Embattled Emma Husar threatens to run as independent at election
Embattled Labor MP Emma Husar has threatened to run as an independent if Labor refuses to endorse her in the western Sydney seat of Lindsay. Ms Husar today backtracked on her decision to quit after being accused of mistreating staff.
Embattled Labor MP Emma Husar has threatened to run as an independent if Labor refuses to endorse her in the western Sydney seat of Lindsay.
Ms Husar told Sky News she woke to news reports that Labor was looking to replace her with former NSW Labor minister Diane Beamer less than a week after she had pleaded with party bosses to keep her job.
“What’s happened to me was very disappointing,” she said.
“It is a couple of bad seeds in that party (and) when we are at our best we do amazing things and have fabulous policies so it is my intention to recontest the seat as a Labor member.”
When asked if she would run as an independent if Labor failed to endorse her, Ms Husar said she would do “whatever” it takes.
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“I love my job so I will consider doing whatever I need to do to stay in my job,” she said.
“People just need to understand what it is like to live in the real world I don’t come from the machine I wasn’t born in the Labor Party stable.”
Ms Husar was elected in 2016 but her short political career became derailed by allegations that she mistreated staff.
In August she announced her intention not to recontest the seat declaring she had been victim of a “smear campaign” and that “enough is enough”.
Today she backflipped on that decision and promised to fight her own party for the seat if necessary.
“There have been the older elements of the party who never supported me or my candidacy, they white-anted me and undermined me while I was there,” she said.
Ms Husar told The Daily Telegraph last week that she had met with officials including NSW Labor powerbroker Kaila Murnain to plead for her job in the past fortnight.
She has also texted Labor leader Bill Shorten to make it clear she wanted to stand at the next election and had sought a meeting with him this week.
Ms Husar had said she would not seek re-election during an internal investigation into allegations she bullied staff and made them do tasks including picking up dog poo.
The damning results of the investigation found staff were subjected to bullying, offensive and unreasonable management, and demands for the completion of personal tasks.
In a statement from NSW Labor, which commissioned the investigation after complaints, the party said there was “no basis for Ms Husar to resign from the Australian Parliament”.
Ms Husar took this as vindication and has used it as the basis for her bid to take back her resignation.
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