Tu Le is an Australian lawyer and political candidate for the

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also known as the Labor Party or simply Labor, is the major Centre-left politics, centre-left List of political parties in Australia, political party in Australia and one of two Major party, major parties in Po ...

. Her candidacy became notable in 2021 when a local preselection process in Fowler, an electorate in

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

, was halted in favour of choosing Senator

Kristina Keneally Kristina Marie Kerscher Keneally (born 19 December 1968) is an American-born Australian politician who served as the first female Premier of New South Wales from 2009 to 2011 and was later a Labor Senator for New South Wales from February 2018 u ...

. Le appeared in the media along with criticism of her party for promoting a political insider and failing to reflect a multicultural community, contributing to the otherwise

safe seat A safe seat is an electoral district which is regarded as fully secure, for either a certain political party, or the incumbent representative personally or a combination of both. With such seats, there is very little chance of a seat changing h ...

being lost to

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

Dai Le Dai Trang Le (, ; born 1 April 1968) is a Vietnamese-born Australian politician concurrently serving as the federal member for Fowler, councillor for Fairfield/Cabravale Ward at City of Fairfield, and deputy mayor at Fairfield City Council. ...

at the 2022 federal election. In 2024, Le was selected as the Labor challenger for the same seat in the 2025 federal election.

Legal and community work

Le was born in south-west Sydney, her parents being

Vietnamese refugees Vietnamese boat people () were refugees who fled Vietnam by boat and ship following the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. This migration and humanitarian crisis was at its highest in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but continued well into the earl ...

fleeing from the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

. She graduated from

Macquarie University Macquarie University ( ) is a Public university, public research university in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Founded in 1964 by the New South Wales Government, it was the third university to be established in the Sydney metropolitan area. ...

with a

Bachelor of Commerce A Bachelor of Commerce (BCom or B Com) is an undergraduate degree in commerce, accounting, mathematics, economics, and management-related subjects. The degree is mainly offered in Commonwealth nations. Structure Bachelor of Commerce The Bac ...

and

Bachelor of Laws A Bachelor of Laws (; LLB) is an undergraduate law degree offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree and serves as the first professional qualification for legal practitioners. This degree requires the study of core legal subje ...

. She was admitted as a lawyer in 2016. In 2019, she managed a migrant employment legal service and co-founded a youth group. She went on to co-create the Vietnamese Australian Forum. She later joined the board of a human rights charity and was elected deputy chair of ''Asian Women at Work''. She became an executive member of the

Vietnamese Australian Vietnamese Australians () are Australians of Vietnamese descent. Vietnamese Australians are one of the largest groups within the global Vietnamese diaspora. At the 2021 census, 334,781 people stated that they had Vietnamese ancestry (whether ...

Lawyers Association. In 2021, she began working as a community education

lawyer A lawyer is a person who is qualified to offer advice about the law, draft legal documents, or represent individuals in legal matters. The exact nature of a lawyer's work varies depending on the legal jurisdiction and the legal system, as w ...

for a legal centre in

Marrickville Marrickville is a suburb in the Inner West of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Marrickville is located south-west of the Sydney central business district and is the largest suburb in the Inner West Council local government ...

. Le was recognised for her community work as the 2022 winner of the ''Asian Australian Leadership Awards''. The organisers argued that her advocacy put the lack of

Asian Australian Asian Australians are Australians of Asian ancestry, including Naturalization, naturalised Australians who are Immigration to Australia, immigrants from various regions in Asia and descendants of such immigrants. At the 2021 Australian census, 2 ...

political representation on the national agenda.

Political candidacies

2022 federal candidacy

In 2021, Le was endorsed by retiring MP for Fowler

Chris Hayes Christopher Loffredo Hayes (; born February 28, 1979) is an American political commentator, television news anchor, and author. Hayes hosts '' All In with Chris Hayes'', a weekday news and opinion television show on MSNBC. Hayes also hosts a w ...

as his preferred successor. Hayes worked with Le and felt she had strong links to the community and would reflect the cultural diversity of the area which included over 50,000 Asian-Australians as of the . The preselection process was halted in favour of Kristina Keneally, a former premier of New South Wales and experienced senator who due to union influence, required repositioning from the

upper house An upper house is one of two Legislative chamber, chambers of a bicameralism, bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the lower house. The house formally designated as the upper house is usually smaller and often has more restricted p ...

into a safe Labor seat in the

lower house A lower house is the lower chamber of a bicameral legislature, where the other chamber is the upper house. Although styled as "below" the upper house, in many legislatures worldwide, the lower house has come to wield more power or otherwise e ...

. Though Keneally nominally moved to the seat, she had no roots within the working-class electorate and was a resident of the

Northern Beaches The Northern Beaches is a region within Northern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia, near the Pacific coast. This area extends south to the entrance of Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour), west to Middle Harbour and north to the ...

area of Sydney. The decision was picked up by international news media as demonstrative of Australian

political class Political class (or political elite) is a concept in comparative political science, originally developed by Italian political theorist Gaetano Mosca (1858–1941). It refers to the relatively small group of activists that is highly aware and active ...

prejudices. To diffuse the controversy, Labor appeared to be promising Le a seat in the New South Wales parliament at a later election. The sidelining of Le for an American-born woman in a seat primarily made up of people of Asian background and many refugees was criticised by Labor MPs such as

Anne Aly Anne Azza Aly (, born Azza Mahmoud Fawzi Hosseini Ali el Serougi, 29 March 1967) is an Australian politician who has been a Labor member of the House of Representatives since the 2016 election, representing the electorate of Cowan in Western ...

and

Peter Khalil Peter Khalil (born 23 March 1973) is an Australian politician. He is a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and has served in the House of Representatives since the 2016 Australian federal election, 2016 federal election, representing the ...

. Independent

, herself a Vietnamese refugee, was able to capitalise on the controversy and defeated Keneally in one of only two Labor losses at the 2022 federal election. After the defeat, the

Cabramatta Cabramatta, also abbreviated as Cabra, is a suburb in South Western Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Cabramatta is located south-west of the Sydney central business district, in the Local government in Australia, local gove ...

branch of the Labor party, called for the expulsion of Tu Le for her public criticism of the party and undermining their election campaign.

2023 state candidacy

Le ran for preselection to be the Labor candidate in the

2023 New South Wales state election The 2023 New South Wales state election was held on 25 March 2023 to elect the 58th Parliament of New South Wales, including all 93 seats in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, Legislative Assembly and 21 of the 42 seats in the New South ...

to replace

Nick Lalich Nickola "Nick" Lalich (22 May 1945 – 26 March 2025) was an Australian politician. He was a Labor Party member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from October 2008 until 26 March 2023, representing the electorate of Cabramatta. He a ...

, the retiring member for Cabramatta with a promise by the party to not interfere with the local preselection vote. The local branch endorsed Tri Vo, ahead of Le and Kate Hoang, with 39 of 61 votes. Vo went on to win the Cabramatta seat.

2025 federal candidacy

In October 2024, Labor Prime Minister

Anthony Albanese Anthony Norman Albanese ( or ; born 2 March 1963) is an Australian politician serving as the 31st and current prime minister of Australia since 2022. He has been the Leaders of the Australian Labor Party#Leader, leader of the Labor Party si ...

visited

to announce Le as the Labor candidate for Fowler in the 2025 election. To distinguish herself from the incumbent independent

, Tu Le said the people of Fowler "deserve a voice in the Labor government", however no reference was made to past political events. Le started campaigning while pregnant and gave birth to her second child in March 2025, just prior to the election. Given the possibility of a

hung parliament A hung parliament is a term used in legislatures primarily under the Westminster system (typically employing Majoritarian representation, majoritarian electoral systems) to describe a situation in which no single political party or pre-existing ...

, Le argued her independent opponent may back a Liberal government that has little direct support in the local community. Dai Le argued her opponent lacked experience and the electorate's main concern is the cost of living. Le's candidacy was unsuccessful, with the independent retaining her seat in parliament.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Le, Tu Living people People from New South Wales New South Wales lawyers Australian people of Vietnamese descent