Scotland Island, where federal Labor frontbencher and senator Kristina Keneally resides, is about as far away as you can get from the electorate of Fowler while remaining within Greater Sydney. That she is willing to leave her affluent and idyllic retreat to serve as its local member is testament to her devotion to public duty.
The shift both in distance and demographic is significant. In fact, the degree is such Keneally should for her campaign use a modified version of a song from ‘The Proclaimers’ to illustrate the effort on her behalf. “And I would sail from Scotland Isle / And I would walk from the North Shore / If it means I save my tush I’ll push that Fowler girl right out the door.”
The local woman in question is 30-year-old Tu Le, migration lawyer, community worker, and Labor Party member. The child of Vietnamese immigrants, she grew up in southwest Sydney, living in a flat. As she said this week, it took her years before she was open about her humble origins. Earlier this year she decided to run for preselection in Fowler. She has the support of the incumbent, Chris Hayes.
But evidently that means naught given Keneally’s determination to secure the Labor’s endorsement for that seat. Unkind and ignorant commentators have criticised this decision, saying she has nothing in common with her would-be constituents. This is incorrect. For example, Keneally, like many of Fowler’s immigrants, comes from a very dangerous and strife-torn place, in her case the NSW Labor’s right faction. If she does not make the move to the lower house, she will be relegated to third spot on Labor’s NSW Senate ticket, which would render her unelectable.
Fortunately for Keneally, her transition is all but assured. Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese has backed her move, telling journalists yesterday he would, if necessary, have the matter determined by the national executive. Le has not taken this well.
Pushed aside
“I’m disappointed personally but I’m also disappointed for my communities … they feel like they don’t have a say in who gets to represent them and who is the person that speaks up for them in the struggles they face, and we face every day,” she told ABC radio on Tuesday. “But I think that the issue is beyond me, and I think it’s much more than just the sour debacle that we have now.”
Surely, however, Le can take comfort from Albanese’s folksy commiserations. This promising youngster, he declared, has a “bright future ahead of her”. Le is valued so much by her party that she found out about her ousting via media reports.
But surely Le must appreciate that to earn preselection one’s resume must reflect a history of serving the community in leadership positions. For example, Keneally herself did not gain preselection for the state seat of Heffron until she was 33, having joined the Labor Party three years before. Furthermore, she spent six and half years in parliament before being handed the premiership of NSW, her entire ministerial experience at that stage consisting of two and a half years’ service. It’s called doing the hard yards, you see.
When announcing her intentions on Friday, Keneally declared: “I have always made the choice to step up and fight”. Always? That is one questionable adverb. In March 2011, on the eve of the NSW election which resulted in her government’s massive defeat, she scornfully referred to “blokes who … want to curl up in a ball in the Australian Labor Party”. She would not fold, she maintained. “But if I’m elected again as the Member for Heffron … I will serve them for the next term of government,” she said. Having given this undertaking to her constituents and being duly returned to her seat, she gave Heffron the heave-ho only a year later.
Sounding a tad miffed on Saturday, Keneally announced she was “a little bit disappointed in some of the media coverage”.
“I’m proud to be part of a party that supports gender diversity and supports multicultural diversity,” she said. The residents of Fowler may need some convincing of the latter in light of Le’s ousting. It is not just federal Labor that has taken them for granted. State Labor MP Reba Meagher was just 27 when she took office in the safe seat of Cabramatta in 1994. In 2007, it was revealed she was living in the beachside suburb of Coogee, about 40km away, despite having promised three years before to live in her electorate.
As for Albanese’s attempts to claim the US-born Keneally is an example of Labor’s diversity, he may as well be the shadow minister for maladroitness. “At the next election there’s someone called ‘Albanese’ running for prime minister,” he said. “And in terms of diversity, that’s a first too.” Federal Labor MP and Egyptian-Australian Anne Aly was among those he cited as examples of the party’s commitment to inclusion. Evidently inclusion did not extend to Albanese taking Aly into his confidence about Keneally’s move. Reacting to the news, the Cowan MP described it as a “huge failure” and blasted the party’s commitment to multiculturalism.
Only two years ago, Labor proudly announced a new caucus committee dedicated to multicultural affairs. As SBS reported, its charter included “increasing the representation of culturally and linguistically diverse communities.” And according to Labor’s shadow minister for multicultural affairs, Andrew Giles, “the committee will ensure that the concerns of multicultural communities are at the centre of every decision the party makes”. Except when it comes to preselection, it would appear.
In highlighting these discrepancies, I do not hold that a predominantly ethnic electorate necessitates a minority candidate. It would make as little sense as insisting that an electorate comprising mostly white voters is best represented by someone of Anglo descent. But foisting a cosseted Keneally on Fowler at the expense of a well-qualified local belies Labor’s claim of championing minorities.
Writing for The Guardian in 2016, Keneally attacked the Coalition for its absence of gender quotas. “Let’s debunk this notion that the current Liberal Party preselection processes are truly merit-based,” she said. “If that is true, then it holds that white males are superior beings to everyone else. That’s the only conclusion to be drawn from the Liberals’ claim of merit selection and swathes of white men sitting on the Liberal party’s front and back benches.” Using her logic, what are we to conclude of her sidelining Le?
As Senior Writer Troy Bramston noted in this newspaper on Tuesday, Keneally’s record is best described by “failure after failure being rewarded again and again”. Presumably she will support calls for Labor to bring in diversity quotas – after she is safely ensconced in her electorate.
“We understand Australia as a nation that benefits when we invite people here to become permanently part of us, to be part of the most successful multicultural nation on earth,” said Keneally at the John Curtin lecture last year. “That’s the story we tell ourselves. It’s the sentiment that shines through so many citizenship ceremonies and multicultural festivals. But – if we’re not careful – this powerful, unifying, uplifting national idea will soon be nostalgia rather than reality.”
As Tu Le would probably say, “tell me about it”.
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