Saturday 28 May 2022 04:37 PM Kristina Keneally buys Aldi Woolworths Scotland Island after Labor election ... trends now
A sombre looking Kristina Keneally has been spotted collecting groceries from a boat and doing some weekend cleaning on the exclusive island she calls home after her failed bid to win a safe Labor seat in Sydney west.
Ms Keneally was alone as she picked up a cardboard box and two full plastic shopping bags - including one from Aldi - at a jetty on Scotland Island at Pittwater in Sydney's north on Saturday.
Dressed in a dark jacket and trousers with an orange t-shirt, Ms Keneally carried her haul of groceries back to her house, a three-storey, absolute waterfront property surrounded by dense foliage.
A sombre looking Kristina Keneally has been spotted collecting groceries from a boat on the island she calls home after her failed bid to win a seat at the election last weekend
Dressed in a dark jacket and trousers with a red t-shirt, Ms Keneally carried her haul of groceries back to her house
Later Ms Keneally was seen chatting to an unidentified man and cleaning her front balcony in the orange shirt, having removed her jacket.
The former NSW premier, who was beaten by independent Vietnamese-Australian Dai Le in the western Sydney seat of Fowler last Saturday, was one of the most high-profile failures among those seeking a lower house seat at the election.
Her candidature in the seat taking in culturally diverse suburbs such as Fairfield and Cabramatta had been a controversial choice by the Labor party, after she had been preferred over Vietnamese-Australian lawyer Tu Le to run in the seat.
The safe Labor seat saw a 16 per cent swing against Ms Keneally on election day to instal former Liberal Party member Dai Le as the member for Fowler.
After collecting her groceries Ms Keneally was seen chatting to an unidentified man
She was also seen cleaning her front balcony in an orange t-shirt, having removed her jacket
Ms Keneally was parachuted in as the candidate for the seat of Fowler even though the electorate is a two-hour round trip from her home on the exclusive Scotland Island.
She had moved into a property in the electorate in December last year with husband Ben in her quest to win the seat.
The former ALP senator said during the campaign that she would remain living in the Fowler electorate even if she failed to win the seat but it's not clear whether she will now honour that vow.
'Let's be clear about his, I'm going there to be part of the Fowler community,' she told Joe Hildebrand on 2GB in September last year. 'That's the clear commitment I'm making.
'[Husband] Ben and I talked about this well in advance of me making this decision that in seeking to represent a community it would mean living there, absolutely.'
Former Labor senator Graham Richardson said on election night that Ms Keneally was 'like an alien walking around the Fairfield shops in a $2,000 dress'.
Even her own uncle-in-law, beloved Australian author Thomas Keneally, wrote on Tuesday that Labor 'parachuted candidates into plum seats over the intentions of locals'.
'They were heavily punished for it,' said Mr Keneally, the author of Schindler's Ark.
Ms Keneally was accused of ducking blame for losing what was previously one of the safest Labor seats in the country after she took to Twitter on Sunday to say Labor couldn't claim the seat.
The groceries were brought to Scotland Island by boat and unloaded onto a jetty
The former NSW premier, who was beaten by independent Vietnamese-Australian Dai Le in the western Sydney seat of Fowler last Saturday, was one of the most high-profile failures among those seeking a lower house seat at the election
'At the end of today, it seems that Labor will not claim victory in Fowler,' the American-born politician wrote.
'I congratulate Dai Le and wish her well. Thank you to the people who voted Labor & the volunteers on our campaign.'
Ms Keneally concluded her concession tweet by congratulating newly-appointed Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, the Labor party and telling her followers a 'better future for Australia lies ahead'.
Incoming independent Fowler MP Ms Le has hit back at suggestions she was ineligible to stand for parliament, accusing Labor of a smear campaign.
Ms Le faced questions after the victory about whether she was a citizen of another country.
The newly elected MP was born in Vietnam and came to Australia as a refugee when she was a child.
On her candidate eligibility form lodged with the Australian Electoral Commission, Ms Le said she had never been a subject or citizen of a country other than Australia.
In a statement on her Facebook page, Ms Le said the reported claims of her being a citizen of another country were false.
'Over the last few days, the Labor Party has been trying to smear me and try to damage my reputation, dragging my family including my son into stories,' she said.
'The AEC accepted my application to stand for the federal election and that I'm not a subject or a citizen of another country.
'The ALP need to accept the people's democratic decision who have elected me to rep.'
How Kristina Keneally couldn't even bring herself to admit SHE lost key marginal seat in concession tweetKristina Keneally has been accused of ducking blame for losing the safe Labor seat of Fowler to independent Dai Le, after she was controversially parachuted into the western Sydney electorate ahead of a local candidate.
The senior Labor politician was unceremoniously dropped into the
