Federal election 2019: Joel Fitzgibbon delivers leadership ultimatum

Long-standing Member for Hunter, Joel Fitzgibbon, raises the prospect of a surprise contender after Labor’s poll disaster.

Labor MP Joel Fitzgibbon. Picture: Chris Pavlich

Joel Fitzgibbon has delivered an ultimatum to any potential Labor leadership candidate that he or she needs to provide a guarantee in writing of support for rural and regional Australia or he will contest the leadership ballot himself.

Mr Fitzgibbon, the long-standing member for Hunter in rural NSW who was agriculture minister in the previous Opposition led by Bill Shorten, said he would rather a younger candidate contest the leadership but unless there was a seat at the table for the bush the ALP would continue to make the same mistakes.

He told Channel Seven’s Sunrise that any leaders of the Labor Party would need to be able to say that while they were committed to action on climate change, “I’m equally committed to the mining industry. I equally committed to getting gas out of the ground to fuel our jobs in the manufacturing sector and I’m committed to giving regional Australia a big seat at the decision making table.’’

#BREAKING: Joel Fitzgibbon tells Sunrise he's 'prepared to run' for Labor leadership #auspol pic.twitter.com/xKRW1ELSss

— Sunrise (@sunriseon7) May 20, 2019

He said the Labor Party had been punished for its “fence sitting’’ on the future of the Adani coal mine and had failed to declare emphatic support for the mining industry.

Mr Fitzgibbon’s intervention comes after the resignation of Mr Shorten as Opposition Leader after the ALP’s election defeat on Saturday which has sparked recriminations in the party that it was too consumed by an inner city elite agenda that was rejected by outer suburban and regional voters.

Anthony Albanese, from the party’s left faction and the inner-west Sydney seat of Grayndler, has announced he is a candidate for the leadership and Jim Chalmers from the right faction and the outer suburban Brisbane seat of Rankin is considering a run.

Mr Fitzgibbon said if the ALP did not have someone from the bush at the decision making table “we will continue to make the same mistakes’’.

Mr Fitzgibbon said the ALP had to get back to the centre of politics.

“I am considering it, yes. I’d much rather someone else do it. But if I need to do it to secure the new path, the new direction we need, I certainly will,” he told the Nine Network this morning.

“We need to get back to our working class base and send a clear message that we are on their side. I want to put Labor back into the Labor Party.”

Mr Fitzgibbon also said that the Opposition was punished for “fence-sitting” on certain issues like Adani as much it was for taking big, controversial reforms to the polls.

“You know we need to revisit all of our policies. I am into the sure that the policy settings were the big problem. Of course, they were a problem. Of course, they were a problem.

“I think more particularly, we found ourselves sitting on the fence on a couple of issues. If our formal policy is to support the coal mining industry and the export of coal, say it.

“Because if you do support it then surely you welcome new coal mining. The Queensland Government approved a huge coal mine in Queensland during the campaign. It got hardly any attention. It was all about Adani.

“We should have recognise it was all about Adani and we should have done something about Adani.”