Felix Orcullo – POLITICAL COMMENTARY –
Keneally vows to ‘step up and fight’ for Fowler, according to Sydney Morning Herald 11/09/21. This is infuriating. Whilst it is understandable that Kristina wants to move to the Lower House to be able to magnify her so called fire-power and to smooth her way in the event of a stint in Labor leadership, why Fowler? If she is that good, why not find marginal Liberal seat and win it for Labor not dissimilar to what Maxine McKew did when she kicked out John Howard, the sitting prime minister. (Now, that’s real fire-power.) A Liberal seat falling for Labor will add to Labor’s winning strategy but Kristina representing Fowler will not make one iota of difference in Labor forming government. And she is that bad, Keneally could not even beat a poor performer like John Alexander in Bennelong at the last election after she was drafted by Shorten.
Leave Fowler alone. Let this seat be represented by someone who does reflect its diversity like Tu Le, a young local lawyer and daughter of Vietnamese refugees. Kristina has no connection to Fowler. It’s all platitude and pure political talk when she says she will fight for Fowler. As Kristina lives in Scotland Island in the Northern Beaches, 44 kilometres away, a move to Fowler – a sprawling Federal electorate composed of Liverpool, Cabramatta, and Fairfield – for the sake of being their representative will not cut it. What an insult to the voters of Fowler!
The most irritating aspect in this plan is the mollycoddling of Keneally by the Labor apparatchiks. It’s not so much that she is a brilliant operator (arguably now in the Senate) but it’s in her being parachuted to whatever position she desires and has desired. She was installed as a Federal Senator after Dastyari’s fall from grace. (Was this her prize for agreeing to run against Alexander, in the first place?) Her record as premier was at best lacklustre and at worst better forgotten. Sure, she can talk the talk but she has not shown she can walk the walk.
Kristina was handed the premiership after toppling down Nathan Rees. But after that, she could not even win the premiership in her own right in an election. She lost the 2011 state election (despite being an incumbent) to Liberal O’Farrell in the biggest swing ever.
So, Kristina has not won an election at all excepting Heffron which is a safe Labor seat, anyway. And now, she wants a safe Labor seat, again. See the pattern?
Besides, this move will give PM Morrison lots of ammunition. I could almost hear him shout in Parliament: “Mr Speaker, if Labor is so supportive of diversity and multiculturalism as they claim to be, why can’t they choose a local candidate OF VIETNAMESE DESCENT as their candidate? Why choose someone who lives in Sydney’s Northern Beaches? This is an insult to the voters of Fowler and flies in the face of Labor’s stand on diversity and multiculturalism!”
A backlash from voters of Asian descent all over Australia cannot be ruled out if and when this happens.
A spoilt and over-rated Kristina all the way. Time for her to grow up and show us some mettle.
Felix Orcullo
Bayanihan News
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