While there are many things driving the independent candidate Dr Ziad Basyouny to challenge Tony Burke for the seat of Watson in Sydney, there is one word that wraps them all together.
“Injustice,” Basyouny declared, speaking from his medical practice in Lakemba.
“It is sad to see the areas in Watson so neglected, it’s pure injustice. If you speak to people here, they will tell you that they’re struggling with access to health services, education, transport, housing, you name it.”
The 44-year-old Basyouny, who will formally announce his candidacy on Tuesday, is the first of a series of independents expected to challenge Labor’s grip on federal seats in western Sydney.
And he is serious about prising Watson, which covers areas with large migrant communities such as Lakemba, Bankstown, Punchbowl and Campsie, from Labor and Burke’s hands.
“The people are frustrated. The wall of western Sydney safe Labor seats was built on the legacy of a perception that their policies favoured new immigrants,” he told Guardian Australia.
“So everyone kind of felt obliged to vote for them, to put their trust in them. But that’s changed.
“We’re not being represented truly, and we’re being left behind, in every measure of life in Australia. And that is because Tony Burke represents Labor, not the constituents in Watson.
“And that is the major issue here – he doesn’t represent our views [when he’s] in Canberra. The last year has shown us that Labor won’t listen to its constituents on things like Palestine, housing or the cost of living, and if you stand against the wind you’ll be punished.”
Basyouny migrated to Australia in 2004 after finishing medical school in Cairo. He worked as a cleaner and in retail in Brisbane, before having his credentials recognised and returning to work as a doctor.
He first arrived in Sydney the day the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs won the 2004 NRL grand final, and was caught in the standstill traffic on Punchbowl Road amid the celebrations.
It was a night that endeared the area, and the Bulldogs, to him, and he moved there soon after, working in the emergency department at Bankstown hospital before getting into private practice so he could spend more time with his four children.
Basyouny said he would campaign on five key issues: the cost-of-living crisis, housing, education, health and Palestine.
He pointed to Watson’s high rate of teacher-to-student ratios, long wait times at hospitals and lack of transport options as indications of an area “taken for granted”.
“I intend to speak to everyone in this seat about the issues that affect them, and I want people to know that we cannot be taken for granted by a member who’s beholden to the machinery of his party.
“I’m not going to be trying to sugarcoat it. I’m not going to be able to fix everything, but at least I’ll take their voices and put as much pressure on the current establishment to make sure that they listen to our communities.”
Watson has been represented by Burke, the newly installed home affairs, immigration and arts minister, for 20 years. He maintained his grip on the seat in 2022, winning comfortably and increasing his two-party preferred margin.
But Basyouny isn’t rattled by the size of the task, nor by the fact that seats like Watson, in western Sydney, do not have a legacy of independent representation.
“It is a difficult task, but that is why I like it. I have lived and worked in Watson for 18 of my 20 years in Australia. I live and breathe the area.
“I have a lot of confidence that the people of Watson will hear my message and believe in voting for an independent, that they are sick of Labor and sick of major parties betraying them.
“I am confident they want someone who speaks their language, eats their food and walks their streets to represent them in Canberra.”
He insisted that he is not a “Muslim candidate”, and does not represent any potential Muslim political party, but is an independent who can engage the various communities that make up Watson.
“I am a Muslim and an independent, and I am not running just to represent the Muslim community, I am just an independent running for Watson, just like the teals at the last election.
“I would love all communities to endorse me, and I intend to work for their votes. I intend to represent everyone here, from the Vietnamese and Chinese communities here to the Bengali, Pakistani, Burmese, Uyghur, Indian or Anglo-Saxon communities. I will be going for everyone.”
Basyouny’s medical centre is located in the heart of Lakemba, on the iconic Haldon Street, which is dotted with Palestinian flags.
He said he believed Labor’s reaction to the war in Gaza, where Israel had killed more than 40,000 people and injured over 90,000 in response to the 7 October attack, was the “straw that broke the camel’s back” for many in the community. Israel denies committing genocide in its military response to the 7 October attack by Hamas.
“Their response to the war in Gaza showed the people of Watson and western Sydney that Labor doesn’t care what we think. They don’t care about injustices, they only care about preserving their seats.
“What I will campaign for is an end to military exports to Israel – we are enabling a plausible genocide. And I will call for higher intake of refugees from Palestine, for Australia to show greater support for those facing this slaughter.”
The Muslim Vote, a new grassroots organisation aiming to topple Labor ministers in key seats, had previously outlined that it would be supporting independent candidates in seats such as Watson.
“The Muslim Vote believes that participation in the electoral process is a positive thing that should be embraced,” a spokesperson for the organisation said.
“The Muslim Vote is committed to encouraging and supporting independent candidates to make a difference.”
The electoral analyst Ben Raue said the challenge of independents such as Basyouny should be taken seriously by Labor.
“I think Labor needs to respond to make sure that those voters in these areas think Labor is taking them seriously. I think it will be a mistake to treat it like it’s a safe seat,” he said.
“Voters have become a lot more volatile. There’s a lot of seats that used to be safe Labor seats they can’t take for granted any more.”
Raue said the proposed redistribution of seats in New South Wales would change Watson, pushing it further west, out to Georges River. And he said that while it was “unlikely” the seat would be lost, it was not impossible.
“Voters would need to be able to trust the independent, to feel as though they are a credible voice. They need to feel as though what they are campaigning for is feasible, and with some relatable policies, could carve a chunk of Labor’s vote away.”
Prof Andy Marks, the executive director of the Centre for Western Sydney, echoed a doubt that the seat would fall to an independent, but added that elections were now fought on “intensely local issues”.
“It’s not surprising to see independents pop up in western Sydney, particularly in the context of the last federal election, and with the success of Dai Le in Fowler. That was a case of Labor underestimating the highly localised nature of modern politics.
“Increasingly, elections at all three levels in this country of politics are fought on very intensely local issues.”
Burke’s office was approached for comment.
