ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact
In the ultimate act of self-preservation, former Shadow Agriculture Minister Joel Fitzgibbon has sensationally quit the Labor frontbench today saying the party has alienated the mining executives and lobbyists that keep him in the job.
As the Opposition continues to drift away from mining and fossil fuels towards renewables and sunflowers, Fitzgibbon said he couldn’t sit idly by and watch his constituents get left out in the cold.
“I’m from the Hunter Valley,” he said.
“Guess what? It’s not just wine and fast horses that keep this part of the world afloat. It’s mining. M-I-N-I-N-G. Mining,”
“And it’s the mining lobby that keeps me in the job. It’s not the mining workers who earn enough to benefit heavilly from the Morrison Government tax cuts to high income earners. If I support Labor in their shift away from coal and whatnot, the mining lobby will shift their support away from me and I will lose my seat,”
“You’d be mistaken for thinking in a National. But by resigning as a frontbencher, I’m telling the people of the Hunter that I don’t support my own party and I care more about getting reelected that I do about you, the workers of the Hunter Valley,”
“In saying that, if you’re reading this Xstrata or someone like that, buy me lunch and lets talk about my future. I know everyone in Canberra.”
The Advocate reached out to Fitzgibbon for comment but were told to go back to writing disparaging things about centre-right politicians.
More to come.
