In his first speech to the Labor caucus following the party’s landslide win, Albanese – who started by admitting celebrations got “a bit loose” on Saturday night – listed a series of his government’s achievements over the past three years, before preaching unity to his now much larger party room.
“I repeated the message a number of times in this room of the importance of unity,” he said.
“Not getting ahead of ourselves, of being focused not on ourselves – because I have seen that happen as well, we know where that ends.
“Focus out on the Australian people. On the people who voted for us.
“That has got to be our focus each and every day. How do we improve their lives, how do we make a positive difference for them, for those families, many of whom backed Labor for the first time in their life, some of whom came back to us.”
The speech comes after it emerged two respected, senior ministers – Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus and Industry and Science Minister Ed Husic – will be dumped from cabinet due to maneuvering by the party’s right faction when it is announced in the coming days.
Senior senator Murray Watt said this morning that those demotions aren’t due to their ability, but instead the heightened competition for the 30 cabinet positions from a much larger party room.
“I don’t think this is a reflection on their performance,” Employment Minister Murray Watt said this morning.
“It’s a reflection on the fact that we have a lot of good people and some of whom have understandable ambitions.”
Labor has secured at least 90 seats in the House of Representatives – a number that could rise further as counting in undecided seats continues, and a significant increase from its previous total of 78, and it has also gained at least two extra Senate seats.
Under party rules, the factions decide the MPs who make up the cabinet, but their specific positions are assigned by the prime minister.
Former prime minister Paul Keating, who was in the right faction during his time in politics, yesterday labelled the demotions of Husic and Dreyfus as “a showing of poor judgement, unfairness and diminished respect for the contribution of others”.
Meanwhile, the Liberal Party and Greens are set to decide their leaders next week.
Sussan Ley and Angus Taylor have both nominated for what will be a two-horse race to become the next opposition leader on Tuesday, while the likes of Sarah Hanson-Young and Mehreen Faruqi are firming as the likely contenders to replace Adam Bandt as Greens leader.
