Tu Le Says Kristina Keneally Fowler Election Loss Is A Lesson “Learned The Hard Way” For Labor
“… the community has won in this case because they made their voices heard very clearly.”
Tu Le has shared her thoughts on Kristina Keneally’s defeat in the South-West Sydney seat of Fowler on Monday.
The hopeful candidate for Labor had her dreams of representing her community dashed when the party parachuted Keneally instead back in September — only for Independent Dai Le to win Fowler in the Federal Election eight months later.
Her sidelining was criticised at the time for failing to reflect the multicultural electorate, where more than 16 percent of the community have Vietnamese ancestry. Le grew up in the area after arriving to Australia as a refugee at age 11, but her chance to run this year was knocked back by an internal pre-selection that instead favoured Keneally, who lives in Sydney’s affluent Northern Beaches.
In the end, the move lost Labor Fowler — a seat safely held by the party for nearly 40 years — to Dai Le, who, like Tu Le, is also a Vietnamese refugee.
“There’s obviously a lot of lessons to be learned here, and I think all parties need to think twice about these decisions they make,” said Tu Le in an interview with The Guardian on Monday. “Overall, I think it was a fantastic result for the ALP, and it’s unfortunate what has occurred in Fowler,” she said. “But if this is what it takes for us to actually listen to local community voices then I think sometimes it is a lesson that has to be learned the hard way.”
Keneally conceded on Sunday by congratulating her opponent Dai Le, and celebrating Anthony Albanese’s victory via Twitter.
“I hope there will be reflections all round that we need better cultural representation to serve all our diverse communities,” said Board Member for the UN Refugee Agency, Lynn Dang, in response.
“I am in Fowler. I voted today. I would have voted for Tu Le but I voted for Dai Le… We are very multicultural here and we need appropriate representation,” shared another voter on Saturday.
Tu Le told The Guardian that “the community has won in this case because they made their voices heard very clearly, and sent a clear message [that] you can’t take us for granted”. Meanwhile, Dai Le called Labor’s prioritisation of Keneally “arrogant”, sharing in an interview that the optics for voters “was a slap in the face — it was an insult to them”.
“Those were the comments that I received when voters were coming to vote for me and they have never voted anybody else other than Labor,” she said on Monday after her weekend win.