Labor's internal anxiety over its future policy direction - especially on climate - is set to intensify in the coming weeks as the reality of another three years in opposition sinks in for its caucus members.
Veteran frontbencher Joel Fitzgibbon, who has been in Parliament for 23 years but has served less than two of them as a cabinet minister, laid the angst bare on Wednesday. The MP, who hails from coal country in the NSW Hunter region, argued the opposition had "confused and scared" voters with its policies at the May election during his speech to think tank the Sydney Institute.
While a review is conducted into the policies taken to the last election, Labor isn't saying much when it comes to the issues of climate change and energy.
The speech, which argued for a "sensible settlement" with the Morrison government on emissions targets, was leaked ahead of time and ran on the front page of The Australian, ensuring a full day of debate before it was delivered.
It blindsided Labor leader Anthony Albanese's office, which only received a copy late Wednesday night - not long before the newspaper's printing presses had started firing up. Billed as "Managing Disruption: Australia's Place In A Changing World", the office had assumed the speech was dealing with US President Donald Trump and global affairs.
In all likelihood Fitzgibbon was never going to seek approval for what he planned to say and requesting Albanese's approval would have left the fledgling leader in the awkward position of having to quash the open and honest debate on policy he had promised.
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| Joel Fitzgibbon advocated for Labor to wind back its 45 per cent carbon emissions reduction target. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen |
His move infuriated caucus colleagues who said there was no need for a public split on climate targets years before a final policy would have to be decided for the next election.
The party's climate spokesman Mark Butler declared within hours that Labor was "unshakeably committed" to the principles set out in the Paris climate agreement. "The government's targets, announced by Tony Abbott, are fundamentally inconsistent with the principles of the Paris agreement and would lead to global warming of more than 3 degrees," he said. "For that reason, Labor has consistently opposed Tony Abbott's inadequate targets."
But the angst within Labor as to how it takes action on climate change is more widespread than just Fitzgibbon.
At the height of the election campaign, when the party was being smashed on the front pages of newspapers over economic modelling of its climate policies showing damage to the economy ranging from billions to trillions of dollars and its confusing stance on the Adani mine in northern Queensland, Labor MPs would mutter: "We weren't suppose to be talking about this."
Fitzgibbon's frustration comes from a decade-long climate war which has torn both parties to shreds. "How many times are we going to let it kill us? Indeed, how many leaders do we want to lose to it?" he said on Wednesday night.
Amid rowdy public protests across capital cities and warnings from global bodies such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and International Monetary Fund about the dangers of inaction, Labor is wrestling with how it can attack the government on climate while keeping itself out of the firing line.
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Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese.
Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
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"Big transitions are always accompanied by big, defining anxieties," Labor's treasury spokesman Jim Chalmers said as he gave the party's annual Light On The Hill Address in Bathurst last week. "This anxiety has many sources but three are key: stagnant wages feeding declining living standards; fears about the future of work; and a sense that our nation is failing to meet its potential."
Chalmers' comments were mirrored by deputy Labor leader Richard Marles on Thursday night, when he said in a speech to the John Curtin Research Centre that traditional Labor voters felt the party "looked down" on blue-collar workers, especially in the coal-mining regions of northern and central Queensland.
Labor frontbencher Tanya Plibersek argued the party should be spending its time shining a light on the government's failings on climate policy and ensuring it kept up a focus on jobs in the booming renewables sector.
For Albanese, as he seeks to impose his authority on a battered and bruised caucus, a Honolulu trip to attend the Australian-American Leadership Dialogue was a blessing. His contribution was a tweet from the Pacific saying he was "proud" that Labor has "consistently supported strong action on climate change", but he will be squeezed from all sides in coming weeks and months as party's shock at losing the federal election in May turns into frustration and anger.
As one Labor MP put it this week: "We are miles off reaching a 'political settlement' ourselves before talking about one with the government.
Links
- 'Clumsy' Adani arguments left Labor voters feeling abandoned: Richard Marles
- Australia will miss Paris goals even with a $US75 a tonne carbon tax: IMF
- Jobs in renewables sector Labor's interim climate focus, says Plibersek
- Anti-protest law would turn peaceful protesters into criminals: lawyers
- It's no accident that girls are leading the climate movement
- Labor MP's speech stokes climate tension
- Australia to miss Paris target, IMF says
- Another Labor MP wants low climate targets
- Extinction Rebellion protesters subject to bail conditions 'designed for bikie gangs'
- Malcolm Turnbull Blasts Liberal Party For Being 'Incapable' Of Climate Change Action
- The Week Australia Failed On Climate Change
- We Fact Checked Scott Morrison's Speech To The United Nations. Here's What We Found
- Australian Government Seen Globally As Climate 'Denialist', UN Summit Observers Say
- David Attenborough Slams Australian PM On Climate Record
- 'Sensible settlement' or 'strong action': Labor divided on carbon emissions
- Climate change is accelerating, according to a new UN report
- Scott Morrison targets climate critics in UN speech
- From Greta Thunberg to Julia Gillard: Here's who Australian girls say are their role models
- Peter Dutton says climate activists are 'thumbing their nose' at Australia
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