Guy Zangari: Fairfield MP won’t stand for re-election in 2023

After more than a decade representing Fairfield, Labor MP Guy Zangari has announced he will not contest the upcoming state election.

Fairfield MP Guy Zangari.

Fairfield Labor MP Guy Zangari has announced he won’t contest the upcoming state election.

Mr Zangari, a former high school teacher, was elected in 2011 and will step aside from public life after more than a decade representing his community.

In a statement posted to his Facebook page, Mr Zangari said: “The decision not to recontest the 2023 election has been made with the full support of my wife Melissa and our four children.

“It has been an honour and privilege to have been the elected representative in the oldest parliament in the nation.

“Although I am moving on from NSW state politics I will continue to work alongside local charities and not-for-profit organisations in a private capacity and I look forward to working with them into the future.

“I would finally like to thank my family, staff and the Labor family for their belief and support in me over the past three terms, I am eternally grateful.”

Guy Zangari and Hugh McDermott outside Fairfield Hospital

In September, speculation was rife Mr Zangari would be taking Nick Lalich’s seat of Cabramatta — as the Labor stalwart was expected to retire — Tania Mihailuk moving from Bankstown to Fairfield, and Jihad Dib getting the seat of Bankstown.

Mr Dib currently holds the seat of Lakemba, which is being removed at the upcoming election, a majority of the seat folding into Bankstown.

Since then, Ms Mihailuk has been dropped from NSW Labor leader Chris Minns’ shadow cabinet, after using parliamentary privilege to raise issues of improper planning processes at Canterbury-Bankstown Council, while alleging an improper relationship between Mayor Khal Asfour and disgraced Labor powerbroker Eddie Obeid.

Mayor Asfour, who will be running as a Labor candidate in the upper house in the upcoming election, has denied the allegations, stating: “Council’s processes, integrity, and mine, are all intact.”

One local Labor party member — who did not want to be named — said: “Tania has now a clear path to go to Fairfield with Guy (Zangari) retiring, if she wants to contest.”