Labor frontbencher markdreyfusQCMP has branded his fellow shadow cabinet member fitzhunter 'the idiot for Hunter' in a heated caucus meeting that has exposed a growing divide within the ALP over its energy policy. climatechange gas fedpol
Several sources on the hook-up said Mr Dreyfus, alongside first-term MP Josh Burns, was "dismayed" at Mr Fitzgibbon's constant pro-coal rhetoric, with the veteran figure declaring Labor was "the party of climate change".Mr Dreyfus told colleagues frontbenchers were bound by shadow cabinet solidarity and should not be arguing against party policy. Several MPs believed Mr Dreyfus was suggesting Mr Fitzgibbon should resign from his position for breaching cabinet solidarity.
Clare O'Neil, also a frontbencher, told the call she did not believe it was in Labor's interest to be talking about climate change constantly until the election. But Mr Fitzgibbon also had his defenders, including Daniel Mulino, the member for Fraser in the outer north-west of metropolitan Melbourne, who has said publicly gas would have a role to play for the long term.
Senator Kimberley Kitching, also an ally of Mr Fitzgibbon, told the call she believed the party's climate policy should be "anchored to jobs for working Australians". However, some MPs told both the meeting and this masthead it was Mr Butler who was failing on the politics of climate and energy and it had become problematic for caucus and in the electorate. "He is as useless as a vegan in a butcher's shop," one MP said.
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