Albanese admits parachuting ex-premier into NSW contest was a mistake (2025)

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has denied responsibility for parachuting Kristina Keneally into the western Sydney seat of Fowler at the last election, even though he said at the time he had called for the party’s national executive to intervene in the expectation its members would back the former premier.

As he toured the former Labor stronghold of Fowler on Friday, Albanese conceded that installing Keneally was a mistake and celebrated Tu Le – who is running this year after being shunned to make way for Keneally’s unsuccessful bid in 2022 – by touting her potential as a future minister.

“I acknowledge … That was an error. I thought it was an error,” Albanese said of the decision that resulted in Labor losing the seat to independent Dai Le. “I have supported, and encouraged very strongly, Tu Le to run for Fowler. She’s a gun candidate. She is a future cabinet minister.”

But Albanese denied responsibility for Labor’s decision to shunt her aside at the last election.

It was widely reported at the time that the party’s national executive, backed by Albanese, bypassed a rank-and-file vote to preselect the former NSW premier for the seat after she failed to secure a top Senate spot in factional manoeuvring among her Right faction. Albanese is in the Left.

“I’ll be asking for ... Fowler to be determined, if necessary, by the national executive,” Albanese was quoted as saying in 2022. “I think it is likely they will be unopposed, with Kristina Keneally continuing her contribution to our caucus and to the national parliament.”

On Friday, he said: “It wasn’t my decision”.

His comments hint at Labor’s determination to regain faith with Fowler’s voters after last election’s local backlash. When Tu Le was overlooked, she wrote on Facebook that western Sydney voters in safe seats had been “sidelined and taken for granted too long ... Do they really care about us?”

Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton sought to prove their dedication to the mortgage belt seats of western Sydney on Friday. The pair drove around different parts of the region but crossed paths for the first time in the campaign at a forum hosted by News Corp’s Daily Telegraph.

Albanese began his day at a primary school in Cabramatta and Dutton pumped petrol for motorists in Carlingford before the two leaders arrived at the Blacktown Workers’ Club for the joint forum.

The pair shook hands politely, avoiding the controversy that met former Labor leader Mark Latham’s apparent attempt to intimidate then-prime minister John Howard in 2004.

Dutton also made his first stop at the bowser in the seat of Parramatta, delivering the message on the Coalition’s plan for fuel excise cuts he had been trying to sell all week.

Driver Luong Ngo was excited to take a selfie with the Coalition leader as a dozen photographers and videographers watched on.

Ngo is the type of voter Dutton is appealing to: a resident of Blacktown, in Sydney’s west, who drives 200 kilometres a day for work, filling up his tank every three days. Ngo drove home with a Coalition bumper sticker while Dutton’s speech to the Telegraph forum a few hours later hammered home how fuel relief was the hip-pocket help that the area needed.

Further west, Albanese was being mobbed by dozens of schoolkids at Cabramatta Public School, handing Labor its own image of the day.

Many of western Sydney’s electorates have been safely held by Labor for years, and are now represented by Albanese government cabinet ministers: Education Minister Jason Clare, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke, Energy Minister Chris Bowen, Science Minister Ed Husic and Communications Minister Michelle Rowland

But its politics could be shifting. Several are in play as Dutton makes his pitch to suburban Australia and Labor is on the defensive in at least three where inflation has hit hard.

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The seat of Lindsay, which takes in Penrith, was previously a bellwether seat but is now considered safe for the Liberals. Dutton on Friday pitched local MP Melissa McIntosh, the Coalition’s spokesperson for western Sydney, as a future minister for the region in his cabinet.

While Dai Le and Tu Le will face off in Fowler, Burke and Clare are being challenged by pro-Palestine independents in their seats, which have significant Muslim populations. Those candidates – including Ziad Basyouny in Watson, who also attended the forum in Blacktown – are campaigning on sentiment that Labor takes its safe seats for granted and claim the party is not doing enough for the people of Gaza.

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