This is an interesting question to ask and ponder on. Tu Le recently became the 2022 “Overall Winner” for the “40 Under 40 Most Influential Asian Australians”, and earlier this year was overlooked by Australian Labor for the Federal Election where Kristina Keneally was parachuted to stand for the seat of Fowler – which she ended up losing to former Deputy Mayor and Independent MP Dai Le.
According to the Guardian Australia, “senior Labor figures” have been testing local support for Le to possibly push for her to be the Labor candidate for the seat of Fairfield or Cabramatta. To be honest, we do not really know what this “testing” means and I question why she even needs to be tested? Anyways, let’s wait and see about this.
The current sitting MP for Fairfield Guy Zangari has announced he will retire from politics and will not contest the 2023 NSW State Election. The current sitting MP for Cabramatta Nick Lalich is also considering his future.
So back to the question of whether Le will be the candidate for either electorates? For now, there is no answer for this, but she was extremely vocal against the parachuting of Kristina Keneally as the candidate for Fowler, and apparently that has caused criticism from the Labor party. An expulsion motion was even raised against her at the local branch level and the rumour mill is if Le passes this “testing” NSW Labor may bypass the rank and file process and instill her as the candidate.
However, Le has stated that she is supportive of the rank and file system (via the Guardian Australia):
“At the moment I’m 38 weeks pregnant, so that’s my immediate priority,”
“But I obviously support a rank-and-file, and I don’t know why people assume that anything else is the case. Nothing is confirmed and it’s out of my hands anyway. If I’ve learned anything after the last 12 months it’s that nothing is 100%.”
For both these state seats there are others who have been touted as being interested in standing and they include: Kate Hoang, the vice-president of the Vietnamese Community of Australia’s NSW chapter and a local lawyer; Tri Vo, a former president of the Vietnamese Community Association; and former Fairfield city council candidate Shawn Lu.
My personal opinion, and I stress personal is that Tu Le should be selected to run as the Labor candidate. More to come on this I am sure.