Killing season at Labor HQ
Even though it’s all celebrations publicly over at Labor HQ, a brouhaha is breaking out within the new-look parliamentary party as the factional left and right go to war divvying up the spoils of victory.
The left faction surged, picking up more seats than the right, allowing it to impose its power over the traditionally dominant right wing. The left faction is now coming after senior figures in the right as cabinet positions are being determined.
The PM doesn’t get to pick his frontbenchers – the factions do. But the fact Anthony Albanese is also the biggest left-wing factional gorilla in the room means the power of the left is even greater.
Senior right-wing ministers such as Ed Husic, Jason Clare and Chris Bowen are at risk of demotion if the left gets its way.
It has already been decided that outgoing senior right-wing figure Bill Shorten‘s cabinet position will be filled by someone from the left and there may be more.
Former head of the trade union movement Ged Kearney will rise into the ministry alongside other left-wing operatives such as the PM’s assistant minister Patrick Gorman.
Former right wing Labor PMs, such as Paul Keating, are aghast at the expected shift to the left Labor is now likely to make as it takes control of the Senate in conjunction with a Greens balance of power.
Even though it’s all celebrations publicly over at Labor HQ, a brouhaha is breaking out within the new-look parliamentary party as the factional left and right go to war divvying up the spoils of victory. (Anthony Albanese, centre right, is pictured celebrating Saturday’s election victory with his fiancée Jodie Haydon, right, son Nathan, left, and Foreign Minister Penny Wong, left)
It has already been decided that outgoing senior right-wing figure Bill Shorten’s cabinet position will be filled by someone from the left and there may be more. (Shorten is pictured with his wife Chloe in November 2024)
‘It’s over, the Labor Party won’t be what it used to be’, one senior factional figure in the Labor right tells Inside Mail.
‘The economic reforming legacy of Bob [Hawke] and Paul [Keating] will become a more distant memory than it already is.’
‘Name one serious economic reform we did in Albo’s first term?’ adds the disgruntled Labor figure.
Even within the right, divisions are starting to surface as ministers manoeuvre to survive. Deputy PM Richard Marles is reportedly pushing to take cabinet positions off the NSW factional right to shore up his Victorian power base as the left starts to run over the top of the once-dominant right.
‘We’re eating our own rather than banding together to hold off the left that always got more than it should have when it was just a pimple on the party and we ran the show,’ another right wing MP tells me.
‘They don’t care, it’s classic hard left bullying’, the MP adds.
While it will be all smiles when Albo finally announces his new-look ministry, behind the scenes those likely to miss out or get demoted are seething, vowing to fight back ‘however we have to’.
It’s not just the right at risk of being shut out by the PM and his senate sidekick Penny Wong. The left’s own Tanya Plibersek is set to cop another demotion after Albo dumped her from her beloved education portfolio to environment after the 2022 election win.
The left’s own Tanya Plibersek (right) is set to cop another demotion after Albo (left) dumped her from her beloved education portfolio to environment after the 2022 election win
Senior right-wing ministers such as Ed Husic (left), Jason Clare and Chris Bowen (right) are at risk of demotion if the left gets its way
Plibersek, the PM’s ‘frenemy number one’, is at risk of losing her cabinet spot, although Labor sources tell me she’ll hang on for pure optics, ‘and just get pushed into the worst and most irrelevant portfolio Anthony can find’.
They do say that what happens behind the scenes in politics is like watching sausages get made. And the chaos within the ranks of Labor is nothing compared to the shenanigans going on as the hapless Liberals try to work out who gets the poisoned chalice of being the next leader of what’s left of the parliamentary party.
Still, the anger and resentment inside Labor will reverberate for months, if not years.
Meanwhile, expect shockwaves as policy changes are announced by an emboldened ALP dominated by MPs and senators who, back in their uni days, believed Australia had to become a socialist panacea modelled on the sort of excesses Gough Whitlam never got the chance to enact because he only survived as PM for three years.
With friends like these…
Anthony Albanese took the opportunity at his first media conference after his thumping election win to thank the many world leaders who had reached out to him since his victory.
One of those was the Singaporean PM, whom he also congratulated for his election win on the very same night Albo emerged triumphant.
As resounding as Labor’s win was, it was nothing compared to the victory Singapore’s People’s Action Party had, securing 83 out of the 93 seats on offer.
While that’s nothing compared to the way WA Labor likes to win in the one-party state the west has become in recent times, it’s actually a closer result than you usually see in Singapore.
That’s because it’s not actually a true democracy. The opposition has limits placed on its ability to campaign, and the ruling party has never lost!
In his first press conference since being re-elected, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (pictured) congratulated the Singaporean PM for his election win on the very same night
Perhaps Albo doesn’t realise Singapore isn’t a democracy like we are. Or maybe he has plans to use his newfound power to emulate the success of the PAP in Singapore.
Either way, it’s a little unusual for a democratic western leader to congratulate a non-democratic leader on an election win, just because they pretend to be a true democracy and hold stacked elections.
Putin doesn’t head to the polls again until five years from now. He won last year’s fraudulent Russian election with 88.5 per cent of the vote. After the size of Albo’s win he may well still be around then to congratulate the Kremlin on another historic victory.
Albo’s easy ride at first presser
Speaking of Albo’s first presser since his victory, can you guess what the first word uttered by the assembled media was when the PM waved through his first question?
‘Congratulations.’ Not exactly a swift return to holding the newly elected government to account!
We won’t go too hard on the gesture, since it was delivered by the Australian Financial Review’s Phil Corey, one of the best in the business working out of Canberra.
Let’s just hope the role of the Fourth Estate is a little more robust going forward, because with the opposition crippled by the election outcome, it’s capacity to hold Labor to account in its second term could be severely limited.
Postal votes cut short Teals’ victory lap
Two teals couldn’t help themselves on election night, claiming victory before the full-time siren was sounded on votes being counted.
The only problem was that with postal votes favouring their Liberal challengers, Zoe Daniel and Monique Ryan looked a bit like George W. Bush declaring victory during the war in Iraq.
Daniel was eventually bested by Tim Wilson in the inner-Melbourne seat of Goldstein. Kooyong isn’t finalised yet but Ryan will no doubt still be sweating.
Whoever wins, it’s been funny to watch the sanctimonious teals claim victory too soon and thus be forced to reflect on their own hubris.
Election schadenfreude
Will Greens leader Adam Bandt lose his seat? We reckon so.
But as we await absolute confirmation, one senior Liberal MP, no doubt shattered by the loss on Saturday night, did ring to tell us: ‘As bad as what happened to us is, I can live with it a little better if that pair [Bandt and Ryan] also loses.’
It’s not quite a case of the enemy of my enemy is my friend – a saying believed to have originated in ancient Indian political philosophy, specifically from the Sanskrit text Arthashastra – but it’s close enough.
The counting continues…
Greens chief Adam Bandt is struggling despite the support of Gen-Z podcaster Abbie Chatfield
Liberals the Coalition weak link
The Nationals must be looking at their Coalition partners wondering why they can’t do better given how well the country-based minor party has performed at consecutive losing elections.
In 2022, when the Coalition lost 19 seats, the Nats didn’t lose a single one of them. This time around they’ve only lost one, and might actually offset it by winning another one off Labor, despite a bloodbath for the Liberals who look set to lose at least 13 more and are behind in another of others still too close to call.
That’s only going to give the Nats greater say in the combined party room and around the shadow cabinet table, which might promote policies more favourable to people living in the bush than in the cities.
This could be a major problem for the Coalition’s chances of returning to power anytime soon, because while the Nats have done well hanging onto their seats, there really aren’t many more they can target to grow much further.
The opposition need to win seats in the cities, and that’s the job of Liberals, who are a dying breed in the parliament.
