Joel Fitzgibbon exposes a lost Labor as Christian Porter faces modern spotlight

Joel Fitzgibbon at Parliament House in Canberra on Tuesday after his resignation from Labor’s front bench. Picture: Gary Ramage

The resignation of Joel Fitzgibbon from Labor’s front bench underlines the tensions that inevitably trouble a party that has been out of government too long.

As the dreary years in opposition reinforce the view that Labor is just not destined to get regular experience in the art of government, some navel gazing is probably necessary — no matter how uncomfortable it makes the party’s leaders.

Labor has been way out in front on climate change because it did not read the tea leaves very well. Australians clearly express their belief in climate change but are not too keen on paying to remedy it.

Not that Labor is alone in tasting a bitter dose of discomfort. Christian Porter’s private life was laid bare on Four Corners on Monday night and it was not a pretty sight. If he really is the man the ABC accused him of being, his career is over.

This kind of behaviour could be swept under the nearest carpet in past years but that is no longer possible.

A saucy story on a prominent politician is grist for the media mill and yearns to be put on the front page. It will be the lead story on radio and television as well because it fits perfectly into the natural mistrust Australians have of their political class.

These days some of the media are in for the kill.

If Christian Porter really is the man the ABC accused him of being, his career is over. Picture by Sean Davey.

No one could argue that the private life of the chief law officer in the country does not have some public interest.

No one will ask Porter’s estranged wife if she thought the story should have been published. Her embarrassment, with all of the details of her husband’s alleged behaviour, must be terribly difficult to absorb.

While writing this piece I watched a Scott Morrison press conference. This is the first time he has faced a real ministerial scandal.

While I realise Angus Taylor had some difficulty in knowing what documents he had signed, that was small beer when compared to the escapades of the Attorney-General.

The Prime Minister won’t say it in public but he must be furious that his chief law officer has got himself into such a mess.

Morrison had a scandal-free cabinet up to now but that has been squandered in a flash of self-indulgence by his Attorney-General.

Just watching this play out in the media, Morrison knows that no government policy approved by cabinet is worth announcing until the media’s attention has moved on from Porter.

When the Marshall Islands Affair broke I resigned despite Paul Keating’s wishes. He wanted me to stay and, like the warrior he has always been, was up for the fight.

I left because my continued presence as a senior minister was a distraction no party can afford.

These circumstances don’t apply on this occasion.

Fitzgibbon’s presence on the front bench was a big positive for Labor. No candidate with the exception of Fitzgibbon could have held Hunter last year and the seat can only be held next time if Fitzgibbon runs.

The plot thickens, as they say in the classics.