Rebel federal backbencher Joel Fitzgibbon says Labor should scrap the rank and file’s role in electing the leader, returning all the power to the caucus.
Fitzgibbon’s right-wing parliamentary colleagues seemed to accept his public undermining of Mark Butler. It will be interesting to see if they permit the same treatment of Bowen.
“I will be the leader of this country after the next election,” Albanese declared as he ended the news conference where he announced his reshuffled frontbench. It smacked of a message to himself.
It’s unsurprising that Anthony Albanese is looking over his shoulder, because last term he was sitting on Bill Shorten’s shoulder, waiting for an opportunity to strike.
Opposition resources spokesman Joel Fitzgibbon has quit the frontbench, accusing Labor of talking too much about issues like climate change and not enough about the needs of its traditional base.
Extinction Rebellion protesters have faced harsh bail conditions, typically reserved for bikie gang members.
Dave Hunt/AAP
Deep Saini and Michelle Grattan discuss the acts of civil disobedience by climate activist group Extinction Rebellion, and consider what Australia’s responsibility is in the Turkey-Syria conflict.
Australia’s overall emissions are rising, high electricity prices remain a burden, and there is nervousness about the summer power supply.
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The climate policy has become an article of faith within Labor, and among many supporters. It’s also a policy that in the election split voters Labor needed, attracting some but driving away others.
Butler rejected Fitzgibbon’s proposal saying the government’s target ‘is fundamentally inconsistent with the Paris agreement’.
Lukas Coch/AAP
Opposition resources spokesman Joel Fitzgibbon has had his proposal to bring Labor’s climate change target into line with the government’s immediately torpedoed by the party’s climate spokesman Mark Butler.
Richard Di Natale, Barnaby Joyce and Joel Fitzgibbon walk together ahead of the regional leader’s debate in Goulburn.
Twitter/Richard Di Natale
The election campaign’s day 17 notably belonged to Barnaby Joyce, and not just for the package of concessional loans he announced for struggling dairy farmers. For light relief, the day delivered another…
Joel Fitzgibbon has predicted that asylum seeker boat turnbacks will be part of Labor’s policy for the election.
AAP/Alan Porritt
Frontbencher Joel Fitzgibbon has fired an opening shot in one of the most electorally important issues for Bill Shorten at the ALP national conference – whether a Labor government should be allowed to turn back boats.