Labor’s Joel Fitzgibbon says Upper Hunter by-election disastrous for party’s election chance

Labor outcast Joel Fitzgibbon described the party’s failings in the NSW Upper Hunter by-election as “diabolic” and a “real wake-up call” for the opposition as the federal election looms.

The federal member for Hunter said the party was being abandoned by the working class because of its reluctance to support the coalmining industry.

He said Labor risked leaking votes to Scott Morrison’s Coalition in regional areas that relied on extractive industries, particularly in the Hunter and throughout the key battleground of Queensland.

“The Labor brand is in trouble and if you’re not careful, it will go the way of the Kodak brand,” Mr Fitzgibbon told Nine’s Today on Monday morning.

“Working people walked away from us some time ago and clearly haven’t come back, and they won’t come back until we clearly tell them that our main priority as a party is jobs and job security.

“In places like the Hunter Region, you can’t have jobs and job security if you are not clearly in support of the coalmining industry. It’s important to so many families, and their suspicious of us.”

Despite the by-election being triggered amid sexual assault allegations against former Nationals member Michael Johnson, his replacement, Dave Layzell, cruised to victory in the Saturday poll with a two-party-preferred swing towards it.

The Prime Minister is expected to view the result as validation his conservative party represents Australia’s middle class and will target regional areas and outer suburbs to retain power.

Mr Fitzgibbon, who was removed from the shadow cabinet last year following fierce disagreements with Anthony Albanese over climate change policies, pleaded with his party to vocally support the mining sector.

He called on the Opposition Leader to adopt a similar line to Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, who held onto power in the Sunshine State in October.

“Coal is our second biggest export,” Mr Fitzgibbon told the ABC. “So it would be silly to suggest that the Labor Party does not support that export industry. The curious thing is that we do.

“Our national platform says that we do. We whisper that we do but we’re not saying it loudly enough – 82 per cent of the people were supporting for a party that supported the coalmining industry over the weekend, but they went to somewhere where they thought they could trust more.

“The Labor Party has to speak more about jobs and jobs security as it does about climate change.”