‘Tax, climate policies are not sacrosanct’: Mark Butler slaps down Wayne Swan

Labor heavyweight says it’s time for reflection after the party had its ‘backside handed’ to it by ‘Fozzie Bear and Kermit the Frog’.

Labor’s climate change and energy spokesman Mark Butler Picture Kym Smith

Labor Left heavyweight Mark Butler says the party’s climate change and tax policies must be part of a “deep, broad and ruthlessly unsparing” examination, as he delivers a scathing verdict on Bill Shorten’s loss in the May election.

The party’s former national president — a key factional ally of Anthony Albanese — has broken ranks with current president Wayne Swan, who declared on Friday Labor should hold the line on its economic and climate policies.

“This is an agenda to be proud of, not resile from, after a narrow loss,” Mr Swan said on Friday.

Mr Butler, Labor’s climate change and energy spokesman, said no policy should be sacrosanct given the party’s loss to “a government the Prime Minister himself described as The Muppet Show”.

“When you get your backside handed to you by Fozzie Bear and Kermit the Frog, it’s time for some serious reflection,” Mr Butler said in a speech in Parliament House on Monday afternoon.

Wayne Swan Picture: Kym Smith

“Every federal election is monumentally tough for Labor and 2022 will be no different. That’s why our policy and campaign review must be ruthless and unsparing.

“It will, and it should be, deeply uncomfortable.

“Nothing should be excluded or treated as sacrosanct.

“The area I had responsibility for — climate change and energy — must be part of that thorough examination.

“As should all of our taxation policies and the spending commitments they were directed at funding.”

Mr Butler’s speech was made at the Canberra launch of a book on Labor by academic Adrian Pabst, while Mr Swan’s speech on Friday was made at the book’s Sydney launch.

Dr Pabst’s book, Story of Our Country: Labor’s Vision for Australia, is scathing of the party’s Left, its shift away from church and family values towards socially progressive agenda, its commitment to market economics, and its climate policies it took the last election.

Mr Butler said Labor was a “Broad Church” and there should be a “full-throated discussion” about its direction.

“Some might find it strange that I’ve been asked — and agreed — to launch this book as a longstanding member of the Labor Left, about which it’s fair to say Adrian is a little unkind; and responsible for our climate policy, whose role in May comes in for some detailed attention,” he said.

“Well, the reason I agreed is because I deeply value all of the traditions of our party and the perspectives on our future.

“We just lost our third election in a row. The only majority we’ve won in the past 25 years was the majority of eight seats in 2007. And let’s not sugar coat the result in May. We got our lowest primary vote in a century.”

Mr Butler said federal Labor had been unable to replicate the party’s electoral success at a state level.

“Rightly or wrongly, we face a much harder task when it comes to the bread and butter of federal politics: national security and broad economic management. Our only three victories over Liberal governments since World War II all involved an immensely popular leader, a compelling national vision and a superior campaign,” he said.