As members of the dominant Labor Left-faction caucus cheered and applauded each other in the government’s Senate partyroom, the once mighty ALP Right faction was left to lick its wounds after Ed Husic and Mark Dreyfus were booted from Anthony Albanese’s cabinet.
With the Prime Minister’s beloved Left faction becoming the dominant force in his caucus following Saturday’s historic election rout of Peter Dutton’s Liberal Party, Labor’s right-wing powerbrokers on Thursday were forced to wield the axe.
While Albanese has the power to appoint Labor MPs and senators to cabinet and ministerial positions, it is the union-aligned ALP factions that determine the list he gets to choose from.
Albanese’s authority and power after the election is immense. But Labor’s rules are sacred.
The likely fall of Husic and Dreyfus – the most senior Muslim and Jewish ministers in Labor ranks – is symbolic of the waning power of Labor’s Right faction. When Bob Hawke claimed power in 1983, the party’s left-wingers struggled to get a single seat at the table.
The heady days of the NSW Right – led by Paul Keating and Graham Richardson – are long gone. After Saturday night’s thumping election victory and arrival of new Left-aligned MPs, the NSW Right had to lose one of its four male cabinet ministers in Husic, Tony Burke, Chris Bowen and Jason Clare. And in a brutal exhibition of internal Labor politics, Husic for the second time in his parliamentary career was dumped.
The 55-year-old, an architect of Albanese’s $15bn National Reconstruction Fund and Future Made in Australia plan, in 2019 was sent to the backbench to make room for the perennial political dud Kristina Keneally.
Husic, who wasn’t afraid of rubbing his cabinet colleagues the wrong way, had his moments during the 47th parliament. He was criticised by Jewish leaders and the Coalition for suggesting Israel “could be investigated” for alleged war crimes, and annoyed Jim Chalmers over his public call for lower company tax rates to be considered.
Dreyfus, whose membership of the Victorian Right faction often raised internal eyebrows given some didn’t believe he was a true right-winger, turns 69 this year. He also drew the ire of Jewish leaders for preferencing the anti-Israel Greens second.
With ministerial blood on the floor just five-days after the election, Albanese faces a longer-term challenge managing his massive Dutton-gifted caucus brimming with ambition, jealousy and factional sparring.
ALP MP: unrealised gains tax ‘not ours’
A former Labor vice-president and trade union leader Michael Easson has cut down the Albanese government’s plan for a tax on unrealised gains just as newly elected Labor MP Matt Gregg told voters the party has already dropped it.
NDIS firm’s secret bonuses exposed
NDIS provider Cocoon SDA Care offered staff secret extra bonuses for signing up clients with significant disabilities, in a program condemned for creating an incentive to pressure those needing support to act against their own best interests.