The nation’s capital is awash with backstabbing, double crossings and internal power struggles as MPs from all sides of politics pick new leadership teams, reports DOMINIC GIANNINI in Canberra.
Anthony Albanese has warned Labor MPs not to let the government’s dominant election victory go to their heads as fresh faces joined the party room.
The prime minister called for unity and discipline, and for his members not to focus inwards in a speech twice interrupted by a ringing phone.
It follows a brutal move by internal powerbrokers to dump two cabinet ministers.
“We don’t seek power for its own sake, not to decide who’s in what part of the building,” Mr Albanese told a caucus meeting in Canberra on Friday, in a reference to people sitting in the ministerial wing or backbench offices.
“We seek power in order to deliver for the people who need Labor to be in government and to develop a better nation.”
The prime minister urged his party to focus on Australians who voted for them, each and every day.
“My final ask of you is that over the next three years, we remain laser-like focused on them.”
Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus and Industry Minister Ed Husic have been axed from the ministry as Labor’s more progressive left and more conservative right factions carve up the 30 spots.
Mr Dreyfus will be replaced in the ministry by Victorian MP Sam Rae, a factional ally of deputy prime minister Richard Marles who hails from the same state.
Mr Husic brushed the first caucus meeting, after being dumped to rebalance the ledger between the NSW and Victorian right, with the former over-represented in cabinet as spots are decided on a proportional basis between factions and states.
Labor senators Jess Walsh and Tim Ayres will also be promoted, as will MP Daniel Mulino.
The new ministers would be highly effective and work hard but this would not diminish the pain of the two dumped senior MPs, health minister Mark Butler said.
There were democratic processes where people put themselves forward to colleagues which “can mean that a whole lot of people who either have a lot of experience or a lot of potential miss out,” he told reporters.
But Labor luminary and former prime minister Paul Keating blasted “factional lightweights” for demoting Mr Husic as the cabinet’s sole Muslim member and Mr Dreyfus as the most senior Jewish MP.
It showed contempt for the Muslim community who supported Labor, he said, while savaging Mr Albanese for failing to intervene.
The prime minister will allocate portfolios over the weekend ahead of the ministry being sworn in on Tuesday.
Labor’s first caucus was all men and now women will outnumber them in the party room, Mr Albanese said to resounding applause.
Women are set to hold at least 46 of Labor’s 90 seats.
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