The Shadow Minister for Agriculture and Resources , Joel Fitzgibbon, has quit Labor’s frontbench over the party’s climate policy.
The Member for the Hunter says he believes party’s position on climate has alienated its traditional ‘blue collar’ base of coal miners, manufacturers and labourers.
“This morning I went to see my mate, Anthony Albanese, and informed him that I was stepping down from the shadow cabinet, effective immediately,” Mr Fitzgibbon told the media this morning.
“The Labor party has spent too much time talking about climate change, which is a very important issue, and not enough time talking to our base,
“I’ve been trying to put labour back into the Labor Party. Trying to take the Labor Party back to its traditional roots, back to the Labor Party I knew when I first became a member 36 years ago.
“I have been focusing on blue-collar workers, whether they be working in coal mining, coal generation, oil and gas, our manufacturing sectors, electricians and other tradespersons – the people who have traditionally voted for us in very large number, but somehow haven’t been voting for us in large number over the course of possibly the last decade.
“And I’ve seen them come up to the polling booths in their high-vis, carrying LNP how-to-vote cards, One Nation cards, and I asked myself, ‘How did it all go so terribly wrong?’.”
In the 2019 Federal election, Mr Fitzgibbon experienced a 14.2% swing against him in the division of Hunter, bleeding votes to One Nation candidate Stuart Bonds.
Yesterday opposition leader, Anthony Albanese, put pressure on the Prime Minister to do more on climate change following Joe Biden’s election win.
“The Labor Party has made not one contribution to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in this country,” Mr Fitzgibbon said.
“So, if you want to act on climate change, the first step is to become the government. And to become the government, you need to have a climate change and energy policy that can be embraced by a majority of the Australian people. That is something we have failed to do for the last seven or eight years.”
Mr Fitzgibbon’s decision to step aside will result in a reshuffle of the shadow cabinent.
He will continue to represent the people of Hunter from the backbench.
