Kristina Keneally says she’s unfazed by Liberal ‘smears’

FORMER NSW Premier turned star Labor candidate Kristina Keneally says she’s unfazed by Liberal “smears” about her association with corrupt politicians Eddie Obeid and Joe Tripodi

• Turnbull’s warning shot over Keneally
• How Kristina Keneally reinvented herself

FORMER NSW Premier turned star Labor candidate Kristina Keneally says she’s unfazed by Liberal “smears” about her association with corrupt politicians Eddie Obeid and Joe Tripodi as her shock entrance into the race for Bennelong turned nasty quickly.

“If the Liberals think the best way to retake the seat is to smear Kristina Keneally, I say go for your life,” Ms Keneally said in an interview with The Daily Telegraph.

“It’s not the first time some man has tried to suggest I’m not my own woman and frankly I don’t care what they say. I care what they’re doing to the families of Bennelong.”

Those comments come after a number of senior Turnbull government ministers criticised Ms Keneally as “Eddie Obeid’s protégé”.

Kristina Keneally says she’s unfazed by Liberal ‘smears’. Picture: Tim Hunter.

“Eddie Obeid was Kristina Keneally’s patron. There was no place for Eddie Obeid, there should be no place for his protégé,” Health Minister Greg Hunt said.

Obeid and Tripodi, both former Labor powerbrokers, have subsequently been found to be corrupt, with Obeid now in Silverwater Jail and Tripodi found to have engaged in “serious corrupt conduct” by the Independent Commission Against Corruption.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull also took aim at Ms Keneally’s past.

“She’s Bill Shorten’s hand-picked candidate so obviously Eddie Obeid and Bill Shorten have formed the same view about Kristina Keneally,” he said.

“Don’t let Kristina Keneally do to Bennelong what she did to NSW.”

Bill Shorten this morning confirmed Kristina Keneally as Labor candidate for Bennelong. Picture: AAP Image/Dan Himbrechts

But Ms Keneally told The Daily Telegraph it was both an easy choice and a hard decision to re-enter political life after a turbulent period as the Premier, which culminated in the landslide election which delivered the Coalition government after many years in the political wilderness.

“I had left politics behind, I was conscious it might have an impact on my family, but my husband Ben said ‘you’ve got to do it. Labor needs to put forward their best foot and if you’ve got something to give and the slightest will to do it and you’ve got to do it’,” Ms Keneally said.

“My 19 year old son Daniel, who well remembers having grown up through my years in NSW parliament and the strain of that, he said I should do it.

“Buoyed by the confidence my family had in me and particularly encouraged by Bill Shorten that Labor was going to put up the strongest campaign possible in Bennelong I made what in the end was an easy decision.”

Ms Keneally is the underdog in the race for Bennelong, which the government holds on a 9.7 per cent margin ahead of the December 16 election.

Kristina Keneally said it was both an easy and hard decision to stand. Picture: AAP Image/Dan Himbrechts

Labor has only held the seat once, following the 2007 defeat of the Howard government.

Liberal John Alexander resigned over the weekend after admitting he was uncertain whether he was a dual British citizen by descent.

Mr Alexander declined to comment on Ms Keneally’s entrance into the by-election, and said he would leave “commentary on candidates to others”.

“I’m continuing to talk to residents right across the electorate and I’m as determined as ever to earn their support in order to continue serving Bennelong,” he said.

Ms Keneally was installed as Labor premier in 2009 with the backing of Tripodi and Obeid, and controversially reinstated Ian Macdonald — who is now also in jail following corruption findings — to cabinet.

It was her predecessor Nathan Rees who branded her a “puppet” of Obeid and Tripodi, which she strenuously denied with the famous lines: “I am nobody’s puppet, I am nobody’s protégé, I am nobody’s girl.”

A Labor spokeswoman said Ms Keneally “helped put Eddie Obeid in jail”.

“And any smear from desperate Liberals shows you how pathetic they really are,” she said.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption, which examined that tumultuous period in state politics, later concluded that is accepted that Ms Keneally had been honest.

“She impressed as a credible and conscientious witness, who was at all times careful to give accurate evidence,” the final report into Operation Credo released in August this year said.