criticised because the former NSW premier lives far away from the electorate, on an island in Sydney’s northern beaches.
Keneally’s former supporter Hoang has now quit the Labor Party and will run as an independent. She has levelled accusations of bullying against supporters of Le, which she claims is related to her work in the Fowler campaign.
Neither Hoang nor Le had a chance against Labor’s eventual candidate, Tri Vo, a local lawyer who was endorsed by outgoing Cabramatta MP Nick Lalich, and who got 39 out of 61 votes in the preselection.
Losing Fowler to an independent for the first time ever was described in Labor’s post-federal election analysis as a wake-up call and a reminder “no seat is safe”.
The state seat of Cabramatta has a 19.3% Labor margin, while the party’s margin in Fairfield is a comfortable 16.8%.
Tu Le told Crikey the Fowler outcome “absolutely” loomed large over the state election campaign.
“This area has been a Labor stronghold for a very long time, and we never lost the seat before,” she said.
“I think some in the community see that the level of investment here is not as much as in other communities, and question why that is the case. Labor may have taken this area for granted.”
But Le also said she believed a Labor government would be better able to deliver for the community, which she said was “one of the most disadvantaged in the state”.
In neighbouring Fairfield, Labor figures initially feared a run from local independent mayor Frank Carbone, a close ally of Dai Le, the independent federal Fowler MP who ultimately beat Keneally.
In the end, Carbone decided against running, writing on Facebook this week: “I’m so glad I didn’t join the state government election circus”.
Labor’s Fairfield candidate, former Australian Federal Police officer David Saliba, was reportedly installed as a “captain’s pick” without a local vote.
Federal Energy Minister Chris Bowen, whose electorate of McMahon overlaps with Fairfield, advocated for Saliba’s selection, according to The Daily Telegraph.
Carbone has previously said it would be better for locals if the state seats were marginal.
“If both the major parties don’t respect our people simply because they vote Labor, they’ll have another thing coming … We’ll make sure we make this area marginal, just like we did Fowler,” he told The Sydney Morning Herald prior to abandoning his run.
Dai Le told Crikey she hadn’t decided whether she would endorse any of the candidates in Cabramatta.
“I don’t have confidence in any of the candidates either of the major parties has selected for Cabramatta,” she said.
“At the moment, I am looking at alternative candidates who are brave enough to speak out on the issues that matter to our multicultural community.”
Asked if she thought Labor had learnt any lessons from her win, the federal MP said: “This time the Labor Party has chosen local candidates, but whether or not they understand the cultural diversity and issues of our community is still to be determined.”
Hoang said her experience of allegedly being cyberbullied over her work for Keneally’s campaign, and Labor’s non-response to a complaint she made, had made her disillusioned with the party and helped inspire her independent run.
“I want to send a message to both [major] parties that they have to treat Cabramatta with some serious consideration, it’s no longer a safe seat and they have to pay attention and give more funding to our area,” she said.
NSW Labor did not respond to Crikey’s questions about the bullying complaint, but a party spokesman told the Liverpool Leader earlier in the week there would be no independent investigation of the allegation because Hoang was no longer a member.
Hoang was also part of a symbolic rebuke of Tu Le last month, voting with other Cabramatta Labor Party branch members to expel her — even though the branch does not have any powers to kick out other party members.
“I’ve heard that anyone who doesn’t support [Hoang] is immediately branded as a supporter of me, but I have no control over what people do or say online,” Tu Le said.
“There should be no bullying going on and no one should be subject to that.”
Both Tu Le and Hoang received just six votes each at the party’s preselection on February 18.
Labor’s Fairfield and Cabramatta candidates did not respond to requests for comment.
That conclusion just misses the point, probably deliberately. The real lesson of losing Fowler is that no majority is safe when the incumbent party has enough complacency, arrogance, stupidity and hubris. Labor blew itself up. Kate Hoang moaning about bull lying when she is being held to account for her part in that fiasco is ridiculous, and also strongly indicates Labor has not really learned from the experience. The symbolic ‘expulsion’ vote against Tu Le is the finest example of vicious scapegoating I’ve seen in a long time, and equally strong proof of how delusional some in Labor remain about what happened.
Labor also anointed Daniel Repacholi for Hunter. A man who had never been a Labor member shafted tireless members that recognised Hunter is more than just miners.
Keneally was stitched up, for speaking out against Labor’s mass-migration groupthink. Having lied to voters, Albanese has now pushed net migration past 300,000 (year to September 2022). The second highest of all time, and a massive 28% higher than the 235,000 that Chalmers put in his October Budget. Voters don’t want it, but it’s nirvana for the powerful donors and “stakeholders”. Democracy 101.
whaa…”Keneally was stitched up” – by being parachuted into a safe seat from Scotland Island?
Despite there being a well regarded & experienced local endorsed by the retiring member and endorsed by the local committee.
I agree with everything you said except for the Keneally was stitched up bit. She went rogue temporarily. As she is want to do. Remember her as NSW Premier? I think she had a thought bubble but it was different to the growthists and rent-seeking party hacks who see masses of poor immigrants as electoral cannon fodder, too disgruntled and unambitious to vote Liberal and poor and oppressed but culturally and socially conservative. This latter element has wedged Labor in ways the conservatives never dreamed of. With insecure employment the preserve of NESB or plain NES immigrants in non-aspirational, survivalist middle to middle outer ring LGAs like Fairfield, Liverpool, Auburn, Lidcombe, Granville, Bankstown, Broadmeadows, Werribee, Tarneit, Mill Park, Dandenong – Labor thinks its future is assured there. Labor and the Liberals don’t want these immigrants to advance materially and with poor or no English speaking skills and few work related or educational skills and no inherited wealth or container load full of material possessions but the clothes they arrived in, then insecure and/or poorly paid employment is where they will end up. Keneally saw this and realised this temporary migration was a con job. She spoke out and did the only think in her life she can be proud of. She told the truth when most in the Labor party, her party, did not or didn’t dare and most of which don’t agree in any case. So she does what she always does when she is backed into a corner and instead of fighting it out, she backed down and talked about the injustices of “temporary” migration and said she was in favour of “permanent” migration – read family reunion, arranged marriage victims, slaves for parents and grandparents, child minders, social security recipients and a drain on our health system.
what a fiasco is right – a slightly better non coalition party – im going greens or independent
That conclusion just misses the point, probably deliberately. The real lesson of losing Fowler is that no majority is safe when the incumbent party has enough complacency, arrogance, stupidity and hubris. Labor blew itself up. Kate Hoang moaning about bullying when she is being held to account for her part in that fiasco is ridiculous, and also strongly indicates Labor has not really learned from the experience. The symbolic ‘expulsion’ vote against Tu Le is the finest example of vicious scapegoating I’ve seen in a long time, and equally strong proof of how delusional some in Labor remain about what happened.
Sorry for the duplication. My above comment here was ModBotted because it includes an evil word, which happens to appear more than once in the article but never mind. I guessed what had happened and modified that word before re-posting the comment with an edit. Live and learn; an addition to the list of Crikey‘s wonderfully eccentric collection of Very Bad Words.