‘Racist’ video rattles Michael Daley in election lead-up

Labor’s leader is in damage control after being caught on video saying Asian migrants are “taking jobs’’ of young Australians | WATCH

Michael Daley appears at the ‘polit­ics in the pub’ session in Wentworth Falls, in the seat of Blue Mountains last September.

NSW Labor leader Michael Daley has apologised for saying Asian immigrants are “taking the jobs’’ and replacing “fleeing” young Sydneysiders.

A video has emerged of Mr Daley telling a Labor Party function in the Blue Mountains last year that young people in the NSW capital were being replaced with young Asian people with PhDs.

He said that the children of Sydneysiders were fleeing the city because of the rising cost of living.

The bombshell video has surfaced just six days before a neck-and-neck state election where the NSW Opposition Leader will need to win swing seats with large migrant communities,

such as the government’s most marginal seat of East Hills.

It has outraged the Greens, who would be crucial to Labor if both parties fail to win a majority.

“Michael Daley’s appalling narrow­casting is engaging in racist­ dog whistling against Asian Australians when he thinks no one critical is listening,’’ Greens MP David Shoebridge said.

“Shameful stuff and an ugly bit of insight into the whatever-it-takes ALP machine.’’

Mr Daley said this morning that he could have expressed himself better and hoped no offence had been taken.

“When I spoke at the Wentworth Falls function last year, I was discussing housing affordability. But in making these points, I could have expressed myself better,” he told ABC News.

“I meant no offence, I hope none’s been taken. I apologise if any offence has been taken.”

The remarks were made by Mr Daley when he was deputy Labor leader to Luke Foley, who also drew ire last year for espousing similar sentiments. Mr Foley was forced to apologise last May for comments he made about “white flight” and the supposed exodus of Anglo-Saxon families leaving Sydney’s western suburbs because of an increased intake of refugees.

The video emerged as new costings showed Labor would have surpluses $2.6 billion higher than the government over four years if elected in NSW, but would tax voters $1.3bn to do it.

Official Parliamentary Budget Office costings for both parties, released­ yesterday ahead of the NSW state election, showed Labor’s improved budget position also comes with it reaping more than $3bn from cancelled projects, including the extension of the F6 in Sydney’s south ($1.2bn), the Metro Southwest rail line ($1.2bn), the Western Harbour Tunnel ($100 million) and the rebuild of the ANZ Stadium at Homebush ($798m).

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In the video, posted to YouTube in September, Mr Daley is heard telling attendees at a “polit­ics in the pub” session in Wentworth Falls, in the seat of Blue Mountains, of the impact of immig­ration. “Our young children will flee and who are they being replaced with?’’ he said.

“They are being replaced by young people from typically Asia with PhDs. There’s a transform­ation happening in Sydney now where our kids are moving out and foreigners are moving in and taking­ their jobs.”

When asked to clarify the remark­s, which one attendee describe­d as “deeply concerning”, Mr Daley said: “It’s just a statement of fact that our young people are moving out of Sydney because they can’t afford to live here and they’re being replaced with international workers.

“Most of those are from China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore … it’s not a bad thing because Asian kids are coming to work here, it’s a bad thing because I would like my daughter to be living in Maroubra rather than St Kilda.

“I don’t mean to sound xenophobic, it’s not xenophobic, it’s an economic question.”

NSW Labor senator Jenny McAllister said Mr Daley’s apology showed he was a capable leader, unlike “other leaders” who have refused to walk back past statements in the wake of the Christchurch terror attacks.

“He’s admitted that it was an error in judgement to speak in that way and he’s made an apology, and that’s actually what leaders do when they get it wrong,” she told Sky News.

“I draw a contrast with other leaders who’ve had an opportunity over the course of this week, and use the term leader in a broad sense, they’ve been given an opportunity to reflect on comments they’ve made in recent years and they’ve chosen not to apologise for those.

“Mr Daley’s done the right thing by apologising and I think the voters will recognise that and see it as a mark of character, not of weakness.”

Senator McAllister did not outline who the “other leaders” were. Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has come under attack for linking Greens critics of his past statements to far-right senator Fraser Anning.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian has also been vocal about the impact of high immigration rates on Sydney, calling for a cut in numbers to allow infrastructure to catch up.

She told The Weekend Australian last week that she was hopeful of a cut in the immigration rate in the federal budget to be delivered next month. She also said she was prepared to “flex my muscles” as the leader of Australia’s most populous state to ensure federal infrastructure funds were ­directed to NSW government projects.

In October, she called for permane­nt immigration to NSW to be halved, from about 100,000 a year to Howard government-era levels of 45,000, to allow the state to catch up on infrastructure needs and ­relieve congestion. At later Council of Australian Government meetings, she and her Treasurer Dominic Perrottet won guarantees the states would be consulted on the immig­ration rate.