‘Labor must regain blue-collar trust’, says Joel Fitzgibbon

Joel Fitzgibbon is still to decide whether to recontest his seat but confirms he will not run as an independent or for another party.

Hunter MP Joel Fitzgibbon. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

Joel Fitzgibbon is still to decide whether to recontest the seat of Hunter, north of Sydney, that he has held since 1996 but has confirmed he will not run as an independent or for another party at the next federal election.

“I am too old to rat,” Mr Fitzgibbon said. “I have been a member of the party for almost 40 years. Everything I do every day is in the name of the Labor Party and my ambition for Labor is to win. Millions of Australians rely on us to win from time to time. But we are letting them down.”

He said Labor would not win an election held now and must fundamentally change course to regain the trust of blue-collar ­voters, especially in rural and ­regional Australia.

“There is a perception among working people in the Hunter Valley that the Labor Party no longer represents them (and) now puts Greens obsessions ahead of their financial security and security of their families,” Mr Fitz­gibbon said. “They no longer believe Labor is on their side.

“I believe Anthony Albanese can win the election but not on the current trajectory, not on the current narrative and not if (the party) continues to do dumb things like oppose hundreds of millions of dollars of investment in new gas generation in the Hunter Valley.”

Mr Fitzgibbon said the fall in Labor’s support at the Upper Hunter by-election last weekend, where the state party’s vote plummeted to 21 per cent, was being replicated across rural and ­regional Australia.

“I remain of the view that you cannot win government without the requisite number of addit­ional regional seats and those seats we need are typically on double-digit margins,” he said.

“We have got a big task ahead of us and we won’t secure them unless we work very hard ­between now and the election.”

 

An analysis of federal Labor’s vote since it lost government in 2013 shows the party has clawed back support in metropolitan seats but continues to lose support in rural and regional seats, especially in NSW, Queensland and South Australia. The primary vote decline in rural and regional Australia since Labor last won a majority of seats, in 2007, shows dramatic primary vote falls.

Mr Fitzgibbon has won support from Jennie George, the former MP for Throsby in the Illawarra region, who said Labor would lose more seats if it did not listen to its regional MPs and ­address the “growing disconnect” between blue-collar workers and the party.

“Constituents rightly expect that you be on their side advocating on their behalf,” Ms George said. “The more that elected members like Joel are ostracised and asked to ‘toe the line’ on policies that are against the interests of their constituents, the more these seats are placed at risk.

“The dwindling number of rural and regional seats held by Labor results in a party increasingly out of touch with the culture and economic challenges in areas outside suburbs of major cities. These are often seats like those in the Illawarra and Hunter, underpinned by heavy industry and mining, where the base of Labor supporters have lived and worked for generations.”

Ms George, ACTU president from 1996-2000, said it was a mistake for Labor not to support the $600 million gas-fired power plant in Kurri Kurri as it would safeguard jobs.

“There is a growing disconnect in regional seats between blue-collar workers and the ALP,” she said. “The gas peaking plant should be supported. The future of Tomago and the fate of its workers must be assured.”