It’s a Labor elimination like you’ve never seen before.
An ABC analysis of data from the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) at Fowler’s headquarters has revealed how the independent Dai Le achieved victory.
Fairfield’s deputy mayor overturned the 14% Labor margin in Sydney and outperformed her high-profile opponent Kristina Keneally by two-thirds of the booths.
Preferences led Ms. Le above the line to reach 52 percent of the preferred vote of two candidates.
This map shows where Labor won the majority of their votes in the 2019 federal election when they comfortably claimed the seat.
Fowler had been detained by Labor since its inception in 1984, until Ms. Le’s victory over the weekend.
This map describes where the independent was most popular with the preference of two parties.
With more than 75 percent of the vote counted, about 22,000 people gave their first preference to Ms. Le, whose family left Vietnam for Australia in the 1970s.
They were nearly as many as the 26,000 who voted for Ms. Keneally, a former NSW minister and federal senator who was parachuted into her seat while living elsewhere.
Ms Le said Labor paid a price for the “arrogant” decision.
“So I think a lot of people, especially Labor voters, thought it was a slap in the face, it was an insult to them,” he told ABC News Breakfast on Monday.
Ms. Le won the preferred vote of two candidates across the electorate, including in the bands like Chipping Norton, Abbotsbury and Newbridge Heights, where the Coalition dominated in 2019.
Data from the 2019 federal election showed that Labor won almost nine out of 10 polling booths against the Coalition in 2019.
In many of these areas, the preferred vote of two Labor parties was between 70 and 80 per cent.
This time around Liverpool alone Labor support remained, but fell from 65 to just 40 per cent around Mount Pritchard.
Charles Green said the parachute to Ms. Keneally was a “fatal blow” to work. (Supplied)
Charles Green has lived in Cabramatta for 52 years and was “disappointed” but not surprised by the results.
“I would have preferred someone else, but we need to continue with that now,” he said.
Green has backed the Labor Party in the past and said the decision to parachute into Keneally was the “deadly blow” for the party in the area.
“If they had directed Tu Le, I wouldn’t have a problem voting for her. The problem was that Kristina wasn’t one of us.”
Tu Le, also from a Vietnamese family, was a former employee and the preferred candidate of Chris Hayes, the Labor MP who withdrew from Fowler this election.
Tom Murphy says electorate candidates must be local. (Supplied)
Tom Murphy, a 62-year-old who has lived in the electorate for 33 years, usually votes liberal.
But he said he wanted to send a message to both parties that their candidates should be local.
“I was disgusted that the Labor Party had the courage to bring someone above the local Labor (candidate) Tu Le. I was annoyed by something fierce,” he said.
He said he hoped Dai Le could use his power in parliament “so that one day we can get something from the government for our community”.
Ms. Keneally acknowledged the defeat on Twitter on Sunday.
“At the end of today, it looks like Labor will not claim victory for Fowler,” he said.
“I congratulate Dai Le and wish him all the best.
“Thanks to the people who voted Labor and the volunteers in our campaign. And congratulations to Albo & Labor: a better future for Australia is ahead.”
Posted 1 hour 1 hour agoTuesday, 24 May 2022 at 19:22, updated 16 m ago, 16 minutes ago, Tuesday, 24 May 2022 at 20:31