Former NSW Premier and Sky News host Kristina Keneally has been revealed as the Labor candidate in the upcoming Bennelong by-election, as the opposition launches its campaign to unseat incumbent Liberal MP John Alexander.
Voters in the Sydney electorate will head to the ballot box on December 16.
The mini-election was called after John Alexander resigned over a UK dual citizenship, but he plans to recontest the seat. Mr Alexander won Bennelong with a strong 60 percent vote in the 2016 election.
“This is going to be a tough campaign. We do start out as the underdog,” Ms Keneally said, announcing her candidacy with Labor leader Bill Shorten on Tuesday morning.
“I’ve never shirked from a fight.”
A Labor victory in Bennelong would destroy the government's one-seat majority in the Lower House, but would not neccesarily end the Turnbull Government. Two crossbenchers in the House of Representatives - the NXT's Rebekha Sharkie and independent Cathy McGowan - have said they would continue to support the government on matters of confidence and supply.
Ms Keneally named recent cuts to Sunday penalty rates, access to Medicare and the rising price of electricity as issues she would prosecute as a member of parliament.
Mr Shorten, who stood beside Ms Keneally for the announcement, described the former NSW state leader as an “incredibly capable candidate”.
Ms Keneally said Mr Shorten convinced her to run over the phone on the weekend. “Bill Shorten’s a very persuasive man,” she said.
She said she had lived in the Bennelong electorate since the 1990s.
While Ms Keneally was born in the United States, she renounced her US citizenship in 2002.
