Labor rebels duck in for Chinese with Anthony Albanese on menu

The Labor recalcitrants formerly known as the Otis Group got together once more this time at the Wild Duck restaurant.

Labor MP Joel Fitzgibbon leaves the Wild Duck restaurant in Canberra on Wednesday. Picture: Gary Ramage

If it walks like a duck, looks like a duck and counts like a duck, it’s a wild duck.

The Labor recalcitrants formerly known as the Otis Group got together once more on Wednesday night, this time at the Wild Duck restaurant on the Kingston foreshore in ­Canberra.

Former frontbencher and Anthony Albanese critic Joel Fitzgibbon, former Labor leader Bill Shorten and factional powerbroker Don Farrell were sitting ducks on entry. All up, more than a dozen MPs attended the dinner.

The Otis Group, originally named after the Otis Dining Hall where Mr Fitzgibbon and Senator Farrell came up with the idea, was revealed publicly at the beginning of 2020. Its purpose: discussing ways Labor might deviate from the policy agenda that was building under Mr Albanese’s leadership. Its primary goal was to shift the opposition’s policies on climate and energy, but its mission statement soon broadened to wider criticisms with the way the leadership was managing Labor strategy.

The group also met late last year in Senator Farrell’s office, the first time Mr Shorten attended one of the meetings.

Labor senator Kimberley Kitching arrives at the Wild Duck restaurant in Canberra on Wednesday night. Picture: Gary Ramage

Last night’s dinner heard plenty of grievances, including with the tactical decision-making in the leader’s office. Last month Mr Shorten took a not-so-veiled swipe at his successor when he used a speech to describe Labor’s policy agenda under Mr Albanese as “tiny”. That attack was also a hot topic of conversation at last night’s dinner.

The number of MPs in attendance would have been larger had West Australian MPs not been forced into isolation after the recent COVID outbreak in Perth.

The Australian has been told the Left-aligned MP for Cowan, Anne Aly, had planned to attend for the first time, joining a number of WA frontbenchers.

One Otis member said: “This isn’t just a right factional get together. We are concerned about the direction the party is taking under Anthony’s leadership and we are quite open with each other about that.”

Leader of the Opposition Anthony Albanese (R) speaks with the Member for Maribyrnong Bill Shorten during Question Time in the House of Representatives at Parliament House on Tuesday.

The gathering comes in the wake of rumblings within Labor over the summer about Albanese’s leadership, tempered somewhat at the beginning of this parliamentary sitting week by Newspoll revealing a boost in Labor’s vote. The major parties are locked at 50-50 a piece on the two-party vote.

“But did you notice Albo’s personal numbers went backwards,” one Otis member noted wryly.

Wednesday night’s get together is an unwanted distraction for Mr Albanese. It comes as Scott Morrison has been under pressure to drag ­maverick Liberal Craig Kelly into line over his comments on ­vaccines and COVID-19, which contradicted the government’s ­official medical advice.

Mr Fitzgibbon did the lion’s share of the organising for Wednesday night’s dinner, hosted in one of the private dining rooms of the Wild Duck shortly after parliament closed.

The Kingston diner is where Malcolm Turnbull — then a ­leadership aspirant — met United Australia Party leader Clive Palmer for what the then senator described as “chopstick diplomacy”.

On Wednesday, Mr Shorten was joined by aged care services spokeswoman Clare O’Neil, ­Daniel Mulino, Kimberley ­Kitching, Meryl Swanson and Deb O’Neil. And even before the evening was over those present were told that another would likely be on the cards.