Industry Minister Ed Husic, dumped from the frontbench ahead of Anthony Albanese's announcement of his new ministry, has made an excoriating attack on Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles, describing him as a "factional assassin".
Author
- Michelle Grattan
Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra
Marles, chief of the Victorian right, in large part drove factional changes which saw Husic, from the New South Wales right, and Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus, from the Victorian right, pushed out of the lineup for the revamped ministry.
In the shakeout, Marles' numbers man, Sam Rae, will be elevated from the backbench to the ministry, despite having only been in parliament for a single term.
Husic said on Sunday, "I think when people look at a deputy prime minister, they expect to see a statesman, not a factional assassin".
Asked on the ABC whether that meant he was saying Marles had put his own ambition to boost his numbers ahead of the good of the party, Husic said, "I think a lot of people would draw that conclusion".
"I think he needed to exercise leadership, he's part of the leadership group. We've got to be able to manage these things in an orderly way."
"There will be a lot of questions put to Richard about his role, and that's something that he will have to answer and account for."
Husic said Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had called him on Saturday - it had been only a brief call - and they will meet on Monday. He looked forward to that being a constructive discussion about the role he could keep playing.
Husic, the only Muslim in cabinet, in part blamed his outspokenness on Gaza for his demotion.
"You can't celebrate diversity and then expect it to sit in a corner, silent.
"You need to speak up when you bring those different views to either a cabinet table or to a caucus.
"I certainly took the view that you need to speak up to the communities that you care about. I certainly tried to help us navigate wretchedly difficult issues such as what we're seeing has unfolded in Gaza post the horrors of October 7.
"I don't think I could ever stay silent in the face of innocent civilians being slaughtered in their tens of thousands and being starved out of Gaza.
"So I tried to find the way to be able to speak at the cabinet table and speak elsewhere, to be able to make sure that communities we represent know that their voices are heard.
"You should have the ability to speak up on the issues that you believe in. You should have the ability to question.
"I would hate to think we get to a situation like Trump Republicans who know something's wrong and and don't speak. I'm not saying that's the case here, but there's a role, a value in questioning," he said.
Husic is reported to have clashed with Foreign Minister Penny Wong in cabinet over the Middle East issues. He also had differences with Treasurer Jim Chalmers on some economic issues.
Husic said he would have liked Albanese to have intervened over his demotion but the PM had declined to get involved.
He blamed Marles for putting Albanese into such a position. It was "especially disrespectful of the deputy prime minister to put the prime minister in a terrible place where he was being asked to intervene". But if Albanese had exercised the great authority he had coming out of the election, "no one would have quibbled".
"We've obviously got to be able to avoid these type of episodes […] the factional grubbiness," Husic said.
Because of the factional numbers after the election, the NSW right was due to drop a minister. Husic said he chose not to push it to a factional vote to decide who went. "I did not want to put my colleagues through a national ballot."
Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
