A gloomy appearance After failing to secure a safe Labor seat in Sydney west, Kristina Keneally was seen collecting groceries from a boat and doing some weekend cleaning on the luxury island she calls home.
On Saturday, Ms Keneally was alone when she picked up a cardboard box and two full plastic shopping bags – one from Aldi – off a pier on Scotland Island in Pittwater, Sydney’s north.
Dressed in a dark jacket and trousers with an orange t-shirt, Ms Keneally carried her haul of groceries back to her house, a three-storey, absolute waterfront property surrounded by dense foliage.
Ms Keneally was parachuted in as the candidate for the seat of Fowler even though the electorate is a two-hour round trip from her home on the exclusive Scotland Island.
She had moved into a property in the electorate in December last year with husband Ben in her quest to win the seat.
The former ALP senator said during the campaign that she would remain living in the Fowler electorate even if she failed to win the seat but it’s not clear whether she will now honour that vow.
‘Let’s be clear about his, I’m going there to be part of the Fowler community,’ she told Joe Hildebrand on 2GB in September last year. ‘That’s the clear commitment I’m making.
‘[Husband] Ben and I talked about this well in advance of me making this decision that in seeking to represent a community it would mean living there, absolutely.’
Former Labor senator Graham Richardson said on election night that Ms Keneally was ‘like an alien walking around the Fairfield shops in a $2,000 dress’.
Even her own uncle-in-law, beloved Australian author Thomas Keneally, wrote on Tuesday that Labor ‘parachuted candidates into plum seats over the intentions of locals’.
‘They were heavily punished for it,’ said Mr Keneally, the author of Schindler’s Ark.
Ms Keneally was accused of ducking blame for losing what was previously one of the safest Labor seats in the country after she took to Twitter on Sunday to say Labor couldn’t claim the seat.
At the end of today, it seems that Labor will not claim victory in Fowler,’ the American-born politician wrote.
‘I congratulate Dai Le and wish her well. Thank you to the people who voted Labor & the volunteers on our campaign.’
Ms Keneally concluded her concession tweet by congratulating newly-appointed Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, the Labor party and telling her followers a ‘better future for Australia lies ahead’.
Incoming independent Fowler MP Ms Le has hit back at suggestions she was ineligible to stand for parliament, accusing Labor of a smear campaign.
Ms Le faced questions after the victory about whether she was a citizen of another country.
The newly elected MP was born in Vietnam and came to Australia as a refugee when she was a child.
On her candidate eligibility form lodged with the Australian Electoral Commission, Ms Le said she had never been a subject or citizen of a country other than Australia.
In a statement on her Facebook page, Ms Le said the reported claims of her being a citizen of another country were false.
‘Over the last few days, the Labor Party has been trying to smear me and try to damage my reputation, dragging my family including my son into stories,’ she said.
‘The AEC accepted my application to stand for the federal election and that I’m not a subject or a citizen of another country.
‘The ALP need to accept the people’s democratic decision who have elected me to rep.’
How Kristina Keneally couldn’t even bring herself to admit SHE lost key marginal seat in concession tweet
Kristina Keneally has been accused of ducking blame for losing the safe Labor seat of Fowler to independent Dai Le, after she was controversially parachuted into the western Sydney electorate ahead of a local candidate.
The senior Labor politician was unceremoniously dropped into the south-west Sydney seat at the last minute, despite having no connection to the area and previously living 50km away on the Northern Beaches.
Outgoing Fowler MP Chris Hayes announced that he would not be contesting the seat for the federal election, which left a space open for a new Labor candidate.
Vietnamese-born Western Sydney lawyer Tu Le was originally set to win pre-selection for Fowler. Ms Le was a former staffer of Mr Hayes and received his backing as the Labor representative for Fowler.
However, she was eventually sidelined by senior Labor powerbrokers, who chose to parachute Kristina Keneally into the safe party seat instead.
But the move caused outrage amongst locals in the area, and led to Ms Keneally’s stunning defeat in an electorate that has been held by Labor since its creation in 1984. Her loss came despite an 18 per cent margin – one of the biggest in Australia.
The senior Labor figure lost by 3385 votes, with Ms Le gaining 52.3 per cent of ballots compared to Ms Keneally’s 47.68 per cent.
The senator was unable to admit her loss in a stinging tweet on Sunday, instead declaring it was Labor that couldn’t claim the seat, before she congratulated Independent Dai Le on her victory.
At the end of today, it seems that Labor will not claim victory in Fowler,’ the American-born politician wrote.
‘I congratulate Dai Le and wish her well. Thank you to the people who voted Labor & the volunteers on our campaign.’
Ms Keneally concluded her concession tweet by congratulating newly-appointed Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, the Labor party and telling her followers a ‘better future for Australia lies ahead’.
Several users on the platform noticed the carefully-worded tweet focused on the loss of Fowler on the party, rather than Ms Keneally herself.
‘In the end, Kristina Keneally is to blame for losing the super safe heartland Labor seat of #Fowler,’ tweeted journalist Troy Bramston, who penned a piece in The Australian on the debacle.
‘But in true Keneally style, she is not to blame, only Labor is – ‘Labor will not claim victory’ …’
The political journalist later told Sky News Australia that it was ultimately a ‘terrible decision’ from Labor.
‘You can’t just parachute someone from the northern suburbs of Sydney to western Sydney,’ he said.
‘It’s a lesson for Labor too; don’t take constituencies for granted.’