Labor’s Richard Marles says Liberal Sarah Henderson should worry about the recession rather than internal Labor matters
Labor has been accused of turning its back on its traditional supporter base by a Liberal senator following the resignation of a shadow cabinet minister after a climate change spat.
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LABOR has been accused of turning its back on its traditional supporter base by a Liberal senator following the resignation of a shadow cabinet minister after a climate change spat.
Earlier this week shadow minister for agriculture and resources, and firm backer of coal-fired power, Joel Fitzgibbon, resigned from the frontbench.
It follows his opposition to Labor moving to a more ambitious climate change policy.
In light of the resignation Victorian Liberal Senator Sarah Henderson said Corio Labor MP Richard Marles had to choose between “protecting manufacturing and mining workers or supporting the Labor left’s climate zealots who want to shut down coal and gas.”
But a spokesman for Mr Marles, who is the deputy Labor leader, said Ms Henderson was playing politics with the resignation.
“Sarah Henderson would be better off spending her time focusing on the recession we’re in and the $1 trillion debt we face under the Morrison Government rather than baseless media releases devoid of a plan for jobs and a plan for the economy,” the spokeswoman said.
Mr Marles’ spokeswoman said the Morrison Government “simply doesn’t care” about jobs in Geelong.
“Labor and the Geelong community have fought tooth and nail against the Morrison Government to keep jobs in Geelong – be it jobs at Viva Energy, the ATO, childcare to get more women into work or support for the over 35s who the Morrison Government are walking away from during a health pandemic,” the spokeswoman said.
“This is just another angry headline-grabbing media release from Sarah Henderson which doesn’t do or say a thing for jobs in Geelong.”
Ms Henderson claimed Mr Marles needed to stand up for jobs in Geelong.
“Is he backing local workers including at Geelong Refinery or is he selling them out?”
She said Mr Fitzgibbon had called out Labor’s “reckless and irresponsible energy and climate policies” that it took to the last election.
“These policies would have brought our mining, resources and energy intensive industries to their knees, including the Geelong refinery.
“Only the Morrison Government is committed to sensible job preserving climate policies which are meeting and beating our international obligations.”
Speaking on Wednesday about his resignation, Mr Ftizgibbon said: “I wasn’t prepared to allow the cheesecloth brigade in the caucus to use (Joe) Biden’s (US presidential) win to argue for even more ambitious climate change policy, which was going to cost us another election.”
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Originally published as Labor’s Richard Marles says Liberal Sarah Henderson should worry about the recession rather than internal Labor matters