ALP’s Otis Group pushes for turn to the right

Anthony Albanese will need to think hard on how to deal with a group of up to 20 Labor MPs.

Labor frontbencher Joel Fitzgibbon. Picture: AAP

Anthony Albanese will need to think hard about how he deals with a group of up to 20 Labor MPs and senators calling themselves the Otis Group — named after a restauran­t in the Canberra suburb of Kingston.

They met there on the Sunday before the first sitting week of the year, and have been exchanging emails and text messages since. The first the Labor leader knew about the group was when questions were asked about them.

The group doesn’t just comprise rogue backbenchers. It includes­ nine frontbenchers, with names such as Joel Fitzgibbon, Shayne Neumann and Don Farrell­. While the grouping is a factional inner circle of the right, its grievances aren’t to do with factional­ politics. The members want to see Labor move further to the right on policy scripts such as coalmining, climate change more broadly and how Labor best ­handles the threat of the Greens on its left flank.

So the Otis Group named themselves after Otis restaurant in Canberra where they first met...it’s also an acronym for Outside The Inner Sanctum 🤷‍♂️ #auspol #justsaying

— Peter van Onselen (@vanOnselenP) February 13, 2020

The collective wants to see Labor avoid the trap of pandering to its left flank, as they believe Bill Shorten did during the latter part of his time as opposition leader. One key organiser — Mr Fitz­gibbon — nearly lost his seat of Hunter to One Nation because of a backlash against Labor in mining communities.

This grouping is not designed to challenge the Opposition Leader, or throw its support behind a right-wing opponent to him. The fact that Jim Chalmers and Chris Bowen aren’t within the grouping speaks to that reality.

However, if members feel in the coming six to 12 months that they are not being listened to, their collective angst over Labor’s policy positioning could morph into angst with Albanese’s leadership.

Those close to Mr Albanese say he has already worked hard to offer an olive branch to this group’s views before it formally came together under the chosen nomenclature. Yet the extent of its internal messaging and the willingness of some within the group to talk to me about their grievances suggests it may not quietly fade from view now their secret mess­ages and meetings are exposed.

Correspondence between the 20 members of the Otis Group includes­ expressions of frustration at questions submitted to the tactics­ committee for question time being ignored. They also have expressed the strong desire that members of the group speak up to ensure they help the opposition be more competitive electorally.

Scott Morrison and the Nat­ionals will be relieved that the first sitting fortnight has ended with intern­al divisions within Labor surfacing — the government has made a tough time of the opening sitting fortnight for the year but this may give Team Morrison hope it can recover and turn policy pressure back on the opposition.