[ad_1]
Left-wing Labor MPs have lined up to attack outspoken leader Joel Fitzgibbon in a fierce left-wing committee meeting on the shadow resource minister who works independently in politics.
Guardian Australia understands that some 15 MPs spoke during the discussion, which was sparked by a briefing by shadow climate change minister Mark Butler on the party’s position on gas.
Butler briefed MPs on Monday night of an internal deliberation called to try to resolve an ongoing public battle between the leader, Anthony Albanese, Butler and Fitzgibbon over Labor language regarding gas, a process that ultimately produced points of opposition. conversation stating that Labor would support new gas projects. , subject to environmental approvals and reaching net zero emissions by 2050.
Butler’s briefing sparked MPs’ frustration and anger at Fitzgibbon’s continued public campaign since the 2019 election defeat for Labor to lower their ambition on climate policy, a reaction that appears to continue at the regular meeting of the Labor committee on Tuesday.
Veteran left Labor Warren Snowden told the meeting that the Labor faction structure was supposed to impose discipline around internal deliberations and public communication of politics, and that Fitzgibbon, as the convener of the right wing faction and leader of high ranking, he was held accountable for his frequent public interventions contrary to collective agreements.
Sources at the meeting say top leaders Tanya Plibersek and Linda Burney were highly critical of their counterpart in the shadow cabinet.
Other left-wing MPs expressed frustration that Fitzgibbon’s interventions, as one MP put it during the meeting, “were doing Scott Morrison’s work for him.”
Several left-wing MPs had wanted to use Joe Biden’s victory in the US presidential race to redouble public advocacy for Labor staying the course for climate action, given that the Democrat had prevailed in the race against Donald Trump with significant commitments that pushed for a national government. and global transformation towards low emissions.
But Labor MPs expressed the view that Fitzgibbon’s sustained interventions, which persisted in media interviews throughout Monday, carried over from the plan to frame Labor’s record in a positive light and put pressure on the government.
There was particular fury that Fitzgibbon described his colleagues as “delusional” for taking comfort in the positive sign of Biden’s victory over climate action.
The prime minister has faced constant questions about the government’s climate commitments since Biden was projected as the winner of the US presidential election at the weekend. Biden says that after his inauguration, the United States will adhere to a net zero goal by 2050 and will also join the Paris climate agreement.
The government has an emissions reduction target for 2030, but has so far rejected calls to subscribe to the mid-century pledge.
On Monday, Morrison told parliament that Australia would like to achieve a net zero emission reduction ambition “as quickly as possible”, but one of its own backers, Conservative MP Craig Kelly, later declared that the Coalition’s accession to net zero would be an act. of “political suicide.”
Given the current political divisions in the Labor Party, Albanese faced questions about how internal differences in the opposition would be resolved.
Albanese said that the Labor Party had adhered to a net zero target, and said voters would know before the next election “exactly our process of reaching net zero emissions by 2050.”
The Labor leader had previously said that he would announce a medium-term emissions reduction target consistent with climate change science before the next election, but Monday’s language was more open.
Butler has rejected the idea of Labor adopting the same 2030 target as the government, and Fitzgibbon has threatened to leave the shadow cabinet if the opposition adopts a medium-term emissions reduction target it cannot live with.
