‘We were never going to win’: Daley reviews his state election defeat
Former NSW Labor leader Michael Daley speaks exclusively about his failed campaign leading up to the state election in March and about the troubled Sydney Football Stadium.
Southern Courier
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Former NSW Labor leader Michael Daley has revealed he did not expect to win the state election and “wouldn’t have changed anything” about his campaign, speaking for the first time about his defeat in the state election in March.
The Maroubra state Labor MP spoke exclusively with the Southern Courier on Tuesday about the election.
He said some things went against Labor during the campaign but he simply had too big a gap to make up when he was made leader.
“We were never going to win this election.
“We tried hard to win but the reality was, and I said on day one, it was like climbing Everest.
“It is possible to climb Everest but electorally it is almost impossible to get a nine and a half per cent swing,” he said.
“I thought that we could get into a situation where we would be the majority in a hung parliament but I never thought we would win outright. That was not possible.”
He said he would not change the campaign looking back, and it was tough having only four months as leader of the party before the election.
“I wouldn’t have changed anything,” he said.
“I only had four months in the job. Most leaders have four years.
“So I had two days off in 134 days and I had to go as hard as I could and I did.
“Not everything went our way but we still won seats, we won two seats and made up a lot of ground.”
He said the party was still holding a review into the election so he could not say whether a video which emerged of him stating Sydney jobs were being taken by foreigners, at an ALP function in 2018, had any bearing on the result.
“It was a flippant comment and I certainly meant no offence. Certainly the comments were used heavily against me in the campaign and I paid a big (personal) price for them.
“I have apologised for that. But I was still making an important point about the growth of Sydney and that we still need to make sure that there is enough affordable housing built in Sydney for people that have grown up in Sydney, regardless of where they come from, to live here and not have to move out because the cost of living has forced them out. That is the point I was making.”
Mr Daley said he was completely behind new leader Jodi McKay and his goal was “to be a minister in a Labor government”.
Mr Daley also said he was not at a dinner function in 2015 where a Chinese billionaire allegedly gave $100,000 in cash to a senior Labor Party official, currently being investigated by the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), and said he knew nothing about the incident.
Mr Daley strongly opposed spending $729 million to demolish and rebuild the old Allianz Stadium during his campaign earlier this year.
The stadium has since been knocked down but the company which demolished it, Lendlease, has walked away from the project after not being able to meet the government’s budget to build the new stadium.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian said last month she was still confident the proposed $729 million stadium would be built on time, by 2022, and the government was looking for new builders.
However, Daley claimed there was only one company, John Holland, that had the skills and would likely be able to build the stadium.
“You can imagine the price they are going to ask knowing they are the only ones in the hunt,” he said. "More blow outs are on the way.”
He added he was not surprised the project was already facing troubles.
“Not at all. This is par for the course. Every single project this government has started has always been secretive, poorly planned, blown out — they are always the themes.”
Mr Daley added he loved his electorate in Maroubra and would be working hard to “protect it” during the next four years from overdevelopment, projects such as the Yarra Bay cruise terminal and health services being shifted from the Sydney Children’s Hospital in Randwick to The Children’s Hospital at Westmead.
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