Highlights
- Some Labor supporters in Sydney question NSW Opposition over strategy to hold Berejiklian accountable
- NSW Labor leader Chris Minns offers bipartisan support to Berejiklian in COVID-19 crisis management
- Residents of Labor-dominated suburbs allege Liberal government of employing double standards in lockdown
Some residents of Sydney’s southwest, known as the bastion of the Labor Party, are asking questions of the New South Wales Opposition regarding its strategy to hold the Berejiklian government accountable during the state’s biggest public health crisis.
While they allege that the Liberal government has employed double standards in its treatment of the Labor-dominated areas of Sydney, they have also begun to question the party that they are known to vote for.
A letter from the state’s opposition leader Chris Minns to New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian offering her government bipartisan support during the fight against the pandemic has received mixed reactions from Sydney’s Labor supporters.
A large number of Sydney’s Labor-dominated areas fall under the City of Fairfield.
According to the council’s website, it is one of the most multicultural cities in Australia and is home to more than 209,000 residents from a broad range of multicultural backgrounds.
There are more than 120 languages spoken across the city, with 71 per cent of its people speaking a language other than English at home and more than 50 per cent of the community is born overseas.
Zia Ahmad, Editor-in-Chief of news portal The Australasian Muslim Times, lives in the Fairfield City Council’s Bonnyrigg suburb.
He spoke to SBS Urdu about the public sentiment in this local government area.
“Living under strict restrictions, the residents of the Labor-dominated areas of Fairfield, Liverpool and Canterbury-Bankstown feel that these areas have been treated in an inconsistent manner when compared with those in the eastern and northern suburbs of Sydne, " Zia said. Earlier this month, the federal government had rejected this alleged double standard.
SBS Urdu tried to contact state Labor leader Chris Minns for his comment. However, his office declined a reply.
Teachers and education staff are seen at a mass vaccination hub located at Prairiewood Youth and Community Centre, in Sydney, Friday, July 16, 2021 Source: AAP
An email received from Mr Minns’ office, signed off by Matthew Shaw, Director of Strategy, NSW Labor, stated, “we will decline your request on this occasion. We would like to highlight that Mr Minns has offered bipartisan support for the public health orders during the current COVID-19 crisis”.
Mr Minns, Member for Kogarah, took charge of New South Wales Labor as the Opposition leader in early June this year when former leader Jodie McKay quit after a crisis meeting over state leadership in May.
Irfan Yousuf is an author and Ph D candidate who writes opinion articles in newspapers like The Sydney Morning Herald.
NSW Opposition leader Chris Minns at a press conference in Sydney. Friday, July 23, 2021. Source: AAP
He told SBS Urdu that the Liberal party’s right-wing is not pleased with Ms Berejiklian’s policies as she announced the lockdown despite the pressure not to do so, following the advice of the state’s chief medical officer.
“New South Wales Labor’s leadership is trying to keep itself away from politics and has adopted a policy of supporting the Berejiklian government’s actions which are based on health experts’ advice,” he said.
It could be NSW Labor’s strategy to avoid politics on the pandemic without giving a free run to the government and demanding financial support for those impacted by the current lockdown
Zia Ahmed is equally critical of the federal government’s vaccine rollout strategy.
He says that its failure to secure a supply of vaccines for all Australians and that of the New South Wales government to develop a vaccination strategy early on during the pandemic, is being seen by people as the cause of the ever-increasing restrictions and the lockdown.
Mr Ali is a local resident of Bankstown in Sydney's south who voted Labor in the last elections. However, he supports the New South Wales government’s current lockdown strategy.
The Lakemba Mosque is seen closed in the southwestern suburb of Lakemba in Sydney, Tuesday, July 20, 2021. Source: AAP
People who voted for the NSW Labor in the last elections, are least aware of its stance on the current crisis and the so-called government-in-waiting does not have any alternative strategy
Zia Ahmed agrees.
"New South Wales Labor has been silent throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, especially during the second wave starting in June, on the Liberal government's poor handling of the pandemic," he added.
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