‘Not ready to govern’: Labor MP Tania Mihailuk quits party

Bankstown Labor MP and frontbencher Tania Mihailuk has sensationally quit the party, insisting that its decision to allow her arch nemesis mayor Khal Asfour to run for parliament is proof that the ALP is still plagued by corruption and is not ready to govern.

Mihailuk told parliament on Thursday afternoon that despite her pleas with Labor leader Chris Minns, Asfour was endorsed as a candidate on the party’s upper house ticket for the March state election, leaving her no option but to quit the ALP and represent her electorate as an independent.

Tania Mihailuk has announced she will quit the Labor Party.Credit: AAP

“I’m disappointed that Labor has not learned from Nathan Rees’ past warning and I quote that ‘NSW Labor must never again allow the circumstances to develop in which a small cabal of self-interested individuals could control the fate of a great party’,” she told parliament.

“Clearly, the NSW Labor Party has not cleaned up its act, it’s not ready to govern and as a consequence I will now be resigning from the Labor Party, I’m left with no other choice.”

Mihailuk revealed she had learned of her dismissal from shadow cabinet via a call from a talkback radio producer after she used parliamentary privilege to level accusations against Asfour, who is Canterbury-Bankstown mayor and long-time political rival.

A Labor spokeswoman said: “Labor leader Chris Minns told Tania Mihailuk that she could stay in the shadow cabinet and stay a member of the team provided she took allegations of impropriety to the police or the ICAC with any evidence that she had, rather than further using parliamentary privilege to launch unsubstantiated attacks on Labor colleagues.”

“In the end Ms Mihailuk was not prepared to do that.”

Mihailuk and Asfour were once close friends but have been locked in a bitter turf war for about a decade, with Mihailuk warning that his association with the corrupt jailed former minister Eddie Obeid and other developers meant he was not someone who should be in parliament.

“I will not sit idly by and in silence, while the NSW Labor machine at Sussex Street are actively endorsing a candidate for the 2023 state election of the ilk of Khal Asfour,” she said.

Asfour has previously labelled Mihailuk’s attack on him as a “gutless and a slur on his good reputation and standing in the community” and said it “reeks of sour grapes at being overlooked on Labor’s upper house ticket”.

Canterbury-Bankstown mayor Khal Asfour.Credit: James Brickwood

Mihailuk is also furious at the party’s insistence that she shift seats to make way for Lakemba MP Jihad Dib, whose seat is being abolished as part of a boundary redistribution.

In August, Mihailuk faced bullying allegations, which she denied and said the allegations were politically motivated. “It doesn’t surprise me that on the eve of my preselection suddenly complaints which have never been brought to my attention are being selectively leaked to the media,” she said.

“I completely reject the assertions. And I’ll be fighting to win preselection and represent my community in Parliament. Nothing will distract me from working for the people of Bankstown.”

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