Joel Fitzgibbon quits: ‘Labor’s lost touch with working people’
Outspoken federal Labor MP Joel Fitzgibbon has quit the frontbench telling his colleagues Labor has ‘lost touch with working people’.
NSW
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Outspoken federal Labor MP Joel Fitzgibbon has taken a swipe at colleague and Energy and Climate Change spokesman Mark Butler, declaring that the party has made “not one contribution to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in this country” over 14 years.
The Hunter MP said Labor has had “at least two” energy and climate change policies since it lost government, and both had been rejected by Australians.
The comments came after Mr Fitzgibbon was asked if he had confidence in the party’s current energy spokesman.
“If you want to act on climate change, the first step is to become the government. And to become the government, you need to have a climate change and energy policy that can be embraced by a majority of the Australian people,” he said.
On Sunday, he told The Australian that the party’s left faction MPs who were using Joe Biden’s US Presidential victory to push more action from Australia to tackle climate change were “delusional”.
Mr Fitzgibbon said he informed the shadow caucus of his decision to quit the shadow cabinet on Tuesday morning.
“I told the Caucus this morning that I’m very strongly of the view that we have to allow candidates and local members to express the aspirations of their local communities,” he said.
The Hunter MP said that over the past decade, Labor has “lost touch with traditional working people”.
Mr Fitzgibbon - who represents a seat reliant on the coal industry - told reporters that Labor MPs should be a “voice” for their electorates.
He said Labor needs to win over mining-reliant electorates if it wants to get back into government.
“Labor can’t form a government without winning at least two Central and North Queensland electorates,” Mr Fitzgibbon said.
“I think Albo can win if he listens to Joel Fitzgibbon more.”
Despite quitting the frontbench, Mr Fitzgibbon declared his “confidence” in Anthony Albanese as leader.
“Anthony Albanese has my support. He will lead us to the next election,” he said.
Mr Fitzgibbon said he has no intention of running for the party leadership but said he “would have to be drafted” into the position.
“In the current climate, I’m not so sure I could be confident of that occurring,” he said.
He said the decision to ultimately quit the frontbench was made 18 months ago.
Originally published as Joel Fitzgibbon quits: ‘Labor’s lost touch with working people’