Labor’s factions never fail to rain on a parade

In an era of tightly managed optics and party room unity at all costs, it’s strangely refreshing to see some plain speaking from each end of the political spectrum in the aftermath of last weekend’s political earthquake.

Richard Marles (right) and Ed Husic.Credit: James Brickwood

The Coalition’s historic defeat has finally pushed several Liberal and Nationals MPs to say out loud what those who live in the real world have known for years: that unless centre-right politics in Australia embraces women, diversity and modernity, it will be consigned to the opposition benches for years, if not decades. Several MPs have also had the guts to make the obvious point that Angus Taylor, Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and Sussan Ley are hardly well-placed to rebuild a broken Liberal Party, given they helped detonate it.

Tensions are also simmering in the Greens following the departure of leader Adam Bandt, and the Nationals are in open warfare over leadership and policy.

The scale of Anthony Albanese’s victory still stuns: Labor is likely to reach 94 seats – up from 77 at the 2022 poll – and achieve a record-breaking two-party preferred primary vote of about 55 per cent to the Coalition’s 45.

Labor’s thumping win should have spared it from experiencing the same tensions weighing down its political opponents. But Labor’s factions can never help raining on a parade.

Labor’s internal power groupings have been in intense talks since the election to carve up the 30 cabinet positions in accordance with party rules that give factions ministries in line with their numbers in parliament. The Left’s success entitles it to an extra spot at the expense of the NSW Right, to which former industry minister Ed Husic belongs. The brutal arithmetic meant Husic was out of a job. Attorney-general Mark Dreyfus will also be removed from cabinet, ostensibly to bring in rising talent.

During an interview on ABC’s Insiders program on Sunday, Husic used his status as a newly unconstrained backbencher to launch a sensational attack on Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles, describing him as a “factional assassin” who had behaved in an unstatesmanlike manner in orchestrating the cabinet upheaval.

Husic also criticised Labor for being “shackled” by timidity on policy and claimed his removal as a minister was partly retaliation for his outspoken pro-Palestinian advocacy, although he provided no evidence to support this and the claim is at odds with the reality of the factional arithmetic. Husic, who is Muslim, was a consistent voice against the war in Gaza.

Some of Husic’s gripes are reasonable. The blunt manner in which he learnt his fate was terrible, and he was one of the few ministers who understood the impact of technology on our economy. But he cannot escape the reality that the same factional rules that installed him in cabinet in the first place ultimately dictated his departure.

Regardless of the merits of Husic’s complaints, Sunday’s blast hit its target with the precision of a heat-seeking missile. It has left Marles wounded, and given the public a rare insight into the behind-the-scenes factional underbelly of Labor. It’s not a pretty picture.

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