Fairfield MP Guy Zangari faces branch stacking allegations ahead of 2019 State Election preselections
Shadow police minister Guy Zangari has spoken out after he was sensationally accused of branch stacking by Labor members ahead of the 2019 State Election.
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Shadow police minister Guy Zangari has spoken out after he was sensationally accused of branch stacking by Labor members ahead of the 2019 State Election.
The Advance has seen statutory declarations from a local male Labor member who testified the Fairfield state Labor MP asked him to sign a book saying he had attended a December 2015 branch meeting – at which point the man was not even a Labor member.
The man alleged Mr Zangari then told him he would be able to vote for the MP in an upcoming preselection for the 2019 election.
Mr Zangari faced a NSW Labor independent Appeals Tribunal on Thursday.
“I respect the processes of the tribunal and I won’t comment until the findings of the tribunal are given,” the MP said.
The NSW Labor office refused to respond to the Advance’s specific questions about the allegations, instead stating: “This matter was referred to the NSW Labor Party’s independent Appeals Tribunal which met this week. Its determination will be made shortly.”
NSW corrections minister David Elliott said Mr Zangari owed his constituents honesty and transparency.
“Guy is a person that is asking to be the Minister for Police and Corrections – two portfolios that require the highest level of community trust,” Mr Elliott said.
Mr Elliott lashed out at NSW Opposition Leader Luke Foley’s apparent refusal to stand Mr Zangari aside while the matter is investigated.
“I think it is a terrible look,” Mr Elliott said.
“I asked Luke about Guy on February 8 and I was met with stone silence.”
Mr Zangari, who grew up in inner west Sydney, was a high school teacher in the Fairfield region for 17 years.
He taught at Patrician Brothers Fairfield for more than eight years and was the pastoral care co-ordinator at Freeman Catholic College Bonnyrigg.
Mr Elliott also accused Mr Foley of being “as soft on alleged misconduct” as those who “turned a blind eye” to disgraced Labor figures Eddie Obeid, Ian McDonald and Joe Tripodi.
“Fairfield has already had the indignity of watching Joe Tripodi being dumped from the Cabinet and then expelled from the Labor Party,” Mr Elliott said.
“There are some wounds in the community and in the Labor Party in that regard – and any suggestion that the nomination of a candidate, Labor, Liberal or independent, has been made without a full, frank and open process brings the entire system into disrepute.”