Joel Fitzgibbon: I may run for Labor leader

Joel Fitzgibbon may run for leader if the contender doesn’t put “regional Australia on the agenda.”

Joel Fitzgibbon at his Cessnock home. Picture: Chris Pavlich.

Labor frontbencher Joel Fitzgibbon has not ruled out running for Labor leadership if the contender doesn’t put “regional Australia back on the policy agenda.”

“I’ll be backing the person who’s prepared to show more interest in regional Australia,” Mr Fitzgibbon told ABC radio this morning.

“If I’m convinced that people aren’t prepared to make that commitment than I’ll have no choice but to fly the flag myself.

“Some might say I’m getting a bit old but I won’t rule myself out.”

FEDERAL

2019

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Hunter

Mr Fitzgibbon told host Fran Kelly he would back the leader that demonstrated their willingness to reconnect with regional Australia and the working class base.

“Someone who (demonstrates) they will talk as much about blue collared workers as we do about other important policy issues,” he said.

“Albo has always been a strong voter of the regions, there is no doubt about that and I’ll have a conversation with him and each of the other candidates.”

“This is maybe our only opportunity to ensure that at the next election we have re-engaged back with our base and got ourselves back to the centre.

One Nation’s Stuart Bonds with his wife Sini Ariell. Picture: Chris Pavlich.

In the 2013 election Mr Fitzgibbon said Labor had just five rural seats and made the point that Labor couldn’t win with less than 13.

“We now have just six,” he said.

Mr Fitzgibbon, who has held the NSW Hunter seat since 1996, has suffered a swing of 20 percent towards One Nation and Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party.

One Nation candidate Stuart Bonds was a close contender in the mining district, mostly due to his pro-coal Adani mine stance, but Mr Fitzgibbon is set to retain the seat, which includes the towns of Singleton, Muswellbrook and Cessnock.

Mr Fitzgibbon told The Australian yesterday Labor’s progressive agenda had alienated its blue-collar base and the party now needed to “move back to the centre”.

Mr Fitzgibbon holds a five-point two-party-preferred lead over the Nationals’ Josh Angus. But, trailing by just 2000 votes, Mr Bonds could challenge if preferences from the Christian Democrats or United Australia Party go his way.