Labor whip Joel Fitzgibbon is counting numbers for switch to Kevin Rudd: reports

LABOR whip Joel Fitzgibbon is reportedly telling nervous MPs that the party should turn back to Kevin Rudd as leader.

Gillard

LABOR whip Joel Fitzgibbon is reportedly telling nervous MPs that the party should turn back to Kevin Rudd as leader.

Amid growing concerns about Julia Gillard's leadership, Mr Fitzgibbon told MPs last week that the hung parliament was "killing" the government, News Limited Sunday newspapers.

The Sun-Herald also reported that the former defence minister had switched camps and was now making the case for change to MPs.

The reports that the former supporter of the Prime Minister is openly counting numbers for the deposed leader three months after his failed leadership bid came as Ms Gillard battled to contain the fallout from a government decision to grant billionaire mining magnate Gina Rinehart the right to import 1715 migrant labourers on a major West Australian iron ore project.

With Workplace Relations Minister Bill Shorten by her side, Ms Gillard vowed yesterday that no foreign worker would take a job that an Australian could do.

"Companies won't be able to bring in foreign workers if there is an Australian ready, able and willing to do the work on the jobs board," she said.

The scathing reaction from the unions over the decision to favour the mining magnate - while the government conducts a class war campaign against mining billionaires and vested interests to sell its "working families" budget - has exposed new divisions in the cabinet.

Tensions have been inflamed at the highest levels of the government at a time when Labor is unable to escape the Craig Thomson affair and backbenchers are openly expressing doubts at the Prime Minister's ability to recapture public support.

The Weekend Australian reports that support for Ms Gillard has been "peeling off" after she was unable to explain how a "line had been crossed" on the Thomson affair after spending months defending him.

Rudd supporters have remained silent so far, but some who voted for Ms Gillard in the February leadership count are openly contemplating a switch to Mr Rudd.

Mr Fitzgibbon is reportedly telling MPs that a switch to Mr Rudd did not necessarily mean a snap election, as the independents did not want to go to the polls early.

"We need to make the switch. This chaos is killing us," he told MPs.

Ms Gillard has been lashed by union leaders and members of her own party over Friday's announcement that Ms Rinehart would be permitted to hire up to 20 per cent of the construction workforce on her Roy Hill iron ore project from overseas.

Labor Senator Doug Cameron warned earlier yesterday that the Prime Minister faced tough questions at a caucus meeting on Tuesday over the issue.

Ms Gillard told union leaders in Canberra on Friday that she was furious that the decision on the Roy Hill workers by Immigration Minister Chris Bowen had not been taken to cabinet, but that by the time she learned of the approval on Wednesday, Ms Rinehart's Hancock Prospecting had already been informed of the decision and it could not be reversed.

Another government source told The Australian, however, that Mr Bowen's announcement followed a decision in last year's budget, had been the subject of consultation, and that "everyone is in the loop", including the Prime Minister's office.

Ms Gillard refused to comment on whether she was consulted on the deal with Ms Rinehart.

"I don't on any given day comment on internal government processes," she said.

Senator Cameron said that he was gobsmacked by the deal and angry that such an arrangement had been made at the same time as Australian employees were being laid off from other workplaces.

"We've got workers being marched off the job in Kurri Kurri, marched off the job by Qantas in Melbourne and Chinese workers marching in Western Australia," he said. "I think the politics of this is terrible and I just think we need to have a good look at what's going on.

Senator Cameron, the former national secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, said that there needed to have been better consultation before the decision on Ms Rinehart's application for an enterprise migration agreement was announced.

"Obviously you don't make a decision like this without it being well-known for some period of time," he said. "And I think the caucus and the backbench are entitled to hear about big decisions like this a bit quicker than we were."

While not criticising the Prime Minister directly, Senator Cameron, who supported Kevin Rudd in the recent Labor leadership challenge, said that the plan should not have gone ahead.

"If she (Ms Gillard) knew about it on Wednesday, I think it should have been stopped on Wednesday," he said.

with AAP