Labor rivals had Luke Foley in sights before ABC scandal arose

IT WAS Luke Foley’s little ­secret, and his enemies were waiting for the right moment to use it against him.

• Labor leader to ‘reset button’
• Luke Foley resigned after scandal

IT WAS Luke Foley’s little ­secret, and his enemies were waiting for the right moment to use it against him.

When Foley filled out his Labor Party nomination form when he first sought to enter state politics in 2010, he omitted two prior drink-driving convictions.

According to several Labor sources, the omission was discovered shortly before Mr Foley became opposition leader in 2015 and seized upon by a group of supporters of another Labor rising star, Chris Minns.

Luke Foley, who was deputy to five right-wing Labor general secretaries, at NSW Parliament House in September 2010.

Mr Minns was at that stage still to be elected to parliament but has since become a leadership aspirant.

His supporters’ plan was to use Mr Foley’s apparent omissions to roll him before the March 2019 state election.

“The deal was Minns would be elected to a seat and then some time before March next year, Luke would be forced to stand down for lying to the party,” one Labor source said.

Three months before the March 2015 state election when Mr Minns was elected to the seat of Kogarah, Mr Foley publicly admitted to the convictions — unwittingly or not defusing the plot. He also amended the form.

Assistant secretary Luke Foley speaks at the NSW ALP Conference in 2005.

Mr Minns, who is close to former NSW ALP general secretary Jamie Clements, said he had heard the “conspiracy rumour”, which followed an overheard conversation at a Lakemba restaurant where the plotters had been coincidentally seated next to a table of members of the “Subcontinent Friends of Labor” support group.

The conversation made its way back to NSW ALP headquarters. “I’ve heard it, but it is not true,” Mr Minns said.

“When was I supposed to do it? Luke had my support right up until Ashleigh Raper made her statement.”

Chris Minns was unsuccessful in his bid to take the NSW leadership on Saturday. Picture: Tim Hunter

Jamie Clements.

Kaila Murnain.

One senior Labor source said Mr Foley’s backers wanted to bring in party elder Greg Combet to help sort the crisis.

One senior Labor strategist said the Liberals had scored a “massive own goal” by bringing Mr Foley down..

Luke Foley campaigns in Queanbeyan as Labor leader in 2015.

“The Libs will rue the day they destroyed Luke,” he said. “Daley will be formidable.

Mr Daley is close to NSW ALP general secretary Kaila Murnain, who worked for him in 2005.

Ms Murnain, a member of the Right, helped ­install Mr Daley this week.

The relationship between Mr Foley and Ms Murnain had been “fractious”, the strategist said.