ALP Right’s left says Fitzgibbon has no right to speak out

Labor’s Right faction will convene on Monday night amid divisions over the grouping’s position on climate change and environmental policy.

Kristina Keneally and Jenny Mcallister with green-shirt LEAN volunteers.

Labor’s Right faction will convene on Monday night amid divisions over the grouping’s position on climate change and environmental policy.

The Australian has been told there is frustration from progressive MPs within the faction, particularly from Victoria, about the policy freelancing from Right faction convener Joel Fitzgibbon.

A meeting will be held via teleconference and MPs have told The Australian there will likely be protests against Mr Fitzgibbon expressing his views without consulting the faction.

“People have got to understand that when Joel opens his trap, he is not speaking on behalf of the Right,” one MP said.

Kristina Keneally.

Joel Fitzgibbon.

There are also concerns among conservative MPs that the faction is offering little resistance against the policy ambitions of the Left, with one declaring Mr Fitzgibbon, from the NSW Right, was “fighting the good fight” in trying to shift the party to the middle ground.

An MP said because of the growing number of left-leaning MPs in the Right, there was now a “progressive majority” within caucus, despite most MPs being from the Right.

“Some MPs in the Right could easily be in the Left,” a right-wing MP said.

MPs said the caucus was considerably more left-leaning than during the Gillard government.

Progressive MPs within the Right include Kristina Keneally, Josh Burns, Mark Dreyfus, Anika Wells and Clare O’Neil.

NSW Right MP Tony Burke, a rival to Mr Fitzgibbon, is from the conservative “shoppies” faction but has evolved into a progressive throughout his parliamentary career.

Mr Fitzgibbon’s attack on the party’s environmental wing, the Labor Environment Action Network, spilled over to a “T-shirt war” at the weekend with fellow NSW Right frontbencher Senator Keneally.

Senator Keneally, aligned with Mr Burke’s section of the NSW Right, posted a photo donning a red LEAN T-shirt, hitting back at Mr Fitzgibbon who accused LEAN supporters wearing “green T-shirts” of infiltrating the party. “Great to get stuck into the gardening on this beautiful Sydney Saturday in my favourite red T-shirt,” she tweeted.

LEAN supporters wear green T-shirts at Labor events.

Mr Fitzgibbon, who says he is trying to put “labour back into the Labor Party”, hit back with a photo of him mowing the lawn in a pro-mining rugby league jersey. “The Newcastle Knights and our mining industry, partnering to lift our spirits and to keep our economy strong,” he tweeted.

Mr Fitzgibbon’s supporters say they support climate change action and environmental laws but those policies had been given too much prominence.