Dai Le

Dai Le is a Vietnamese Australian most notable for being the Liberal Party of Australia candidate for the Cabramatta by-election, 2008 and the New South Wales state election, 2011 for the Electoral district of Cabramatta. She lost to incumbent member Nick Lalich on both occasions but managed to pull a record breaking swing of 20.18% and 26.1% respectively.

Dai Le lives in Concord, NSW. She is a graduate of Cerdon College, Merrylands NSW and earned a B.A. in Political Science from Macquarie University. Dai is currently the head of Joe Hockey's Electorate Office.

Personal life
Dai was born in Saigon, Vietnam. She migrated to Australia with her family following the end of the Vietnam war in April 1975. Her family and her were detained in refugee camps in Hong Kong and displaced people’s camps within the Philippines before finally arriving to Australia in December 1979. Dai’s first home was at a migrant hostel in Fairy Meadow, down the South Coast in Wollongong, it was at this time she adapted to the new culture and learned to speak English. Her family later moved up to Bossley Park, a suburb in Sydney’s South-west located about ten minutes from Cabramatta, the suburb where she would spend her teenage years and eventually become the Liberal Party candidate for Cabramatta.

Career and Achievements
Dai began her career as a journalist taking up a cadetship with the Liverpool Champion, a Fairfax Community Newspaper. After three years as a print journalist with the Fairfax Community Newspapers, Dai pursued a career with the Australian Associated Press as a researcher for Channel Seven news and current affairs. In 1994 she achieved a job as a researcher with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

In 1996 Dai was one of 15 Australians awarded with the Vincent Fairfax Ethics and Leadership fellowship program. The 18-months program allowed Dai to travel across Australia and within the Asia/Pacific Region to meet and engage with different levels of Government, leaders and community groups. The focus of the fellowship was to explore complex ethical and leadership issues. During her career as a journalist Dai also independently wrote, produced and directed four one hour television documentaries screened on SBS TV and ABC TV.

Whilst working at the ABC, Dai worked with TV and Radio, in the news and current affairs division for programs such as 4 Corners, Foreign Correspondent, Lateline, AM, PM, the World Today and as producer of Saturday Extra with Geraldine Doogue. Dai eventually moved into making features (radio documentaries and profile stories) for ABC’s Radio National.

Political career
Dai entered politics in October 2008 when she was nominated to stand as the Liberal candidate for the seat of Cabramatta in the Cabramatta by-election, 2008. Within a three week campaign, Dai turned the very safe Labor seat – from a margin of 29%, to 7.2%.

Following her record breaking result, Dai was asked to take charge of the Community Relations role for the Liberal Party Parliamentary team where she advised and rebuilt relationships between the NSW Liberal Party and the wider diverse community in the State.

Dai stood again at the March 26th New South Wales state election, 2011 for the seat of Cabramatta. She managed to cause a further 5% swing to the seat, retaining the swing she caused at the October 2008 By-Election. It was during this election campaign that many political scandals occurred, one of which being the NSW Labor Party accusing Dai of supporting Pauline Hanson and her One Nation Party with newsletters written in Chinese and Vietnamese language given to voters a few days out of the Election Day. Dai lost the seat by approximately 1200 votes, Cabramatta now sits on a 2% margin.