Dai Le, the newly elected federal member for Fowler, was identified by former NSW premier Mike Baird as the sort of candidate the Liberals must get into parliament. Now she is off to Canberra as an independent. | OPINION alexsmithsmh auspol
Ahead of the 2015 state election, then NSW premier Mike Baird had one task for two of his most junior ministers. They were to secure the preselection of Vietnamese refugee Dai Le to the upper house Liberal ticket.
Dai Le, the newly elected federal member for Fowler, was identified by Baird as exactly the sort of candidate the Liberals must get into parliament, but factionalism within the Liberal Party prevailed. Now she is off to Canberra as an independent and Amato is a Liberal MP who has flirted with defecting to One Nation. The Liberals’ federal result on Saturday was nothing short of disastrous, largely because of the unpopularity of Scott Morrison but also a monumental failure in candidate selection.
The Liberals’ track record with preselection is not good. There is a well-documented under-presentation of women in state parliament; state Liberal MPs in both houses number 44, of whom only 12 are female. The two most recent Liberal vacancies in the upper house were handed to men. Labor may have a slight edge in picking suitable candidates but its path to victory in March is far more complex than simply choosing good representatives. The federal result also reveals an ominously low primary vote for Labor in the area – too low, if it translates to the state election, for the party to win in western Sydney, where it will matter.
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