Knives out
Now that the election fight is over, the major parties have turned their attention to internal battles for power.
For the duration of the election campaign, both major parties went to great lengths to present themselves as focused on the needs of ordinary Australians.
But with the campaign now over, voters have received a swift reminder of the ruthless factional arithmetic that governs both the Australian Labor Party and the Liberal/National Coalition.
On Friday, it became clear just how limited Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s room for manoeuvre is when selecting his new ministry. Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus and Industry and Science Minister Ed Husic were formally dumped from the frontbench to make way for younger MPs — prompting a blistering rebuke from former prime minister Paul Keating.
Husic, the only Muslim member of cabinet, was ousted to correct factional imbalances created by an influx of Left-aligned MPs and to make room for the Victorian Right following the retirement of Bill Shorten.
