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Labor’s Joel Fitzgibbon facing climate policy payback

Labor frontbencher Mark Dreyfus has used a meeting of Victorian Right MPs to take aim at Joel Fitzgibbon.

Mark Dreyfus, right, has taken aim at Joel Fitzgibbon, left, for freelancing on climate­ change policies, arguing it was doing damage to other right-wing members of the ALP.
Mark Dreyfus, right, has taken aim at Joel Fitzgibbon, left, for freelancing on climate­ change policies, arguing it was doing damage to other right-wing members of the ALP.

Labor frontbencher Mark Dreyfus has used a meeting of Victorian Right MPs to take aim at Joel Fitzgibbon for freelancing on climate­ change policies, arguing it was doing damage to other right-wing members of the ALP.

Mr Dreyfus, the opposition’s legal affairs spokesman, canvassed factional reforms that would limit the internal power of the Hunter MP, which could include rotating Mr Fitzgibbon out of his role as convener of the national right-wing faction.

Under Mr Dreyfus’s idea, the role would be changed ­regularly.

Mr Fitzgibbon has been the senior convener of the national Right since 2010 but the position does not go to a formal election.

The debate raged as right-wing MPs, including Mr Fitzgibbon and his closest allies, publicly backed Anthony Albanese’s adoption of a zero net emissions target despite their private reservations over the timing of the announcement.

Mr Dreyfus and fellow Victoria­n Right frontbencher Clare O’Neil were among MPs during the Monday night meeting who were concerned Mr Fitzgibbon appeared to be speaking for them with his pro-coal rhetoric.

Sources said Bill Shorten also raised concerns about the processes of the national Right in the meeting of Victorians, which ­included members of Mr Fitzgibbon’s pro-coal Otis Group: Kimberley Kitching, Daniel Mulino, Raff Ciccone and Anthony Byrne.

“People were a bit pissed off about Joel coming out with policy ideas without consulting the ­national Right,” a source said.

“There were discussions about how the Right can come up with policies so that Joel is not seen as everyone’s spokesperson.”

After the Victorian Right meeting, Mr Shorten and other MPs spoke at the national Right meeting in favour of reform. The former Labor leader proposed more policy­ debates during meetings of the national Right to give members­ a greater say on policy.

Mr Fitzgibbon used the nat­ion­al Right meeting to apologise for accidentally sending a group email to a Coalition staffer, which led to the media learning of the Otis Group’s existence.

The resources spokesman also told MPs he had been vocal on the climate change debate because he thought the party needed to pick up seats in Western Australia and Queensland to be competitive. “I would have thought his position was enhanced after that meeting,” claimed one of his supporters.

Mr Dreyfus has been a controversial figure within the Victorian Right since he entered parliament in 2007 in the Melbourne seat of Isaacs. He is privately accused of being more liberal than others in the faction on social and national security issues. “He is beyond left-wing,” one MP said.

Sources said the majority of Victorian Right MPs had sympa­thy for Mr Dreyfus’s concerns about Mr Fitzgibbon’s freelancing on climate change.

Opposition climate change spokesman Mark Butler indicated on Tuesday that Labor might adopt a 2035 medium-term target. Labor’s medium-term target at the last election was to reduce emissions by 45 per cent of 2005 levels by 2030.

“Stakeholders have made it clear that by 2022 the global discussio­n, the global negotiation, won’t be around 2030 — they will be around a 2035 target,” Mr Butler­ said.

“That is obviously a factor that is taken into account but it is not a decision we are taking at this point in time. We want to engage people about it.”

Read related topics:Climate Change

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Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/labors-joel-fitzgibbon-facing-climate-policy-payback/news-story/b2a28c6edcce148e81ed836a69ef45e4