Leaders in Sydney's Asian communities have condemned NSW Labor leader Michael Daley's comments about foreigners "moving in and taking the jobs" of young Sydneysiders as "extremely racist and offensive".
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In damage control after the video of Mr Daley's remarks became public, NSW Labor took out full page advertisements on the front pages Sydney's three Chinese language newspapers on Wednesday.
The ad features a large photo of Mr Daley with his wife and two children above the slogan: "Michael Daley and Labor. Put education and health before stadium construction."
The advertisement also features head shots of Labor's candidates in 10 key Sydney seats that have a high proportion of Asian voters.
Labor's publicity splash appeared to be aimed at countering a special news conference organised on Tuesday by Liberal ministers and candidates. The media event is covered widely in the papers, with Liberal politicians' attacks on Mr Daley detailed at length.
The full-page ads comes after video emerged on Monday night of Mr Daley claiming that young people were leaving Sydney and being replaced by foreigners, who were "moving in and taking their jobs".
Mr Daley apologised again on Wednesday for the remarks in the video, taken from a politics-in-the-pub night in the Blue Mountains last September, before he became leader, and said he was referring to the cost of living when he made the comments.
"What I was referring to was housing affordability in Sydney … I could’ve expressed myself better; no offence was meant," Mr Daley said, adding that he played no role in booking Wedneday's advertisements.
"I’m not [a racist], I've never been ... I did use words I shouldn’t have, and my apology is unqualified."
Asian Australian Alliance founder Erin Chew on Wednesday said Mr Daley's comments were "targeted at Asians, and Asians from specific countries - China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore".
"It is extremely racist and offensive," Ms Chew said.
"He needs to make these comments with more sensitivity. It's very problematic coming from someone who could be the next premier of NSW after the weekend.
"People are quite offended ... there is a lot of discontent [within the Asian community] at the moment over these comments."
Ms Chew said there was growing support for Labor in the Asian community and Mr Daley's views were "extremely problematic". She said his comments might push some moderate-progressive Asian voters, who typically voted for Labor, to switch to the Greens or independents at this weekend's poll.
However, Chinese Community Council of Australia president Anthony Pun said that Mr Daley's apology showed he was "prepared to eat humble pie and move on".
"If one makes the same mistake twice, then he or she would be placed in the same category as some die-hard racists," he said.
"Daley is big enough to apologise and should be given the benefit of a doubt. Let's look at the real election issues and not side-tracked by this resolved matter."
Chinese Australian Historical Society president Daphne Lowe Kelley said she was disappointed by Mr Daley's comments. "I didn't really expect that," she said.
Campaigning in Bankstown on Wednesday, Premier Gladys Berejiklian said Mr Daley had "lot of apologising to do".
"First and foremost I feel empathetic to anybody who was hurt by those comments. They were offensive," she said. "I didn’t really hear an apology [from him] yesterday."
'Three knives, two faces'
The Australian Chinese Daily ran three sizeable articles on its first page of news on Wednesday, including one under a red-bannered headline: "Daley's anti-Asian remarks turn Labor's advantage".
That main piece began by noting that Mr Daley had created a storm over his much-publicised comments, and that the comments could cause a sudden shift away from Labor among Asian voters in key marginal seats.
It then detailed the remarks of three ministers - Multicultural Minister Ray Williams, Treasurer Dominic Perrottet and Finance Minister Victor Dominello. Each of them slammed Mr Daley's comments at a media event on Tuesday.
Ryde, East Hills, Kogarah, Strathfield and Oatley were among the marginal seats with large Asian populations, the paper noted. Of those, all but East Hills were listed in Labor's front-page advertisement of candidates.
Mr Williams accused Mr Daley of "offending and splitting society" with his comments. He also drew a link between the Labor leader's speech - videotaped last year at a Wentworth Falls pub - and last week's Christchurch terrorist attack by a white supremacist that killed 50 Muslims. It was a time to unite against racism, he said.
Mr Williams said Mr Daley was a hypocrite - translated in Chinese as "three knives, two faces" - for praising the contribution of the Chinese community at other times.
Scott Yung, the Liberal candidate for Kogarah who is running against Labor incumbent Chris Minns, said he was hurt by Mr Daley's comments and they should be condemned.
The other two articles, given less prominent treatment in the Australian Chinese Daily, covered Tuesday's general coverage of Mr Daley's comments and his apology.
In one of them, Mr Daley is reported as saying that he had meant to focus on the cost of living pressures forcing people to leave Sydney.
He added he should have expressed his views better and that he had had no intention to offend anybody.
