“I’m disappointed that Labor has not learned from Nathan Rees’ past warning and I quote that ‘NSW Labor must never again allow the circumstances to develop in which a small cabal of self-interested individuals could control the fate of a great party’,” she told parliament.
“Clearly,the NSW Labor Party has not cleaned up its act,it’s not ready to govern and as a consequence I will now be resigning from the Labor Party,I’m left with no other choice.”
Mihailuk revealed she had learned of her dismissal from shadow cabinet via a call from a talkback radio producer after she used parliamentary privilegeto level accusations against Asfour,who is Canterbury-Bankstown mayor and long-time political rival.
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A Labor spokeswoman said:“Labor leader Chris Minns told Tania Mihailuk that she could stay in the shadow cabinet and stay a member of the team provided she took allegations of impropriety to the police or the ICAC with any evidence that she had,rather than further using parliamentary privilege to launch unsubstantiated attacks on Labor colleagues.”
“In the end Ms Mihailuk was not prepared to do that.”
Mihailuk and Asfour were once close friends but have been locked in a bitter turf war for about a decade,with Mihailuk warning that his association with the corrupt jailed former minister Eddie Obeid and other developers meant he was not someone who should be in parliament.