NSW Labor MP Tania Mihailuk quits party on Eddie Obeid accusation

NSW Labor MP Tania Mihailuk has resigned from the party after launching a second attack on Canterbury-Bankstown mayor Khal Asfour under parliamentary privilege.

Labor MP Tania Mihailuk. Picture: Tim Hunter.

NSW Labor MP Tania Mihailuk has resigned from the party after launching a second attack on Canterbury-Bankstown mayor Khal Asfour under parliamentary privilege, accusing him of being an “acolyte” of corrupt former MP Eddie Obeid.

Weeks after she delivered a late-night speech in the Legislative Assembly that led to Labor leader Chris Minns dumping her from shadow cabinet, Ms Mihailuk used a private member’s statement on Thursday to ­double down on her allegations.

She questioned why the Bellevue Venue – a Bankstown property in Sydney’s southwest owned by Obeid, his son Paul, and business associate Wally Wehbe – had been one of three sites under Canterbury-Bankstown Council’s master plan to be given the maximum floor space ratio.

“One must question what exactly is so special about the Bellevue Venue site other than the identities of its owners and their special relationship with Asfour,” she said. “Our party has been plagued by the Obeid factor for way too long. Asfour is an Obeid acolyte, and should have never, never been allowed to be endorsed on the upper house Labor ticket.”

As she announced her resignation from the ALP, Ms Mihailuk declared the failure to address the allegations of impropriety levelled against Mr Asfour demonstrated the party was “not ready to govern”.

“Clearly the NSW Labor Party has not cleaned up its act. It’s not ready to govern. And as a consequence I will now be resigning from the Labor Party. I’m left with no other choice.”

Mr Asfour has previously rejected all of Ms Mihailuk’s allegations, calling on her to make the claims outside the legal protection of parliament privilege.

With Mr Asfour’s eight-year Legislative Council tenure being effectively rubber-stamped by the state conference on Sunday, Ms Mihailuk said she would not “sit idly by in silence”, saying the mayor should “never have been allowed to be endorsed”.