Michael Daley apologises for ‘Asian’ comments, explaining he should have said ‘internationals’ instead
NSW Opposition Leader Michael Daley has apologised for his comments, caught on video, in which he told a pub forum skilled Asian migrants were taking local jobs, saying his phrasing was poor. He’s also insisted he’s a numbers guy. It comes as Premier Gladys Berejiklian branded him a “one trick pony” for running a political campaign centred on cancelling infrastructure projects.
NSW Opposition Leader Michael Daley has apologised for his comments, caught on video, in which he told a pub forum that skilled Asian migrants were taking local jobs, saying his phrasing was poor.
Mr Daley, who has unreservedly apologised for his comments, said he wished he hadn’t singled out Asians when making his point.
“I wish I’d used the term international rather than Asian,” he said.
“People know what I was trying to say, they accept that my apology is genuine and I could’ve done better, there’s no doubt about that.”
The 53-year-old said he was trying to convey that living in Sydney was difficult and had become tougher under the current government.
“The fundamentals of the argument I was trying to make there was housing affordability in Sydney now is at such a level that it’s transforming our city,” the Labor leader said.
“People are going to live further and further away.”
Mr Daley said a “madness” had descended on Sydney during the reign of the current government.
“Four more years of this mob and NSW will be unsalvageable.”
Mr Daley on Thursday also insisted he was a “number’s guy” despite stumbling over details of key funding commitments during a live, televised leaders debate on Wednesday night.
Mr Daley believes election campaigns should be a “contest of ideas,” not memories.
“Politics and public life is not a game show, it’s not a memory test,” he said.
The Labor leader did concede he got details “muddled”.
At the debate, Mr Daley told the audience at a Western Sydney University he would “get back to you” on the amount of money a Labor government would spend on TAFE.
He also became confused when explaining how he would bankroll the Gonski funding model differently to the current Coalition Government.
The Opposition Leader said he was human and the long election campaign had taken a toll on his brain. But he insisted numbers made sense to him.
“They make sense, it’s just that in the heat of an election campaign where you’ve just been through the costings … I’m human, sometimes you get the details muddled, and that’s what happened,” he said. “I could’ve been more polished.”
Mr Daley told The Daily Telegraph today he “made some errors” in last night’s debate but said he was “human” and “it’s not a gotcha moment”.
He also pushed back claiming the Premier made “doozies of errors” when questioned on whether another toll would be introduced on the M4, domestic violence funding and the cost to benefit ratio of Allianz Stadium.
Speaking outside Allianz Stadium, Mr Daley said: “This is what happens sometimes in an election campaign and ... it’s not a game show, it’s not a test of memory”.
“This is serious business and people want to know about the big picture items,” he added.
“You can ask any political leader a series of questions about costings until they get one wrong and you say, gotcha. But the people of NSW want to know about the gotcha moments on entire projects.
“It’s not a game show, it’s not a test of memory — it’s a contest of ideas, of vision, of policy, of philosophy ... when people go to vote on Saturday, they won’t be doing a tally of who said mistakes and who made mistakes in a debate here or there.”
Mr Daley also said people “expect superhuman things from politicians” but “we’re human”.
He also fired up when challenged to provide figures for his plans to refurbish Allianz Stadium.
Asked whether he could say how much it would cost, he said: “Yes I can — zero”.
“That is what the Parliamentary Budget Office says. It says firstly that I am correct in being able to force the SCG Trust … to take the loan,” he said.
“Then it says in relation to accounts, they can pay back a concessional loan. So my cost on this stadium is zero dollars to the taxpayer.”
One trick pony: ‘All Daley wants is to cancel projects’
Premier Gladys Berejiklian on Thursday morning branded Labor leader Michael Daley a “one trick pony” for running a political campaign centred on cancelling infrastructure projects.
She said the Southwest Metro extension, F6 motorway extension and Western Harbour Tunnel/Beaches Link projects will all be cancelled if Labor gets elected this weekend.
“All he wants to do is cancel projects — one trick pony, is there anything he is actually putting forward that is positive for the future of NSW?” Ms Berejiklian said.
“If you jeopardise those projects, you actually jeopardise jobs, and it’s not by accident that we have the unemployment rate at 3.9 per cent in NSW.”
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Ms Berejiklian was speaking after an emphatic victory at the debate between the two leaders on Wednesday night in Penrith, where Mr Daley stumbled over his education funding figures.
His performance resulted in the crowd of 100 undecided voters awarding Ms Berejiklian the win in the verbal battle, with 50 votes in favour. Mr Daley received 25 votes and 25 voters remained undecided.
“For me it was just another day in my job. As Premier you need to make sure you explain your policies to the people of NSW and that’s what I will continue to do,” Ms Berejiklian said.
The Premier spent Thursday morning touring the Barangaroo Sydney Metro site, where she and Transport Minister Andrew Constance inspected Sydney Metro’s partially assembled fifth tunnel boring machine Kathleen in the pouring rain
They then moved underground to look at the site where it will begin tunnelling under the harbour.
“I am so excited by the progress of the Sydney Metro City and Southwest project,” Mr Constance said.
“Four mega borers have been busy digging more than 5km of tunnels under the city in the past five months — that’s 16 per cent of the Sydney Metro Tunnelling task completed.”
Ms Berejiklian then caught her election bus to Active Steel, a western Sydney manufacturer which forges metal used on parts of the Metro project. The St Marys factory which employs 80 people across two facilities in western Sydney.
She was joined on the election bus by her younger sister Mary — who recently told internet trolls to stop bullying her sister and “grow some pubes”.
The next Liberal campaign bus was going to head to Penrith Public School, followed by Blacktown Hospital.
Daley stumbles again over ALP’s costs after Gladys’ win
Michael Daley was exposed by failing to know key budget details last night in the Labor leader’s crucial head-to-head with Premier Gladys Berejiklian just three days out from the NSW election.
In the leaders’ most significant clash of the campaign, Mr Daley could not recall budget figures on education, stadiums and TAFE — all key policy planks of his campaign.
Facing each other and 100 undecided voters in the knife-edge seat of Penrith, Ms Berejiklian was overwhelmingly voted by the crowd as the winner of the clash: 50 votes in her favour, 25 for Mr Daley and 25 undecided.
But today, Ms Berejiklian is not getting carried away after her romping victory.
“I’ve got to focus on my job and focus working hard for the people of NSW,” she told 2GB this morning.
“There is a lot at stake on Saturday, it is going to be tight and that is why I really need to demonstrate the clear choice for voters.
“The Labor government will take us backwards and NSW deserves better.”
ELECTION PODCAST: PREMIER STORMS AHEAD AS DALEY STUMBLES
Daley: Both of us made blunders
Mr Daley played down his debate blunders during when he stumbled on key budget figures for TAFE and schools funding, despite education being a core issue.
Asked if he was embarrassed, the opposition leader said Ms Berejiklian made errors too.
“Both of us made a couple of blunders last night — no doubt about that — under the pressure of debate,” he told the Today Show on Thursday.
“The premier announced a new toll on the M4 which she corrected. I got capital and recurrent spending mixed-up in education and TAFE, and that’s what happens sometimes in the pressure of a campaign.”
Mr Daley was quizzed about the detail of his policy for Sydney’s stadiums again this morning and could not provide a number on how much money he would provide to the project.
“It will be a simple mathematical exercise on how much damage is done to the stadium and I won’t know that until I’m allowed in,” he said on Today.
Ms Berejiklian said she was surprised that no one asked a question about Mr Daley’s recent comments about Asian immigrants.
The Daily Telegraph revealed Mr Daley had told a politics in the pub forum in September that Asian immigrants with PHD’s are taking the jobs of young Australians.
“I was really deeply hurt by Mr Daley’s comments, I think they were offence, I think they made all of us who are the children of migrants not feel welcome,” she told 2GB today.
“To single out one race was absolutely unacceptable.”
Daley’s debate gaffe
Last night, Mr Daley and Ms Berejiklian were grilled about cost of living measures, mental health care in hospitals and support for teachers in schools with both leaders ruling out further privatisation of state assets or opening another coal-fired power station.
Both took the opportunity to make their bold pitches to NSW voters in front of the audience in The Daily Telegraph and Sky News People’s Forum at Western Sydney University in Kingswood hosted by David Speers.
However, under questioning on trades and training from audience member and plumber Jordan, Mr Daley couldn’t explain how much more he would spend on TAFE, a key policy for Labor and said he would have to check.
He claimed he would spend $3 billion more but when the Premier called him out on that, he said he needed to clarify.
“Hang on Michael Daley … you’re not sure … how much more you’re spending on schools and you’re not sure how much more you’re spending on TAFE?” Mr Speers said.
On Gonski funding, he also stumbled on how much a Labor state government he led would contribute to the education funding model. He later had to clarify state Labor would contribute $2.7 billion towards the total state-federal Gonski funding of $7.4 billion.
As expected, the stadiums debate was one of the fiercest topics of the night with Mr Daley unable to give a figure for how much he would spend on works for Allianz stadium.
When the Premier pressed Mr Daley by saying his plan would cost little less than her government’s, he repeatedly could not say how much he would spend on getting the Moore Park arena up to scratch.
The Berejiklian government has committed to spending $2 billion to knock down and rebuild Allianz stadium as well as refurbishing ANZ Stadium in Sydney Olympic Park.
Mr Daley has pegged his campaign on halting the knockdown of Allianz — which he has failed to do with demolition beginning last week — and has vowed to stop taxpayers from footing the bill for the rebuild.
He made his pitch to voters on giving them “hope” for a “better way” forward for the state while Ms Berejiklian warned the state would go “backwards” under a return to Labor government.
“When we came to power the budget was an absolute disaster, NSW was coming last in every indicator, unemployment was the highest in Australia … We’ve turned that around,” she said.
The final week of the campaign for Labor has been marred by divisive comments Mr Daley made about Asian immigration with the party desperate to reset their narrative.
The leaders were also grilled about the possibility of a hung parliament.
Mr Daley said he would take the support of minor parties like the Greens and Shooters to have “confidence and supply”. “We’ll take the support of anyone the people dish up,” he said.
Ms Berejiklian absolutely ruled out forming government with support of the Shooters, saying they go against her values but was open to discussions with other parties.
Audience member Simon Hillel from Werrington backed the Premier for her clarity but conceded there was some anger in the crowd about toll roads.
“The M4 seemed to get a lot of people off-side with Gladys but generally I thought she spoke better.”
On Daley he said: “To me it was a big fail. He wasn’t able to answer questions, he was evasive, he couldn’t get the figures.”
Penrith mum Ivy Torres Wong agreed: “I think from her we got a more clear picture of things, however I am worried where all this money is going to come from (for infrastructure).”
HE SAID
“We are going to spend $2.2 billion … rebuilding perfectly good stadiums that most of you will never walk into.”
“If there is a hung parliament there will be no coalition and no deals.”
SHE SAID
“When we first came to government the budget was a disaster and NSW was coming last in every single indicator.”
“For every dollar we invest over 10 years … depending on the stadium, it’s about three dollars for each dollar invested.”
THEY SAID
By Danielle Le Messurier and Adella Beaini
After the forum, Western Sydney voters were largely unimpressed with Michael Daley’s failure to reveal costings on key election promises such as TAFE, education and stadiums, with one describing his performance as “a big fail”.
After 100 “undecided” voters flooded into The Daily Telegraph/Sky News People’s Forum at Western Sydney University, it was open slather as residents of all ages and backgrounds challenged the leaders on their plans for NSW over the next four years.
While many were pleased with Labor policies to deliver cashback on the M4 and nurse-to-patient ratios, they said it was clear the Opposition Leader hadn’t done his homework.
It’s the first state election for nursing student Cari Williams, 20, who attended the debate with her mum Lindy, 47.
Ms Williams, from Kellyville, said Premier Gladys Berejiklian was “much better prepared” while Mr Daley “seemed to be avoiding questions a bit more and not knowing figures”.
“I was a bit surprised that Michael Daley didn’t seem to know the exact figures behind one of his parties main sort of things — TAFE should be one of his party’s biggest areas and he didn’t have the figures ready,” she said.
Lindy agreed, saying Mr Daley seemed “quite vague and light on with some of his answers”.
“I do feel he wasn’t as across the information he should be knowing,” she added.
Cost of living and infrastructure was front of mind for Penrith mum Ivy Torres Wong, 31, who spends about $30 a week on tolls on the M4.
Ms Wong said she felt both leaders “had good points” but was more impressed with Labor’s plan to deliver cashback on the M4 and better hospital staffing.
However she left the debate feeling conflicted, saying: “Gladys talked better and was very good at justifying her points … however I am worried about where all this money is going to come from (for infrastructure) and if it’s going to cost me more money,” she said.
Semi-retired Werrington County resident Simon Hillel, 57, said he would support Ms Berejiklian after the forum, describing Mr Daley’s performance as “a big fail”.
“It was a 70-30 on the performance I witnessed in there,” he said.
“He (Daley) wasn’t able to answer questions, he was evasive, he couldn’t get the figures.”
But Fairfield West student Andrew Cham, 20, disagreed.
He was planning on voting for the Coalition but said he would now vote for Labor because Mr Daley “did a better job addressing issues with transportation and education”.
Schoolteacher Peter Mayes, 67, from Riverside Girls in Gladesville, said he left the forum feeling undecided after asking both party leaders what they will do to help teachers at public schools.
“The school gets their budget and they have to budget the money out. Even if they got more money I still won’t get more money for what I need when I use my own money to pay for students’ textbooks and stationery because they can’t afford it,” Mr Mayes said.
“I am still not convinced because I find it very difficult between the two because Gladys was very good and passionate which is what I like and Daley is very much the same with facts and figures and it’s the Gonski we really need.”
Penrith resident Earth Waratah, 47, said he was “disappointed” by both leaders and said they gave no “real answer” when it came to dealing with youth mental health.
“I leave undecided and neither deserve a vote from me,” he said.
Western Sydney University vice-chancellor Dr Andy Marks said the forum showed both leaders that families from the west are worried about more issues than they think.
“They spoke about issues on domestic violence, health, and social wellbeing and it shows that these are the real things that matter and it’s clear the people have spoken,” Dr Marks said.
“After last night, both sides have been put on notice and families are discussing issues at the kitchen table and it’s more than just about economic growth and it shows how people really feel.”
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