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Minns added:“No answer,is no answer at all.”
A senior Labor source,who requested anonymity to speak freely,said Minns’ hardline approach would send a clear message to the party about “discipline and unity”.
“We need to focus on March next year and keep our eye on the prize,” they said.
Mihailuk was dumped as the opposition spokeswoman for natural resources after she delivered a stinging attack on Labor Canterbury-Bankstown Mayor Khal Asfour,linking him to corrupt former minister Eddie Obeid.
Asfour is a Labor candidate on the party’s upper house ticket for the March election.
In a speech to parliament this week,the Bankstown MP claimed there were “significant discrepancies in planning controls” in Canterbury-Bankstown Council’s 2021 Bankstown City Centre master plan that had left land “virtually worthless”,warning against Asfour remaining on the ticket.
“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.
The allegations relate,in part,to a 25-storey development proposed for a Bankstown property owned once by the Obeids and now owned by Eddie’s friend and business partner Wally Wehbe.
Asfour has since hit back,describing the speech as “gutless and a slur on his good reputation”,adding that it “reeks of sour grapes at being overlooked on Labor’s upper house ticket”.
Minns said Asfour had referred the allegations to the Independent Commission Against Corruption,while Canterbury-Bankstown Council has engaged high-profile barrister Arthur Moses,SC,to
review the claims in an independent inquiry.
Minns on Friday said it was an “unsubstantiated but extraordinary” attack on an elected Labor Party mayor and a potential candidate for public office,adding that parliament was not an appropriate forum to raise allegations of impropriety.
“Parliamentary privilege does not provide due process for Khal Asfour. It doesn’t provide him with the civil rights ... to pursue legal action if he believes that imputations have been made against him,” he said.
“It’s not at the discretion of a member of parliament. You must go to corruption agencies or the NSW Police if you suspect corruption has taken place,or a crime has taken place.”
Mihailuk did not respond to a request for comment.
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NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet earlier said,by sacking Mihailuk from shadow cabinet,Minns was attempting to silence someone from speaking out about corruption.
“I don’t believe that you should silence and sack a strong woman for speaking out about alleged corruption in the NSW Labor Party,” Perrottet said.
The premier added that sacking Mihailuk was the “type of behaviour” that allowed Obeid to “flourish”.
“This just shows that this is the same old Labor – see no evil,hear no evil,and silence people who are willing to stand up.”
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