Asfour is on Labor’s proposed upper house ticket to be endorsed by the party’s state conference next month,along with other newcomers including Cessnock nurse Emily Suvaal,Dubbo barrister Stephen Lawrence and NSW bureaucrat Sarah Kaine.
NSW Labor frontbencher Tania Mihailuk speaking in parliament on Tuesday night. Vision:NSW parliament
However,Mihailuk,the MP for Bankstown,warned it would be a disastrous outcome for the party if Asfour remained on the ticket,and said it left her no option but to launch an attack on her own party.
“Candidacy for such a privileged position you would expect warrants comprehensive scrutiny,particularly because Labor’s recent ICAC woes,and well-documented ICAC findings against former ministers,which marred the last NSW Labor government,” Mihailuk told parliament on Tuesday night.
“I raise my legitimate and longstanding concerns regarding Asfour’s character and his unprincipled actions in furthering the interests of developers and identities,in particular Eddie Obeid,who went to his wedding,adorning him with a generous gift,as Asfour boasted at the time,and remained steadfastly committed to ensuring Asfour would be mayor throughout the period of redeveloping the landholdings in Bankstown.”
There has been bitter infighting within Labor over preselection in the south-west of Sydney because boundary redistributions have seen the abolition of the seat of Lakemba,forcing Labor MPs,including Mihailuk,to have to shift seats.
Canterbury-Bankstown mayor Khal Asfour and Bankstown MP Tania Mihailuk.James Brickwood for The Sydney Morning Herald and taniamihailuk.com.au
Mihailuk warned that should Asfour’s name remain on the Labor ticket at conference,it would be cemented by the leadership of the Labor Party,a move she said would be disastrous.
“And indeed the wider public would have to question what the Labor Party’s operation mantra is going to be under a potential Minns Labor government if we can’t deliver new blood that is not tainted,” she told Parliament.
“I have never taken a backwards step against corruption,and I never will. I will have more to say about Asfour and this council in the coming weeks.
“All of this puts Barilaro’s issue into the shade. A $500,000-a-year job versus tens of millions – potentially hundreds of millions. It pales into insignificance. Can we truly cry foul of our opponents? I think not.”
Asfour hit back at Mihailuk on Wednesday,labelling her attack on him “gutless and a slur on his good reputation and standing in the community” and said it “reeks of sour grapes at being overlooked on Labor’s upper house ticket”.
“I challenge her to repeat those outrageous and unsubstantiated claims outside the Parliament”,Asfour said. “She has used Parliamentary privilege to launch a cowardly attack on me and my family and I call on her to produce evidence of any wrongdoing to the relevant bodies.”
Several senior party sources said Mihailuk’s move would overshadow Labor leader Chris Minns’,which he unveiled on Wednesday morning.
Minns said he planned to meet with Mihailuk on Wednesday afternoon to discuss why she decided to air the allegations in parliament. He also said Asfour had referred those allegations to the Independent Commission Against Corruption.
“I’m going to take steps to talk to Tanya Mihailuk today about two things;firstly the nature of the corruption that she’s alleged has taken place and whether she’s referred those matters to ICAC or other authorities,” Minns said.
“I think it’s very important to understand that Mr Asfour has personally referred it to the ICAC himself,completely denies the allegations ... and I’ll find out what she has to say this afternoon.”
Minns said he did not know what motivated Mihailuk’s late-night speech,or why she had not raised the issues with him before airing them in parliament.
“It’s difficult for me to glean what were her intentions with the speech that she made at 11.30 last night in the NSW Parliament ... I need to discuss with her the nature of it and find out what her motivations were,” he said.
Jamie Parker MP,the NSW Greens anti-corruption spokesperson,said the allegations were “alarming,especially coming from a sitting Labor member of Parliament”.
“NSW Labor must refer these explosive allegations to the ICAC today,” Parker said.
“After 12 years in opposition Obeid’s tentacles are still deep inside the NSW Labor Party.
“Ms Mihailuk has raised her concerns with the leadership of the NSW Labor Party and has been ignored. Making these allegations on the floor of the Parliament shows Ms Mihailuk has realised NSW Labor is uninterested in tackling claims of corruption in their own party.“
Ms Mihailuk has described the NSW Labor as a party more interested in covering up alleged corruption than investigating it.”
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