Labor moves to expel Jasvinder Sidhu for racial attack on Muslims
Victorian Labor has moved to expel Jasvinder Sidhu, an assistant secretary of its Tarneit branch for “attacking and racially vilifying fellow members of the ALP”.
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Victorian Labor has moved to expel a controversial figure who was secretly recorded attacking Muslims.
A meeting of the party’s administrative committee has referred Jasvinder Sidhu, an assistant secretary of Labor’s Tarneit branch, to their internal tribunal panel.
It is likely his membership will be cancelled after this process.
The committee called for charges to be laid within the party, including “attacking and racially vilifying fellow members of the ALP”.
Members of the Socialist Left, who are aligned with Mr Sidhu, staged a walk out after the decision was made.
The meeting was called after the Herald Sun revealed a recorded conversation between Mr Sidhu and a group of Indian Australians.
In the recording, he told them that Turkish and Lebanese Muslims were sponging off taxpayers and claimed to have a direct line to Daniel Andrews.
It took place just hours after a fiery branch Hoppers Crossing branch meeting in which Mr Sidhu was punched in the head.
About 100 people turned up to his home on January 25 amid simmering tensions about party rules and branch stacking.
In the motion, the committee said that Mr Sidhu’s comments do not belong in the party.
“If the Labor Party does not take strong action in response to Mr Sidhu’s statements we forfeit the moral right to attack bigots like Fraser Anning or parties like One Nation who express Islamophobic views,” it says.
“The Administrative Committee repudiates the statements of Mr Sidhu and reaffirms our strong opposition to all forms of racial and religious vilification and discrimination.”
An internal battle is raging in parts of Melbourne’s west and southeast as Labor factions jostle for control ahead of a redistribution.
Mr Sidhu was at the centre of a factional brawl after he called a hastily organised meeting at his house on the busy Australia Day weekend.
The move sparked a backlash from members of the right-aligned unions and the Industrial Left, who rushed to the property to ensure they maintained their numbers in a vote.
Mr Sidhu then quickly tried to cancel the meeting and was punched in the head as an argument with one attendee got ugly.
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He declined to comment when contacted by the Herald Sun on Tuesday night, instead pointing to a recently written letter in which he said that claims he was “a racist” were untrue and unfair.
“Sadly, I have in recent weeks been the subject of an organised and coordinated political and factional attack,” Mr Sidhu wrote.
“This is not the first time that this has happened to me.
“It is unfortunate that this time there has been a coordinated attempt to stoke racial tensions and divisions within the Party and the wider Victorian multicultural community.
“That is shameful.”