The Liberal MP for the Sydney seat of Reid,,has denied she confused her Labor rival with another Asian-Australian candidate,maintaining claims that Sally Sitou was “seat-shopping” in the inner-west electorate.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has backed Martin,who told 2GB yesterday that Sitou was only running in Reid because she had been ousted by Kristina Keneally and “couldn’t run in Fowler”.
Sitou moved to the Reid electorate in 2019,two years before Keneally became the Fowler candidate,and has never previously stood for pre-selection in the south-west Sydney federal electorate that had been held by retired MP Chris Hayes since 2005.
Sitou,who is Chinese-Australian,said Martin had either deliberately misled the public or mistaken her for Tu Le,a Vietnamese-Australian lawyer who was overlooked in favour of Keneally in Fowler last year.
Martin has denied mixing up the two women.
She doubled down in a Facebook post today,saying she was the granddaughter of Greek migrants and that Reid was the “jewel in the crown” of Australian multiculturalism.
“Our diversity is our strength. My record makes clear I would never direct a racial slur at anyone. There is no place for racism in Australia,and it should be called out,” she said in the post.
She did not clarify the claims she made about Sitou being a failed candidate in south-west Sydney,attacking Labor for distracting her instead.
“I won’t be distracted by desperate political games played by the Labor Party and its seat-shopping candidates,” she said.
Martin said her claims on 2GB were supported by a 2018 article inThe Sydney Morning Herald,which reported Sitou was one of 12 candidates touted as a possibility to replace Cabramatta Labor MP Nick Lalich if he retired from state parliament.
But the article makes no mention of Fowler or Keneally,and Lalich never retired from his state seat.
The prime minister threw his support behind Martin during a press conference today.
When a reporter told Morrison that Martin’s claims didn’t add up,he replied:“I don’t accept that,because she’s made that statement,and made it very clear.”
On Twitter,Sitou said it was “frustrating and disappointing” that Morrison had “backed the inaccurate claims about me made by his candidate in Reid”.
“I’m going to spend the next nine days talking to voters about why we desperately need a change of government in this country,” she said.