12/11/2020

(AU) Joel Fitzgibbon And How Coal And Climate Change Caused Split In Labor Ranks

ABC News - Jake Lapham | Hannah Palmer | Kylie Morris

Joel Fitzgibbon has held the seat of Hunter in NSW coal country since succeeding his father, Eric, in 1996. (ABC News: Nick Haggarty)

And then he was gone.

Joel Fitzgibbon may have announced his departure from the shadow cabinet today, but his course was set 18 months ago.

At the May 2019 federal election, Mr Fitzgibbon came close to losing the seat of Hunter in NSW's industrial heartland, one which Labor has held since Federation.

He survived a 22 per cent swing against him, as blue-collar voters opted for an ex-miner One Nation candidate rather than the son of Cessnock, whose father, Eric, held the seat before him.

That near loss has helped define the role Mr Fitzgibbon has played in the shadow cabinet as Labor's agriculture and resources spokesperson.


Mr Fitzgibbon says the ALP is out of touch

He cast himself as a thorn in the side of climate change progressives, determined to remind his party of what he calls its diverse membership, with the goal, he says, of ensuring the electability of a Labor government.

And while he says he supports the party's 2050 target for net-zero carbon emissions, he worries it risks losing votes from Labor's traditional industrial support base and undo its electoral chances.

Meryl Swanson, who holds the neighbouring seat of Paterson for the ALP, told ABC Newcastle she was disappointed but not surprised by Mr Fitzgibbon's decision to leave the shadow cabinet, that he had indeed told her that he'd planned to leave in May last year.

She said Mr Fitzgibbon had done well by working people in his electorate and looked forward to him continuing as an MP.

The coal industry dominates the workforce in the Hunter region. (ABC Rural: Michael Pritchard)
Hunter coal at a crossroad

The Hunter electorate is coal country.

From Newcastle, where ships load up with thermal coal for Japan and Korea on every tide, to small townships in the lower Hunter, still hurting from the closure of old underground pits, and the new beacons of resource extraction of Singleton and Muswellbrook, ringed by vast open-cut operations.

Dwindling demand for thermal coal and the impact of COVID-19 have hit local mines in recent months, causing Peabody to slash 50 per cent of the workforce at its Wambo mine, while BHP looks to sell its Mount Arthur open-cut project.

Mr Fitzgibbon threw his support behind controversial new mining projects, such as the Dartbrook expansion and Maxwell underground mine that are under assessment by planning authorities.

International energy analyst Tim Buckley said Mr Fitzgibbon's views became incompatible with Labor policy.

"At its simplest, it's the interests of an existing job as opposed to the future wellbeing of the Australian economy and the many jobs that will come from that," he said.

"Joel is responding to the vested interests of several thousand current employees in an industry that is in terminal decline."

Despite this, Muswellbrook Chamber of Commerce president Mike Kelly believes Mr Fitzgibbon has stood up for the community, economy and business interests in the Hunter region.

"As a representative of an electorate, he has to acknowledge and support the issues that are important to the whole of the community and important to the Hunter's economy," Mr Kelly said.

"[Mr Fitzgibbon] has taken a position which seems perfectly logical to me."

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