Labor’s Kristina Keneally blames lockdowns for loss of Fowler seat
Labor’s Kristina Keneally has finally spoken out about her blistering loss in the election, pointing to a bizarre reason for the community’s decision.
Federal Election
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Labor’s Kristina Keneally has blamed “harsh” lockdowns for losing the southwestern Sydney seat of Fowler to independent Dai Le.
She experienced a humiliating defeat in Fowler, which, until now, has never been held by anyone other than Labor.
In the lead up to the election, Ms Keneally was controversially “parachuted” into what was considered a safe seat.
As a “captain’s pick” candidate, it was thought Ms Keneally couldn’t lose, with Labor pushing aside a local candidate in the process.
But after the loss, Ms Keneally had remained tight-lipped during the week before finally opening up about it – controversially pointing to Covid and it’s impact as the “most important factor” for her loss.
“Fowler had the harshest and longest lockdowns in the state, supported by both Liberal and Labor, and there was an understandable sense of anger at both major parties, with people reacting with “a pox on both your houses”,” she told the Sydney Morning Herald.
When pressed by journalist Peter FitzSimons on whether the actual problem centred around the fact she was a “wealthy white woman” parachuted from “distant pasts” running against De who was a “real member of the local community”, Ms Keneally doubled down on the impact of lockdowns as being the reason for her loss.
“Those harsh lockdowns engendered an understandable sense of parochialism that the community had been left behind by both major political parties,” she added.
“And I genuinely believe that whether the Labor Party ran me or anyone else in Fowler, they would have encountered the same set of challenges.”
However, Ms Keneally acknowledger her opponent Ms Le was a “strong” candidate and also blamed Clive Palmer for “bankrolling” the United Australia Party (UAP) as a contributing factor to the defeat.
“While the UAP didn’t win any seats the impact that Palmer had was to drive down major party primary votes and deprive the major parties of Senate seats and preferences in lower house seats,” she said.
The 53-year-old revealed she started to think things might go wrong when pre-polling started and she had some “nasty encounters”, while the anger about lockdowns and vaccine mandates seemed “out of kilter” with the rest of the nation.
She added the number of how to vote cards only taken from UAP also seemed “unnaturally high”.
Ms Keneally, who moved to Liverpool during the campaign added she had no regrets about taking the “risk” to leave the Senate and running for the seat of Fowler, despite her bruising defeat.
She said she wasn’t “happy or satisfied” in her three years in the Senate and thought a move to the lower house would be where she could make her “best contribution”.
The seat of Fowler was called on Saturday night, but Ms Keneally waited until Sunday night to formally concede defeat.
Ms Keneally said she had spoken to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, but he had not promised her any future appointments.
However, she was positive about her future adding every time something “unfortunate” had happened in her life there was an “unpredictable and extraordinary” thing to follow.
But she refused to answer whether she would return to her home on Scotland Island or remain in Liverpool after promising that she would continue living in the electorate even if she lost.
She added her election loss didn’t compare to the “searing pain” of losing her daughter Caroline, who was stillborn in 1999.
Speaking on Monday, Fowler MP Ms Le claimed many voters were furious at Labor’s decision to overlook a local candidate in favour of Ms Keneally, who has never lived in the electorate before beginning her election campaign.
“A lot of voters were so angry with the fact that the Labor Party was arrogant enough to think that they can parachute somebody from the northern beaches to come and represent the southwest, one of the most socially disadvantaged communities, to represent us,” she told ABC.
“She has no roots here. She’s not connected to this area. So how can we trust that she can deliver for us? She’s never lived through the challenges that we have lived through.
“Labor voters especially were very – they thought it was a slap in the face and an insult to them. Those were the comments I received when voters came to vote for me. They have never voted for anybody else other than Labor.”
Meanwhile Tu Le, the local Labor candidate who was shoved aside so Ms Keneally could run, has said she was “shocked” by the result.
“On the ground there was a bit of outrage at about the parachuted candidate, to be frank, but it was considered one of the safest seats in the country, so I didn’t expect the result,” she said.
“This outcome sent a clear message to political parties that you can’t take local communities for granted and ignore community voices.”
It seems Ms Le and the people of Fowler weren’t the only ones who thought Ms Keneally’s candidacy was a bad idea, with members of the Labor Party also agreeing it was the wrong move.
“We got what we deserved,” a Labor Party insider told The Sydney Morning Herald.
“Kristina is an excellent parliamentarian and member of the team, but that seat didn’t make sense. The manoeuvre to put her into Fowler was wrong and the people clearly agreed.”
When asked if Labor had learnt their lesson from the embarrassing loss, the MP told the publication: “I bloody hope so.”
Originally published as Labor’s Kristina Keneally blames lockdowns for loss of Fowler seat
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