‘Factional assassin’: Dumped Labor MP Ed Husic slams Deputy PM Richard Marles
A dumped Labor frontbencher has slammed Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles in an extraordinary spray on television.
Dumped Labor frontbencher Ed Husic has slammed Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles as a “factional assassin” and urged the Albanese Government throw off the shackles of timidity in a bombshell interview.
In an extraordinary spray, the veteran MP has revealed his outspoken comments on Gaza were a factor in his demise amid reports of intense cabinet clashes with Foreign Minister Penny Wong.
News.com.au has reported this week that Mr Marles has come under heavy fire internally for his failure to fight for the cabinet spots of Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus and Mr Husic.
Mr Husic has now spoken out for the first time since he was dumped offering an extraordinary take on the conduct of the Deputy Prime Minister, who owes his position in part to the NSW Right’s support.
“The difficult issue here is that we’ve had barefaced ambition and a Deputy Prime Minister wielded a factional club to reshape the ministry,’’ Mr Husic told Insiders.
“I think people when they look at a Deputy Prime Minister, they expect to see a statesman, not a factional assassin.”
“Strong words. You’re saying Richard Marles put his ambition to boost his numbers ahead of the good of the party and the government?’’ Insiders host David Speers then asked.
“I think a lot of people would draw that conclusion,’’ Mr Husic replied.
“I think he needed to exercise leadership. He’s part of the leadership group. He needs to be able to show that we’ve got to be able to manage these things in an orderly way.”
“Do you primarily blame Richard Marles for that?’’ Speers asked.
“I think Richard has a lot — there will be a lot of questions put to Richard about his role and that’s something that he will have to answer and account for,’’ Mr Husic said.
Speaking on the ABC’s Insiders program, Mr Husic revealed he saw the writing on the wall and did not force the NSW Right to a vote on the position.
In order to save his own job, one of the more senior members of the NSW Right in Canberra — Tony Burke, Chris Bowen and Jason Clare — would have needed to stand aside because of the Left securing an extra position.
That didn’t happen, forcing Ed Husic to walk the plank.
“I made the decision ultimately we would have had to have taken it to a national right ballot, the way it was managed was all very last minute,’’ he said.
“You’ve heard the stories about Mark (Dreyfus) trying to get in contact with Richard. These things were left, as I said, last minute. I think there was a deliberateness about all that. I wasn’t going to put my colleagues through that. I did, again, what I thought was the right thing.
“I did not want to put my colleagues through a national ballot. Again, I did it in the interests of stability.”
Mr Husic also accused Mr Marles of putting the Prime Minister in a difficult position.
“It was also especially disrespectful of the Deputy Prime Minister to put the Prime Minister in a terrible place where he was asked to intervene,’’ Mr Husic said.
“I didn’t think that was right either. The PM had great authority coming out of the election. I think if he’d exercised it in a way that provided for stability and a strong team, that had been there and could go forward, no-one would have quibbled about that.”
“I was going to ask you about the role of the Prime Minister. Do you think he should have intervened or not?’’ Speers asked.
“Well, of course, right?” Mr Husic replied. “Again, if he had exercised that authority, I don’t think anyone would have quibbled.”
‘Starvation is a war crime’
Mr Husic said he had no doubt that speaking out on Gaza was a factor in his political demise.
“From day one after the horrors of October 7 I emphasised we needed to acknowledge humanity for what Israelis suffered on October 7 and then what innocent civilians suffered, Palestinians, thereafter, slaughtered in their tens of thousands,’’ he said.
“We’ve seen just in the past week or so, the Israeli parliament say that it wants to annex Gaza and effectively that is a form of ethnic cleansing.
“We’ve seen the starvation of its people through the failure to provide humanitarian assistance. We do need to keep the focus on there and also ensure that there are voices on the international stage, of which we should continue to be one, that stress that innocent people should not be treated this way.
“Starvation is a war crime.”
Tax cuts
Accusing the government of being too timid on tax, Mr Husic has championed corporate tax cuts.
“My argument has been that we need to have a growth agenda,’’ he said.
“I think we have done great work in terms of helping average Australian workers get ahead. We need to fuel growth into the future.
“More than anything, we need to burn through the timidity that shackled us. We need to make big changes in a world changing fast to ensure the country stands on its own two feet, very important.”
How it unfolded
On Wednesday night, the Prime Minister sat in the ABC studios and was asked by 7:30 host Sarah Ferguson, “Does the authority given to you by the size of this victory, mean that the normal rules for handing out ministries to the factions no longer apply?”
“Well, the leader always gets to allocate portfolios under our system, but I’m someone who’s consultative,’’ Mr Albanese said.
Just an hour later, his deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles was on the phone to his Victorian colleague Mark Dreyfus at 8:30pm.
He made it clear that he wouldn’t lift a finger as the head of the Victorian Right to save Labor’s only Jewish MP in cabinet from being dumped from the ministry.
On Thursday morning, Mark Dreyfus contacted the Prime Minister before a delegation went to his office urging that Mr Dreyfus be saved.
With unfettered power after his election victory, Mr Albanese could have intervened to provide a more dignified exit for Mr Dreyfus.
When Mr Dreyfus’ wife Deborah died from cancer in November, 2023, the Prime Minister begged him to stay and run again.
The Prime Minister, the Labor factions and ‘respect’
By the time the Prime Minister spoke to Sky News on Thursday he issued a veiled warning to his MPs including Mark Dreyfus and Ed Husic.
“Government brings with it responsibility, and no individual is greater than the collective, and that includes myself,’’ he said.
“And we need to approach this term with humility, to make sure that we deliver on the commitments that we made to the Australian people, but also that we operate in a way which shows solidarity.”
The message sent was keep your mouths shut and think of the Labor Party.
When Anthony Albanese addressed his 90-strong caucus after a historic victory on Friday morning, the day after he spoke to the dumped Mr Dreyfus, Labor MPs claim he refused to even look him in the eye.
He did not acknowledge or thank the two ministers dumped by the factions – the Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus and Industry Minister Ed Husic – that served in his cabinet for three years.
Mark Dreyfus was escorted to and from the caucus room by Victorian MP Julian Hill, who isn’t even in his faction and Labor MP Jodie Belyea, from the neighbouring electorate of Dunkely.
Paul Keating blasts Albo
Former Prime Minister Paul Keating slammed the decision.
“As the cabinet’s sole Muslim member, Husic’s expulsion from the ministry proffers contempt for the measured and centrist support provided by the broader Muslim community to the Labor Party at the general election,” Mr Keating said in a statement.
“And for what? To keep up some notional proportional count between factions and elements of the Right of the party between states, in this case between representatives of New South Wales and Victoria.”
The Victorian Right, under the leadership of Richard Marles, was “a faction demonstrably devoid of creativity and capacity.”
Originally published as ‘Factional assassin’: Dumped Labor MP Ed Husic slams Deputy PM Richard Marles
State to strengthen trade ties with China
Queensland will embark on a key trade mission to China this week, including opening a new office in Shenzhen.
Major update in hotly contested seat
A key Teal independent is on track to hold her seat after one of the longest undecided vote counts of the federal election.