Minns faced questions over Mihailuk’s potential One Nation candidacy earlier on Tuesday,but said he was unaware of the move.
“Obviously,it’s a matter for their political party to determine their own candidates but I just say it’s diametrically opposite to what Labor stands for,” he said.
‘Chris Minns as premier and a Labor government will see NSW go both woke and broke.’
Tania Mihailuk
In a statement,Mihailuk described herself as a proud Christian and staunch anti-corruption advocate and listed freedom of religion as a key belief.
Mihailuk also said One Nation was the only party that would focus on the cost of living crisis and rising energy bills,and described her fierce opposition to “drug legalisation and gender fluidity teaching in schools”.
While Mihailuk and Latham have found common ground less than 10 weeks out from the election,the two have previously hurled insults at each other inside parliament.
Mihailuk took aim at Latham in the chamber in 2017,condemning his comments about multiculturalism in Australia and lamenting her disappointment in someone the Labor Party had once held in “high regard”.
“I would describe this transformation of a former politician as a Shakespearean tragedy. Mark Latham claimed that 90 per cent of the people in Fairfield who he approached for comment on multiculturalism could not speak English,” she said.
“But to me Mark Latham,a burly bloke with an ugly mug,accosted some poor people on the street and thrust a microphone into their faces … Mark Latham is just a buffoon.”
The Canterbury-Bankstown Council report into Asfour was released last week following a three-month investigation,which found he had no relevant relationship with Obeid nor his son Paul,and found no evidence Asfour had failed to declare or manage any relevant conflicts of interest.
Asfour has previously labelled Mihailuk’s attack on him as a “gutless and a slur on his good reputation and standing in the community” and said it “reeks of sour grapes at being overlooked on Labor’s upper house ticket”.
Labor member for Lakemba and candidate for Bankstown Jihad Dib said people from the region’s multicultural community would be bitterly disappointed Mihailuk had joined a party with “division at its core”.
“Ms Mihailuk has seen the best of Australia’s diversity and rather than champion this,has instead turned her back on the many communities she once represented,” he said.
While the opposition dealt with the fallout of Mihailuk’s defection to One Nation,Labor’s candidate for Manly announced that she had decided to withdraw from standing.
Caroline Yarnell took to social media on Tuesday to confirm she had quit as Labor’s candidate for the north shore seat and planned to use the party’s internal complaints procedures to protest against her treatment.
Minns faced questions about Yarnell’s decision on Tuesday,but said he was unaware of why she had chosen to pull out.
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