‘Insanity’: Ed Husic, Mark Dreyfus demoted from cabinet as insiders blame Richard Marles

Former Prime Minister Paul Keating has taken aim at Anthony Albanese, after the shock dumping from Cabinet of Australia’s first Muslim MP Ed Husic.

Mr Husic lost his spot in Cabinet after the Victorian right prevailed in a huge factional battle against the NSW right. The move sets the timer running on Mr Husic’s political career.

But it also prompted open warfare, led by Mr Keating, who just five days after Mr Albanese won Labor an historic landslide election, turned his fire on both the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles.

Mr Keating said Husic’s expulsion “proffers contempt for the measured and centrist support provided by the broader Muslim community to the Labor Party at the election”.

“The Prime Minister has recently made notable ‘captain’s calls’ in a number of otherwise rules-based pre-selection ballots. His non-intervention in respect of a NSW minister on this occasion is in effect an endorsement of … the Victorian Right. A faction demonstrably devoid of creativity and capacity,” he said.

“And to round out the day the factional lightweights also dumped the cabinet’s most effective and significant Jewish member, the attorney general Mark Dreyfus.

“A showing of poor judgment, unfairness and diminished respect for the contribution of others.”Mr Marles did not respond to requests for comment.

Inside caucus, the anger is palpable with fingers of blame pointed at Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles, who leads the Victorian right faction.

“In an exercise of empire building, the Victorian Right has managed to decapitate two capable performers who happened to be the most senior Jewish and most senior Muslim Australian politicians,” a senior right source told The Nightly.

“It is an act of extraordinary political self-harm for which the Victorian Right is entirely responsible.”

A second senior right source said: “It’s insanity and Marles will permanently lose authority within the right.”

Mr Marles did not respond to requests for comment.

The brawl unfolded because of the way Labor divvies up ministerial positions.

This is done according to factional composition — the left chooses from a national pool, while the right makes up numbers based on State representation.

The Victorian right was demanding an extra spot reflecting their increased numbers in the new caucus, taking their representation to five. Mr Husic hails from the NSW right.

Having already axed one of their own in Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus to make way for new blood in Sam Rae, the Member for Hawke, they sought more.

The faction wants to promote the eminently qualified Daniel Mulino, an economic policy wonk and Member for Fraser, into the ministry.

Victoria’s demand for its rightful ministerial allocation could spell the end of Mr Husic’s ministerial career.

It is hard to see a way back onto the frontbench for two reasons.

Firstly, he is not in Anthony Albanese’s inner circle, meaning he is unlikely to be saved by any prime ministerial intervention.

At any rate, the Prime Minister has made it clear that he wants rejuvenation on his frontbench.

It was a topic on his mind in week two of the election campaign when he sat down for his extended interview with The Nightly.

“It’s also important that a government regenerate,” Mr Albanese declared, unprompted, during that interview, when he backed in his current leadership team but flagged a wider reshuffle.

So Husic, first elected to be the Member for Chifley in 2010, will suffer the humiliation of being dropped to the backbench when Parliament next sits.

As an outspoken critic of the Government’s position on Gaza when in Cabinet, he is unlikely to sit there quietly when no longer bound by Cabinet solidarity.

With his retail political skills, this is a more concerning prospect than Mr Dreyfus, who lacks media skills and will widely be regarded as a loss from the frontbench that is long overdue.

On Friday morning, the caucus will meet at Parliament House for the first time since the election.

On Thursday, most were already in town as they arrived to attend their pre-caucus factional meetings to anoint the chosen ministry.

The excitement was palpable. Ali France, the Labor MP who made history by ousting Peter Dutton from his seat of Dickson, was treated like a hero as she made her way through Parliament.

She was greeted in the Ministerial Wing of Parliament House like a rock star. The Victorian Cabinet Minister Claire O’Neill asked for a selfie with her outside the building’s cafeteria Aussies.

There will be more selfies, applause and celebrations on Friday morning.

The jubilation will conceal the NSW Right’s deep animosity for Mr Marles.

If the Deputy Prime Minister ever had a shot at removing the ‘D’ from his title in the near future, it won’t be aided by the NSW Right. They would sooner join forces with the Queensland Right and rally around Jim Chalmers rather than back Mr Marles.

But the swelled ranks will also point to a secondary challenge that faces the PM as he serves out his second term in the hope of seeking a third in 2028.

To be clear, it is an enviable difficulty to have to navigate — his benches are bursting with talent.

Unlike the Coalition, which has a choice between worse and worst in their current leadership options of shadow treasurer Angus Taylor and deputy leader Sussan Ley, Labor has several potential prime ministers on the frontbench already and a handful more that show great promise.

These include Julian Hill, Luke Gosling and Andrew Charlton. Rebecca White, in Tasmania, a former State leader, is already set to join the frontbench.

And then there is France. Like Maxine McKew, who ousted former Prime Minister John Howard from his seat, for the first time since Stanley Bruce, the Member for Dickson has a special place in Labor folklore and is already a prime ministerial favourite.

In truth, Mr Albanese’s problem is the amount of ambition and talent he needs to keep in check over the next three years.

It was plain in his messaging on Thursday morning that he is also cognisant of the issue.

“The important thing is, and something that I’m sure every member of our caucus will be cognisant of — for most of the 125 years since Federation, we’ve sat at the other end of the corridor in the old place in the opposition party room,” he said.

“Government brings with it responsibility, and no individual is greater than the collective, and that includes myself.

“And we need to approach this term with humility, to make sure that we deliver on the commitments that we made to the Australian people, but also that we operate in a way which shows solidarity.

“I can’t have hoped for more support from my ministers, from my caucus, over the six years that I’ve been Labor leader.

“And that has enabled me to really focus outwardly. And that’s when you’re successful, when you’re focused inwards, the electorate will mark you down.”

Perversely, the Prime Minister’s stunning success, a 14-seat majority at least at last count, means there is a more incentive for MPs to begin auditioning for their political futures in the long-term government Mr Albanese wants to entrench.

It’s a new dawn in Canberra with the new term, but it brings some new complications.