Michael Daley could face leadership challenge after defeat

He has only been the Labor leader for just 134 days and although Michael Daley wants to stay on in the role, the choice is unlikely to be his after failing to deliver anything close to victory. This comes as fellow MP Chris Minns said he would not rule out running for leadership again.

• Alan Jones sinks boot into Daley over stadium blue
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Michael Daley wants to stay on as Labor leader but the choice is unlikely to be his.

With fellow Right-faction MP Chris Minns having lost the leadership ballot to Mr Daley just four months ago, it’s unlikely the leader will get an unchallenged second chance after failing to deliver anything close to victory.

Noting he had been Labor leader for just 134 days, Mr Daley told his supporters at the Coogee Bay Hotel last night: “It just wasn’t long enough. But I can tell you that it is my intention to remain the leader of the party.”

Mr Minns said he would not rule out running for the Labor leadership again once Kogarah’s results were finalised.

“I have to talk to my colleagues but it would be disingenuous for me to say I’m not interested,” Mr Minns said.

“I’ve prevailed in Kogarah but there are votes to go.”

Labor Leader Michael Daley giving his speech following his election defeat. Picture: Tim Hunter

The Kogarah MP said Daley’s controversial comments about Asian migrants “stealing” Australian jobs had devastated his campaign.

“I’m not going to sugarcoat it,” Mr Minns said.

“We lost faith with that community and we’ve got a huge job ahead of us to breach that void.”

Chris Minns meets a voter at Carlton South Public School on election day. Picture: Brook Mitchell/Getty

From the very beginning, Mr Daley said he was not interested in “saving the ­furniture … I want to win”.

While it ultimately proved fruitless on election day, he brought the party into a ­winnable position long before even the most optimistic Labor strategists hoped.

With contained aggression and the confidence to take on talkback host Alan Jones, Mr Daley made the Allianz Stadium demolition a crucial issue and a powerful talisman for the Coalition’s greatest weakness — a perception the government has overspent and underdelivered on its giant ­infrastructure program.

It did not work.

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Despite widespread voter disengagement and evenly balanced polls, Mr Daley was last night only able to point to one seat Labor hoped to take from the Coalition in Coogee.

Mr Daley breakfasted yesterday at the House of Pie in Matraville, in his southeastern seat of Maroubra, before voting at Chifley Public School.

He headed to the marginal seats of Heathcote and East Hills, then lunched in Penrith before returning to Maroubra.

Michael Daley casts his vote at Chifley Public School in Malabar. Picture: AAP/Joel Carrett

Even before former leader Luke Foley resigned in ­November, following accusations of sexual harassment, party powerbrokers weren’t confident about 2019.

But Mr Daley brought fresh energy. At his first press conference as leader, with wife Christina and children Olivia and Austin by his side, the Right-wing MP declared: “We are full of fighting spirit, we are hungry, we will win the election in March 2019.”

After patiently waiting in the wings for years, the 53-year-old hit the ground running, even managing to shake off his association with Labor’s dark old days. He wasted no time, coming out hard on issues including stadiums, water policy and the devastating “fish kills” in the state’s parched west.

Mr Daley cast himself as a hardworking family man of the suburbs, but to boost his appeal in the bush, Labor repeatedly trotted out the line that he was the grandson of Kempsey dairy farmers.

Michael Daley is comforted by his wife Christina after giving his speech. Picture: Tim Hunter

With the slogan “Schools and Hospitals Before Sydney Stadiums”, Mr Daley unveiled key policies such as free TAFE, more nurses and emergency personnel, and airconditioning in classrooms.

Working behind the scenes and driving his frenetic campaign was an experienced team — Labor general secretary Kaila Murnain, strategist Bruce Hawker, media adviser Eamonn Fitzpatrick and Bob Carr’s former chief-of-staff Kris Neill.

Mr Daley’s game-changing moment came earlier this month when he told 2GB’s Alan Jones he would sack him and other members of the SCG Trust board.

It was a bold and aggressive move, with even some of his senior staff, prior to the interview, advising Mr Daley to “stop flogging a dead horse” and dump stadiums as an election issue.

But the risky manoeuvre paid off and, for a few days, Gladys Berejiklian was reluctant to even mention the word “stadium”.

One of the pies Daley ate while campaigning at election polling booths in Sydney. Picture: AAP/Joel Carrett

But Mr Daley’s strong run halted last weekend when the mosque massacre in Christchurch highlighted Labor’s preference deals with the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers.

Then a video emerged of Mr Daley talking about Asians with PhDs taking jobs from “our kids”. With the party in damage control, former PM Paul Keating was called in to write letters endorsing MPs in three seats with big Asian communities.

Continuing his horror run to the finish, Mr Daley failed to remember the costings for some of his key policies at the Daily Telegraph/Sky News People’s Forum.

Labor’s party rules require that a leader can only be challenged after an election — meaning the incentives for rivals like Mr Minns to challenge now is great.

Adding to the chances of a spill is the fact Mr Daley struggled with name recognition outside his own electorate.

After watching the Labor leader’s cavalcade sweep through a Penrith booth, voter Chris Kenton, 32, said: “I don’t know who he is. They keep changing (leaders) and everyone’s getting a go of the pension. They all normally have a quirk but this guy’s got nothing memorable.”

* Additional reporting Danielle Le Messurier and Eliza Barr