What’s the deal with Dai Le?

It’s curious, given how much ink has been spilled over the rise of the “teals”, how little attention has been paid to Fowler MP Dai Le, the charismatic local politician who won the formerly safe Labor seat at the 2022 federal election.

It’s often assumed Labor only lost the Western Sydney seat because it parachuted in the worst possible candidate, former NSW premier Kristina Keneally, from the Northern Beaches, overlooking a locally preferred candidate.

But that only goes some of the way to explaining Le’s massive 15.6% swing, with what was believed to be a minuscule campaign budget, in a seat held by Labor since its inception.