When parents in south-west Sydney talk to Tu Le about the difficulties of juggling work and family life, she knows what they are talking about all too well.
Le, 34, wanted to run for the once-safe Labor seat of Fowler at the last election and was long-time member Chris Hayes’ chosen successor. However, the lawyer was passed over for then-senator Kristina Keneally, who ran for the seat after factional bickering threatened the former NSW premier’s spot in the Senate.
The decision to “parachute” Keneally in from Sydney’s northern beaches sparked a voter backlash and a national debate about diversity in politics. After all, Labor had chosen a white woman from the wealthy side of town, rather than a young Vietnamese-Australian from the area to run in a working-class seat with the biggest Vietnamese diaspora in the country. Dai Le, a local deputy mayor who arrived in Australia as a child refugee from Vietnam, won the seat as an independent, claiming a stunning upset victory in what had been one of Labor’s safest seats.
Tu Le says she believes Fowler is “absolutely winnable” for Labor.Credit: Janie Barrett
Now Tu Le has been granted what was denied to her three years ago, although in imperfect circumstances. With a federal election imminent, she is campaigning to win back Fowler while 37 weeks’ pregnant, meaning she could give birth to her second child at any moment.
“A lot of people think I’m pretty crazy for doing this,” she says, sipping her daily coffee at a cafe in Carramar. Her left arm is covered in a bandage from a blood test that morning; after our interview, she is heading to an ultrasound screening.
All things going well, she plans to take just a week off after giving birth before rejoining the campaign trail. She is thankful her husband does the “lion’s share of the work” at home and that her mother lives with them, helping take care of two-year-old son Boston. “Without their support, I probably wouldn’t have done it,” she says.
Tu Le describes Fowler as “a critical seat to win back” for Labor, insisting she considers it “absolutely winnable”. The seat has a slender margin of 1.1 per cent, according to ABC election analyst Antony Green, making it, at least on paper, one of the election’s most competitive battlegrounds.
“I think we obviously made a mistake last time,” Tu Le says, referring to the choice of Keneally as candidate.
“The community responded accordingly, and I think it’s a huge lesson learned. I think this party will definitely not be taking this seat, or any seat for granted, any community for granted, from here on out.”
Standing in the way is Dai Le, who was already well known locally thanks to her long tenure on Fairfield Council, where she is a close ally of Mayor Frank Carbone. Her time in parliament got off to an eye-catching start – she gave her first speech to parliament wearing a traditional Vietnamese ao dai dress made from fabric printed with the Australian flag – and she has established a national media profile advocating for western Sydney.
On Monday, she hit out at Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke, whose electorate of Watson borders Fowler, accusing him of “a flat-out lie” for claiming she was invited to attend a controversial mass citizenship ceremony at Sydney Olympic Park over the weekend. She blasted the event as a “vote-buying spree”, as Tu Le was invited.
Asked whether she faces tougher competition than in 2022, Dai Le offers no praise for her opponent, choosing instead to contrast her experience against a younger Labor candidate who has not held elected office.
“I don’t know if it’s a better candidate [than Keneally],” the 56-year-old says in an interview in her Canley Heights electorate office. “I don’t think I was elected because I’m Vietnamese. I believe I was elected because I’m known as somebody who is local and has been here long enough to understand the issues.”
Noting her electorate also has many voters with Chinese, Middle Eastern and European heritage, she says: “My Vietnamese background is just a bonus. I think the mistake that Labor think is that it’s about a Vietnamese candidate.”
Dai Le says she would lobby hard for her local community in any minority government negotiations. Credit: Kate Geraghty
There is clearly no affection between the two opponents. Tu Le counters: “I think she was very fortunate to have been in the right place at the right time and won the seat ... I think it’s difficult for people to articulate and understand what she has actually done for our community at the federal level.”
While her “teal” colleagues on the crossbench have pursued issues such as climate change and integrity in politics, Dai Le has relentlessly focused on community and cost-of-living issues – so much so she began to question her judgment when parliament was consumed by debate about the ill-fated Indigenous Voice to parliament referendum.
“I was out doorknocking and everybody was talking to me about the rising costs of insurance, the rising cost of energy, the costs of food was going up. But when I sat in parliament, both the major parties and other crossbenchers were talking about the Voice. I did feel out of place during that time and thought ‘am I missing something?’ because I was only talking about the cost of living.”
Her instincts were right. Polls show voters overwhelmingly rate the cost of living as their biggest concern, ranking it far higher than any other issue. One of Dai Le’s proudest achievements is creating “bring your own bill” days for constituents to bring in their electricity, water and insurance bills to have them assessed by her electorate staffers, as well as government agencies and regulators. Two hundred people lined up for the first event, and 300 for the second. Other MPs, she says, have asked her for a template so they can hold similar sessions.
With Labor struggling in the polls, she says the Albanese government is deeply unpopular in Fowler. “There are people who say, ‘I have always been a Labor voter but no more after what they’ve done to us. They say the cost of everything has gone up’.” Asked whether Labor is genuinely committed to winning back the seat, she says: “Really, I don’t think so.” Only a major federal funding commitment targeted at the area – such as helping to pay for a metro link to the new western Sydney airport – would show it is game on, she says.
Tu Le concedes there is “definitely a message gap” on the economy, with many voters unaware of key government relief measures such as $300 energy bill rebates. “My job is to fill in that gap and tell people what the government is doing ... We need to have a strong voice in government, someone that could advocate directly to ministers and the prime minister to be able to get our fair share.”
If neither Labor nor the Coalition wins a majority at the election, Dai Le could play a pivotal role as a balance-of-power crossbencher. Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has named her as one of the independent MPs he would call first to help form a minority government, contrasting her to the more left-leaning teals. She ran twice as a Liberal candidate for state parliament in NSW.
Asked how she would approach a closely divided parliament, she says she would operate pragmatically, negotiating hard with both sides for her electorate to maximise her bargaining power.
“Whoever gives the most to this community would be somebody I would consider supporting,” she says. She would lobby for funding for a multicultural health centre in the electorate (as a breast cancer survivor, health is a policy priority). So would air conditioning for school halls funded by the Rudd government’s stimulus spending.
“They just built these bloody f---ing halls with no air conditioning,” she vents, growing agitated as she recalls attending dozens of school awards ceremonies in sweltering summer heat.
After initially thinking Dutton had no chance of winning the election, she says he is coming across to many voters as a strong leader. But she has concerns about a man she describes as “stern”. “I don’t think he’s approachable. He’s he’s a pretty hard person,” she says. “Albo is approachable.” She adds: “I represent a very multicultural community, and I sometimes I wonder whether the Liberal Party is stoking so much of the cultural division [in society].”
Tu Le is seeking to capitalise on her opponent’s Liberal past and the fact she could help install a prime minister most Fowler voters don’t want. “If she was to say she would back Dutton, that would not be popular in the local community,” she says. “Most people in this area have always voted Labor, and I’m doing everything I can, within my own personal capacity, to fight for the seat.”
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