Anthony Albanese has backed a left-faction push for Labor members to gain more power over preselections and declared loyalty to the Labor cause rather than the current leader, Bill Shorten.
Despite Labor riding high in the polls, Shorten faces a test in the Batman byelection, along with the difficulties of managing factional deals in Victoria and a renewed push for party democracy by the ALP president, Mark Butler.
On Sunday Albanese, Shorten’s challenger for the leadership in 2013, told Sky News that he was a “strong supporter of rank-and-file preselections”.
“I think we need to have a direct say in who our senators are, that people in the rank and file of the party should get input to that, rather than it being a delegated structure of being elected by state conferences,” he said.
In a speech to the Fabian Society in January, Butler said Senate and Legislative Council positions “remain a last bastion of backroom dealing by self-appointed factional warlords” and that Senate vacancies should not be filled by “highly centralised factional processes”.
In this term of parliament, Senate vacancies have been filled by Shorten’s preferred candidates – Kimberley Kitching in Victoria and the former premier Kristina Keneally in New South Wales. Albanese was a critic of Shorten’s captain’s call to parachute Kitching into the Senate.
Albanese described Butler, the party’s climate change spokesman, as an “outstanding person” who “stands up for the interests of party members”.
“He has stood on a platform and will continue to argue for reform of the party and I think he’s done an outstanding job,” Albanese said.
The shadow infrastructure minister said Butler had not yet decided if he wished to seek a second term but, if he did, Albanese would support him.
On Friday Shorten said that Butler had “done a good job in his term” but avoided questions about whether it was appropriate for a frontbench MP to also serve as president.
Asked what it would take for him to challenge Shorten for the leadership, Albanese said that his challenge is “doing the right thing by the Australian people as part of Bill Shorten’s team”.
He listed cost of living, the national broadband network and declining government spending on infrastructure as his priorities.
When given the binary of loyalty to Shorten or the best interests of the Labor party, Albanese opted for “the cause of Labor and the people we represent”.
“[Australians] want a government, and indeed an opposition, that’s concerned about them, rather than about ourselves,” he said. “That is what I will be doing this year as I have done, loyally, under a whole range of leaders over a long period of time.
“I’ll be doing my best in the job that I’ve got, which is substantial as Labor’s spokesperson for infrastructure, transport, cities, regional development and tourism. I reckon that will keep me busy.”
Albanese said that Labor “should win” the Batman byelection, despite a credible threat from the Greens.
The president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, Ged Kearney, will contest the seat for Labor but faces an uphill battle against the Greens candidate, Alex Bhathal, whose position has been strengthened by Malcolm Turnbull signalling the Liberals will not field a candidate.
Albanese noted the margin in the seat was “pretty tight”.
“But I think David Feeney himself would recognise that he didn’t have the best campaign of any candidate I have seen in the last federal election,” he said. “I think in terms of his politics and where [Feeney] comes from and his priorities, I think Ged Kearney is a very good fit for that seat.”
