A NSW Labor MP has launched an attack on a member of her own party, accusing Canterbury-Bankstown Mayor Khal Asfour of being "tainted".
In a statement to the Legislative Assembly last night, Bankstown MP Tania Mihailuk "raised concerns" about Mr Asfour who is set to be a candidate on the Labor's upper house ticket for next year's March election.
Using parliamentary privilege, she linked him to jailed former Labor minister, Eddie Obeid.
"It is exceptionally difficult for me to have to raise this matter in the House and, effectively, to have to rebuke the Labor Party," Ms Mihailuk said.
"I raise my legitimate and longstanding concerns regarding Asfour's character and his unprincipled actions in furthering the interests of developers and identities, in particular Eddie Obeid."
Ms Mihailuk went on to describe how Mr Obeid went to Mr Asfour's wedding, "adorning him with a generous gift".
"Asfour boasted at the time, and remained steadfastly committed to ensuring Asfour would be mayor throughout the period of redeveloping the landholdings in Bankstown," she said.
"I have never taken a backwards step against corruption, and I never will."
While Mr Asfour has been picked to run in March, he must first be endorsed at the state Labor party conference next month.
Labor has been facing problematic preselection in both the upper and lower house.
Ms Mihailuk is locked in a bitter battle after a redistribution in south-west Sydney for the upcoming March election.
The neighbouring seat of Lakemba, held by Jihad Dib, has been abolished and much of the area he represents has now become the Bankstown electorate in name.
Both Ms Mihailuk and Mr Dib intend to contest the next election and there were private discussions within the party as to whether one could transfer to run for the upper house.
Last month, anonymous complaints of Ms Mihailuk bullying staff were published in a newspaper.
Ms Mihailuk rejected the assertions and said the allegations had been leaked to the media to harm her preselection.
Mr Asfour has hit back at Ms Mihailuk's claims, describing them as "outrageous and unsubstantiated".
"She has used parliamentary privilege to launch a cowardly attack on me and my family and I call on her to produce evidence of any wrongdoing to the relevant bodies," he said.
"She is citing matters from 2012, this wreaks of sour grapes at being overlooked on Labor’s upper house ticket."
Mr Asfour said proper procedures had been followed every step of the way.
NSW Labor Leader Chris Minns insists he takes the allegations "seriously" and is adamant he hasn't heard them before.
"I'm going to take steps to talk to Tania Mihailuk today about two things firstly the nature of the allegations, the crimes that she's alleged or the corruption that she's alleged has taken place and whether she's referred those matters to the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) or other authorities," Mr Minns said.
Mr Minns added he had spoken to Mr Asfour and believes the mayor will refer Ms Mihailuk's statement to the corruption watchdog himself.
