Election 2025: Anthony Albanese’s last-ditch Fowler stop to dislodge Dai Le amid political furore

Anthony Albanese’s visit to the once Labor stronghold of Fowler comes as the ALP’s candidate called impropriety allegations a ‘desperate smear’ and the Liberals apologised for offensive tweets.

Anthony Albanese takes a selfie alongside Labor’s Fowler candidate Tu Le, left, at a Monday campaign event in Cabramatta. Picture: Getty Images

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Anthony Albanese’s 11th-hour campaign visit to the once Labor stronghold of Fowler comes as the ALP’s candidate called im­propriety allegations a “desperate smear” and the Liberals apologised for a series of offensive tweets targeting Indigenous Australians and Tanya Plibersek.

It leaves the battle for Fowler in a relative political stasis – Labor lost the seat in 2022 to independent Dai Le after a backlash for parachuting in Kristina Keneally – with the incumbent likely to hold back the ALP’s Tu Le in another “very close” race.

On Monday, Tu Le – dumped as the party’s 2022 candidate to make space for the former NSW premier – spruiked her community credentials during a campaign event in the southwest Sydney seat with the Prime Minister.

The visit, however, comes after The Daily Telegraph reported that more than $30,000 in government grants awarded to a youth-focused group co-founded by Tu Le had been referred to the National Anti-Corruption Commission, which had requested more information earlier this month from the referrer.

The organisation, Youth Co-Lab, was reportedly granted tens of thousands of dollars in taxpayer funding, despite Tu Le working for the state government at the time, but the candidate called the tactics a “smear”.

“I’m very much focused on the election, and I’m not interested in any of the smear campaigns that are going on,” she said, adding that she was definitely “the underdog” and was “not taking any vote for granted”.

“I’m proud of the work that I’ve done in my community, and I think it’s very disappointing … that this is the type of tactics that are being used,” she said.

There is no suggestion that Tu Le personally profited from the grant process and Labor has called the referral to the NACC “desperate mudslinging against a candidate who is rightly proud of her volunteering and community work”.

Liberal candidate Vivek Singha. Picture: Paul Brescia

It comes amid furore surrounding the Liberal candidate’s racist tweets about Indigenous Australians and Ms Plibersek, the Environment Minister.

The 2023 social media posts by Vivek Singha described Indigenous Australians as “lazy bags”, among other derogatory terms, and attacked Ms Plibersek when it was revealed her daughter had been in an abusive relationship.

In one of the posts, Mr Singha hit out at Ms Plibersek and her husband, commenting on a media report “wow it is a great team (NOT) that is now leading the ­nation!!! That’s why her daughter was bashed.”

Another post accused Ms Plibersek of being someone who couldn’t lead Australia because she “couldn’t even look after your own daughter’s safety”.

On Monday, Peter Dutton said Mr Singha had apologised and called the posts “inappropriate”, but the Opposition Leader stopped short of disendorsing the candidate, instead targeting the Greens and Labor’s preference deal with that party.

The ALP is under no illusions of the difficulty of dislodging Dai Le, whose popularity has solidified since her 2022 upset win and who will benefit from preference flows in the event of a likely run off against Tu Le.

Fairfield City Council mayor Frank Carbone, a close political ally to Dai Le, was also re-elected in September with about 80 per cent of the vote, further dampening Labor’s Fowler hopes.