Labor factions blasted, union split as Kristina Keneally trumps diversity pick
Kristina Keneally’s parachuting into a federal seat has prompted a powerful union to quit the NSW Labor Right faction.
The parachuting of Kristina Keneally into the safe ALP seat of Fowler has split the NSW Labor Right, with the powerful Health Services Union leaving the faction on Friday.
HSU NSW secretary Gerard Hayes – the brother of incumbent Fowler MP Chris Hayes – said the decision to pick Senator Keneally for the seat over a local candidate was a “slap in the face” to the local community and represented why the party was losing its base.
Senator Keneally – the opposition home affairs spokeswoman and former NSW premier – on Friday pledged to fight every day for the Fowler electorate and said she was entering the race after she received strong local support.
Mr Hayes on Friday said his faction would now sit independently in NSW Labor and he could not stand by while local candidates were overlooked.
“This just seems to be business as usual. We have talented local people and then Big Brother comes in and tells them what to do,” he told The Australian.
“We will stand on our own principles and make our own decisions now ... we don’t want people in parliament (who are HSU aligned) but we will be standing very firm that we want local communities to be engaged and pick local candidates.
“You can’t do things like we did them in 1970 or 1980 ... Kristina is a very good operator, she can speak for herself, but I don’t understand this.”
Labor sources told The Australian that Mr Hayes — federal Labor’s outgoing chief whip — voiced his displeasure at Senator Keneally’s installation as the Fowler candidate at the NSW Right teleconference and questioned her claims of strong local support.
Mr Hayes is also understood to have criticised NSW Labor general secretary Bob Nanva at the heated meeting. The Fowler MP was contacted for comment on Friday.
Keneally muscles out diversity pick
Senator Keneally will officially put herself forward as the party’s next candidate for Fowler, muscling out a young local Vietnamese-Australian lawyer and upsetting Mr Hayes, the incumbent.
Senator Keneally on Friday said she wanted to make the switch from the Senate to the lower house to help remove the Morrison government from power and defended her link to the electorate, which is 44km away from her home in Scotland Island.
The ex-NSW premier said in a statement she would fight for the Fowler electorate every day if preselected and that local ALP branch members had come to her to run.
Mr Hayes – the federal ALP’s chief whip – has blasted the factional deal to parachute Ms Keneally into his seat and push out his preferred successor, local lawyer Tu Le.
Face of diversity elbowed out
Until this week, Ms Le was shaping up as the next Labor MP in the party’s heartland seat.
The 30-year-old lawyer from western Sydney did not see herself as a political hotshot – she says preselection would simply have been the next step in her community advocacy work.
As the daughter of Vietnamese refugees and a campaigner for migrant worker rights, Ms Le was – according to Mr Hayes – the “great Australian story”.
But despite having the backing of the incumbent, who has held the seat for more than a decade, Ms Le was overlooked by the party’s head office in favour of Senator Keneally, Labor’s federal home affairs spokeswoman.
“If we truly are the party of multiculturalism, you must be able to see it in our make-up,” Mr Hayes said. “I don’t think I see the level of diversity of our community when I walk through the door of our caucus room.”
Ms Le’s parents had “fled tyranny to make Australia home and a better life for their family … I thought it could have been seen as a great Australian story,” Mr Hayes told The Australian.
Senator Keneally will move out of her Scotland Island house, purchased in 2017 for $1.8m, to the southwestern Sydney electorate ahead of the election.
NSW Labor sources say the decision to back Senator Keneally for Fowler came as key union leaders were set to endorse Deborah O’Neill for the party’s top spot on the Senate ticket.
Under NSW Labor convention, the Right faction gets top spot on the Senate ticket while the Left faction takes second position.
If Senator O’Neill won the Right faction’s top spot, Senator Keneally would have been third on the ticket – a position Labor has not won since 2007.
Senator Keneally had previously indicated she would not run for a lower house spot and intended to remain in the Senate.
Ms Le told The Australian she was disappointed to be elbowed out by Senator Keneally, given 15 per cent of people in the electorate were of Vietnamese origin.
She said the Vietnamese diaspora had “never had someone represent us in the parliament”.
“Our diverse communities should be reflected in the Australian parliament,” she said.
“We need more diverse voices in parliament so no one is left behind and everyone is included.”
Keneally defends her move
But Senator Keneally – the opposition home affairs spokeswoman and NSW’s first female premier – said she had long links with the Fowler community and had strong local support.
“I have always made the choice to step up and fight. That’s why I’m making the choice now to seek preselection in Fowler – I want to step up and fight for Fowler in the House of Representatives, for every suburb, every faith community, every small business, every family,” she said in a statement.
“The communities of Fowler are well-known to me given my time as New South Wales Minister Disability and Ageing, Minister Planning, and ultimately Premier of New South Wales.
“Families in Fowler have been left behind by the New South Wales Liberal Government, which did not lock down the eastern suburbs early enough when the outbreak started in Bondi. Fowler residents were left behind again by the Morrison-Joyce Government, which did not secure enough vaccines to protect Australians from the highly contagious Delta strain.”
In a statement on Friday, Senator Keneally paid tribute to her “good friend” Mr Hayes.
Mr Hayes told The Australian on Friday that the party’s decision to overlook Ms Le meant the party was not reflecting the party’s multicultural base.
“If we truly are the party of multiculturalism, you must be able to see it in our make-up,” Mr Hayes said. “I don’t think I see the level of diversity of our community when I walk through the door of our caucus room.”
Senator Keneally has had a blessed rise through Labor’s federal ranks since she lost a by-election in the Sydney electorate of Bennelong against Liberal MP John Alexander in 2017.
In February 2018, she was backed by then leader Bill Shorten to replace Sam Dastyari in the Senate. After the election, Ed Husic left shadow cabinet to make room for Senator Keneally, while Don Farrell stood aside as deputy leader of the Senate.
Senator Keneally’s backers say the former NSW premier was confident of winning the Senate ballot against Senator O’Neill.
In any case, Anthony Albanese could have used national executive to override the decision of the NSW branch.
Senator Keneally’s backers believe she will get the endorsement of local community groups, including the Vietnamese community in Australia.
“I have been approached by ALP branch members urging me to consider nomination for the seat of Fowler. I am humbled by this encouragement. I’ll have more to say about this in the coming days,” Senator Keneally said.
The Australian has confirmed Senator Keneally will be picked as Labor’s candidate for the seat through a “factional process” that prevents a vote of local members.
Labor sources said Fowler had not gone to a vote of local members for many years, including when Mr Hayes took over the seat after a redistribution in 2010.
One source said: “If it went to a rank and file ballot, Tu will win.”
In an email to Labor Right members on Thursday night, NSW Labor general secretary Bob Nanva endorsed Senator Keneally to run for Fowler, which takes in Cabramatta, Liverpool, Fairfield and Warwick Farm.
Key members of the faction will meet on Friday night.
“As a group, we have a duty to the leader and the party to ensure the next candidate for Fowler is as strong and well-regarded as he is,” Mr Nanva wrote. “In recent months I have discussed this matter with people from across our movement and, importantly, the local Fowler community.
“They have expressed a strong desire that the next Labor candidate for Fowler is someone with the experience and record of leadership required to ensure their communities are never left behind. That is why the officers will recommend that our group supports Kristina Keneally as the next Labor candidate for Fowler.”
The decision has stunned Mr Hayes, who warned it would do nothing to improve cultural diversity issues in Labor’s caucus.
“I had the genuine ambition to be succeeded by someone who reflected not only the aims and ambitions but also the face of the local community,” he said.
Ms Le said she had not seen herself as a politician, but knew selection as Labor’s candidate in Fowler would be “another way to lift voices of people in our community”.
“First and foremost, I’m a community worker, an advocate and an organiser,” Ms Le said. “I have pretty much dedicated my whole life to serving the community. My community is at the heart of everything I do.”
The Opposition Leader said Senator Keneally was a “fantastic and valued member of my team”.
“I think she makes an enormous contribution as a senator and frontbencher. And I look forward to Kristina continuing to make a contribution well into the future,” he said.
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