George Campbell's crocodile tears

Today little known Labor Senator George Campbell announced his retirement from politics. Accepting the inevitably of preselection defeat at the hands of the AMWU leader Doug Cameron; which has been on the cards for at least a year now.

Now as far as news goes, that's not terribly exciting, even for us political junkies. But I had to smirk at Campbell's parting shot at his own faction:

"Let me say it is extremely disappointing that the Left faction in NSW has never endorsed a female Senate candidate," he said.

As the article points out, Senator Campbell is not unique within his faction in holding this view. Except that is, for his insincerity. Considering that presently the only other NSW Left Senator is the far more illustrious John Faulkner, it's clear who the beneficiary of the faction's supposed sexism has been til now.

This fact was no less true prior to Campbell's appointment in 1997. Why wasn't he "extremely disappoint[ed]" then?