Keating fury at ‘factional lightweights’ axing Husic, Dreyfus from cabinet

Labor faction leaders have cut down two cabinet ministers in a brutal display of caucus power, forcing out Industry Minister Ed Husic and Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus and sparking anger from former prime minister Paul Keating at the shock removal.

Keating lashed the caucus for removing Husic, the cabinet’s sole Muslim member, and Dreyfus, who is Jewish, and he took aim at the “factional lightweights” who forced the change.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese accepted the outcome despite promising stability at the election, but caucus members were dismayed at the way the faction leaders forced the issue, with the Right faction deciding it would not support two of its most senior members.

Ed Husic and Mark Dreyfus will lose their ministries due to factional aggression.Credit: Michael Howard

Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles, the most senior member of the Right, led a push from Victorian colleagues to gain more sway at the top of the government and promote younger members aligned with his faction.

Keating blamed Albanese for his “non-intervention” and slammed Marles and his Victorian faction as a group “devoid of creativity and capacity” – and questioned the notional count that led Victorians to ask for the changes.

“The factional displacement of industry and technology minister, Ed Husic, from the Albanese cabinet represents an appalling denial of Husic’s diligence and application in bringing the core and emerging technologies of the digital age to the centre of Australian public policy,” he said.

“More than that, as the cabinet’s sole Muslim member, Husic’s expulsion from the ministry proffers contempt for the measured and centrist support provided by the broader Muslim community to the Labor Party at the general election.

“And to round out the day, the factional lightweights also dumped the cabinet’s most effective and significant Jewish member, the Attorney-General, Mark Dreyfus.”

Paul Keating blames Anthony Albanese for his “non-intervention”.Credit: Louie Douvis

The moves triggered anger from NSW Right MPs at Marles and his loyalists over the shock changes, which they said compromised the unity and stability of the government in the first days of its second term.

“How do we explain this to the public? It looks like chaos and disunity to knife two ministers whose performance has never been in question,” one NSW MP said.

The fiery meeting of the national Right was repeatedly delayed on Thursday afternoon as deals were hashed out, and several MPs spoke out against the plan to remove Dreyfus and Husic.

Another member of the Right, western Sydney MP Mike Freelander, said the outcome “beggars belief” because of the quality of the two ministers, praising Dreyfus in particular.

“It’s disgraceful, it’s stupid and it’s wrong,” he told this masthead.

“It’s an ill wind that blows through this place – two highly-performing ministers being replaced by union hacks.”

Dreyfus delivered on a key election pledge on integrity in the last term of parliament by setting up the National Anti-Corruption Commission, while Husic set up the $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund to invest in local industry.

The changes are expected to help two Victorian MPs, Sam Rae and Daniel Mulino, gain executive positions. A third member of the faction, Victorian senator Raff Ciccone, was also being named as a potential addition to a role.

Labor’s internal power groupings have been in intense talks since the election to carve up the 30 cabinet positions in line with party rules that give factions ministries in line with their numbers in parliament, with the Left’s success on Saturday entitling it to an extra spot.

This meant that Marles’ group and the Victorian shop workers’ union are underrepresented in cabinet while former leader Bill Shorten’s old Australian Workers’ Union sub-faction, which includes Dreyfus and Housing Minister Clare O’Neil, has too many ministers.

Dreyfus, 68, phoned colleagues over the past two days to shore up his position and ensure he had enough votes to cling on, according to several federal Labor sources unable to speak publicly.

The attorney-general, who entered parliament in 2007, had faced internal calls before the election to vacate his Melbourne seat of Isaacs in the name of renewal. His office was contacted for comment.

Dreyfus was informed formally of the move against him after the Right faction agreed to dump him in Thursday morning meetings between party powerbrokers in Canberra.

Mulino and Rae have been formally nominated by the Victorian Right to replace Dreyfus in the ministry if Marles gets his way and forces Dreyfus to stand aside. Right faction cabinet spots are decided state by state.

Rae, 38, was one of the youngest-ever PwC partners, led two state election wins as Victorian Labor state secretary, and secured a primary vote swing in his outer-suburban Melbourne seat of Hawke that was targeted by the Coalition.

Albanese, who was re-elected with a thumping mandate, had the option of using his authority to seek to protect ministers, but the factional numbers were against Dreyfus and Husic.

After the Left won numerous new seats in the election, Senator Tim Ayres, a close ally of Albanese and factional heavyweight who was once a manufacturing union leader, was expected to rise to cabinet.

Victorian senator Jess Walsh, an economist and former union official, was in line to gain a ministerial position. Other contenders include incoming Tasmanian MP Rebecca White, a former state Labor opposition leader, and Victorian MP Ged Kearney, a former president of the ACTU.

One senior Labor source said of the manoeuvring: “They’re killing the only Muslim in cabinet [Husic] and the most pro-Israel cabinet minister [Dreyfus].”

Dreyfus is a widower and the source said that could make it less attractive for him to take up a diplomatic posting, which other MPs have received as encouragement to leave in the past. There had also been speculation in previous years that Dreyfus may join the judiciary.

Labor MPs are in Canberra for a full caucus meeting on Friday after factional meetings on Thursday.

Albanese was tight-lipped about the reshuffle that will act as an early test of his internal authority.

“We have a process and we’ll work it through,” he said on Sky News on Wednesday.

“The important thing is … for most of the 125 years since Federation, we’ve sat at the other end of the corridor in the old place, in the opposition party room.”

“Government brings with it responsibility, and no individual is greater than the collective – that includes myself.”

This masthead reported in February that Albanese overruled Dreyfus after the attorney-general expressed reservations about legislating mandatory minimum jail terms for hate crimes.

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