Kristina Keneally hits back over diversity claims in hotspot LGA

Senator Kristina Keneally has returned fire at those who criticised her decision to outmuscle a younger, homegrown candidate for the western Sydney federal seat of Fowler.

Labor Senator Kristina Keneally with Vietnamese Community in Australia president Paul Nguyen outside the Vietnamese Community Cultural Centre in Sydney on Saturday. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Flavio Brancaleone

Kristina Keneally has returned fire at those who criticised her decision to sail in from well-heeled Scotland Island in northern Sydney’s Pittwater to outmuscle a younger, homegrown party preselection candidate for the federal seat of Fowler in the city’s outer west.

The Labor senator and former NSW premier, who officially put herself forward on Friday, travelled more than 40km from her home to the locked-down local government area of Fairfield to campaign on Saturday.

Addressing a crowd in Bonnyrigg, Senator Keneally said she would bring a voice from senior government to the area.

“The communities in Fowler need a voice in the highest levels of government, and I want to step forward to be that voice,” she said.

On Friday morning Senator Keneally announced her move proudly on social media. “I have always made the choice to step up and fight,” she wrote.

Fowler Labor preselection candidate Tu Le with her partner Kelvin Do in Canley Park. Picture: Ryan Osland

But Australians of various ethnic backgrounds, many of whom have long backed Senator Keneally, have questioned whether this is the right fight.

Australian National University Centre for Asian-Australian Leadership director Jieh-Yung Lo likened the move to parachute politics.

“The potential decision to parachute her into the federal seat of Fowler over local candidate, Vietnamese-Australian Tu Le, is most certainly a missed opportunity, especially when Fowler is one of Australia’s most ethnically and culturally diverse communities with 15 per cent of the electorate being of Vietnamese background and heritage,” Mr Lo wrote in a LinkedIn post. “In addition, Tu Le is a member of the local community whereas Senator Keneally has little to no connection with the area.”

Current Labor MP for Fowler Chris Hayes has publicly backed Ms Tu Le, 30, a local lawyer, as his replacement.

Despite criticisms, on Saturday Senator Keneally, who is US-born, said she was “proud to be part of a party that gets cultural diversity”.

“Let me take this head on because I’m a little bit disappointed in some of the media coverage … if you look across south-western Sydney you’ve got MPs Ed Husic, Michelle Rowland, Mike Freelander,” she said.

“I’m proud to be part of a party that supports gender diversity and that supports multicultural diversity. This is a community I will live in, I will love and I will represent. I know how to fight for communities like this – it’s why I’ve gone into politics.”

Mr Lo questioned whether knocking outranking a local candidate with a diverse background was the right move.

“Asian-Australians comprise nearly 15 per cent of the overall Australian population yet out of the 227 members of parliament and Senators in our federal parliament, only five have an Asian heritage,” he said.

“The serious lack of under-representation of Asian-Australians and other multicultural Australians means our parliaments are increasingly disconnected from the lived experience of our diverse communities, as evident by the recent challenges in communicating details about Covid-19 lockdown restrictions and vaccination information to multicultural communities,” Mr Lo said.

Earlier in the day, during the state’s second last daily public Covid-19 ministerial update, NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard was pressed with concern from reporters over Senator Keneally travelling more than 5km as part of her campaign.

Mr Hazzard said he did not know whether Senator Keneally was in Fairfield on Saturday but understood exemptions were in place.

“Generally (for) politicians, I think there are some exceptions available under the rules, obviously, for essential work but I would have to come back to you on the details of that,” he said. “I would need legal advice.”