Anthony Albanese stabs himself in the foot with a cattle farmer’s pitchfork

Forget coal and climate change. In his haste to fill the void on his frontbench left by chief bomb-thrower Joel Fitzgibbon, Anthony Albanese has created a potentially bigger problem for himself in the regions.

His new agriculture spokesman, western Sydney MP Ed Husic, is a fierce and vocal opp­onent of live cattle exports.

While this may sit comfortably with some of his colleagues, most Labor MPs who have been around long enough know that nothing will have cattle farmers coming at them with pitchforks more violently than this.

Think two seats in the Northern Territory and several in Queensland and Western Australia for a start.

While few would argue that Husic doesn’t belong on the Labor frontbench, even fewer would agree that this is a portfolio suited to the member for Chifley.

Albanese is now faced with three choices: he asks Husic to ­recant; he immediately shifts him from the portfolio; or he accepts the government’s argument that by virtue of Husic’s position, Labor agriculture policy now includes a ban on live cattle exports.

It is highly likely that Husic’s tenure in the agriculture and resources job was always going to be short-lived because Albanese plans to shift the deckchairs on his frontbench next month.

But his rush to slot him into Fitzgibbon’s portfolio has further exposed the increasing weakness of Albanese’s leadership.

He was either unaware or ­unfazed by the potential policy problems it would raise.

The process he engaged to ­appoint Husic, a senior member of the NSW Right, has also further alienated Albanese from others in the Right who are now even shittier that they were forced to hastily convene a meeting of the Right faction that prevented anyone else from nominating.

Instead of tidying up at least part of the destruction that the Fitzgibbon resignation has caused to Labor this week, Albanese may have simply added to it with this hasty decision.