Mark Dreyfus has declared the former shadow resources minister Joel Fitzgibbon represents only a “handful of views” in the Labor party and insists Labor cannot opt out of taking action on climate change because “change is coming, and we can either drive the change, or … have it imposed on us”.
The Victorian rightwinger and shadow attorney general blasted his factional colleague on the ABC on Wednesday after Fitzgibbon confirmed on Tuesday he would go to the backbench after a significant blow up in shadow cabinet on Monday night.
Guardian Australia revealed on Tuesday that Fitzgibbon and the Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, clashed on Monday night – the culmination of a long-running internal dispute about climate policy.
Albanese at the shadow cabinet meeting rebuked Fitzgibbon without naming him for cutting across Labor’s attempts to use Joe Biden’s victory in the US as an opportunity to pressure the Morrison government on its climate change record – a criticism prompting a curt response from Fitzgibbon.
Albanese and Fitzgibbon continued to argue, and Dreyfus, who has clashed with Fitzgibbon before for arguing that Labor should lower ambition in its climate policies, also interjected during the shadow cabinet battle on Monday night, branding Fitzgibbon’s behaviour a “disgrace”.
On Wednesday, Fitzgibbon was entirely unrepentant, doing another round of media interviews acknowledging the “dust up” with Albanese on Monday night, but insisting he was not asked to go to the backbench.
Fitzgibbon told the ABC he had intervened publicly after the Biden victory as an internal corrective because he did not want “the cheesecloth brigade in the caucus to argue for an even more ambitious climate policy” because of Donald Trump’s defeat.
Fitzgibbon said Labor needed to come to grips with its electoral record on climate change. “We keep overreaching and losing elections,” he said.
He said if Labor didn’t moderate its climate policy, Scott Morrison would win another federal contest and have another three years to underperform on emissions reduction.
But in an ABC radio interview in Melbourne, Dreyfus said: “I don’t think there’s a choice here. We don’t get to say no to climate change. We don’t get to say no to the effects of climate change and we don’t get to opt out of taking action.
“Joel likes to talk about overreach. It’s not overreach to take strong action on climate. Change is coming, we can either drive the change, or we can have it imposed on us.”
Dreyfus said he believed there was a growing realisation in the community about the need for action and “Joel Fitzgibbon has ceased to be a member of the shadow cabinet and is no longer a frontbencher of the Australian Labor party – he does not represent more than a handful of views”.
Fitzgibbon’s departure from the frontbench has prompted renewed speculation about Albanese’s grip on the Labor leadership. Fitzgibbon, who has maintained a long friendship with the current leader, says he believes Albanese will lead the opposition into the next federal election.
But departures from the cabinet or shadow cabinet are often harbingers of escalating strife, and Fitzgibbon has not ruled out a tilt if he were to be drafted by colleagues.
Fitzgibbon’s arguments about winding back ambition in climate policy aren’t friendless in the caucus, but they do not command majority support.
But some senior figures remain on the fence about whether Albanese is cutting through as a prime ministerial alternative to Scott Morrison.
The focal point of the internal dispute about climate policy is the ambition attached to any medium-term emissions reduction target Labor adopts during this parliamentary term.
While Labor agreed to adopt a net zero target by 2050 in one of its first major policies after the 2019 election loss, Fitzgibbon and the shadow climate change minister, Mark Butler, have been at odds for months on a new target for the 2030s.
Albanese in June gave a clear commitment to unveiling a medium-term emissions reduction target consistent with climate change science before the next election. But more recently, the Labor leader has flagged a “process of going up to net zero emissions by 2050”.
On Wednesday he was asked several times during a press conference whether Labor would adopt a medium-term target. Albanese sidestepped the specifics of the question, saying only there would be a “complete announcement” before the next election.
