Senior Labor adviser tried to fix MP Emma Husar’s staff turnover and workplace mess over 12 months ago
A SENIOR operative was brought into Emma Husar’s office more than a year ago to try to sort out the high turnover of staff. The Daily Telegraph can reveal the NSW Right’s Cameron Sinclair was recruited to get on top of the workplace “mess”.
NSW
Don't miss out on the headlines from NSW. Followed categories will be added to My News.
A SENIOR operative for the NSW Right was brought into Emma Husar’s office more than a year ago to try to clean up the problems around the Lindsay MP’s high staff turnover.
The Daily Telegraph can reveal Cameron Sinclair, a former senior adviser for Chris Bowen and Bill Shorten’s numbers man in the NSW Right, Sam Dastyari, and who later worked for Kristina Keneally, joined Husar’s office for two months from May to June last year, specifically recruited to “restructure staff” in her office which had become dysfunctional and “a mess”.
Mr Shorten has maintained he knew nothing about issues in Ms Husar’s office, despite the fact a senior operative who had worked for his key ally was drafted in to fix the mess.
Asked whether Mr Shorten or his office knew Mr Sinclair was brought into Ms Husar’s office to work on issues related to the high turnover of staff as a result of bullying complaints, his spokesman declined to comment. She has taken personal leave while the NSW ALP investigate claims of bullying.
The Daily Telegraph can also reveal complaints about Ms Husar delayed the Labor Party endorsing her as the party’s candidate for Lindsay by five months until the eve of the federal election.
The concerns, some raised by Labor’s Lindsay Federal Electorate Conference, were wide-ranging and even included concerns over her citizenship.
The complaints lodged included social media posts Emma Husar had made about NSW Government minister Stuart Ayres’ partner, Federal Defence Minister Marise Payne, along with an angry email she sent to a local newspaper editor.
MORE
MP Emma Husar’s $1500 bill to Labor event
Mr Shorten again would not comment on whether he asked why his candidate in the seat of Lindsay was not endorsed until April 2016 — five months after preselection.
One of Ms Husar’s former staff members, Liam Rankine, is now being considered as a potential candidate for Lindsay if Ms Husar does not run for the next election.
Figures show Ms Husar has been kicked out of the chamber in federal Parliament more than any other MP, totalling 22 occasions since she was elected in 2016.
The Telegraph has obtained video footage of one recorded outburst showing Ms Husar slamming a folder on the table twice, before storming out of the chamber.
The Speaker asked her to “withdraw” twice, calling her back to her seat after she yelled out across the chamber while on her way out.
In the email to the Nepean News editor, Kerrie Davies, before the 2013 NSW election, Ms Husar threatened to boycott any business who advertised in the local paper. “Your paper is a disgrace,” she wrote.