Category: Joel Fitzgibbon

Fitzgibbon’s Retirement Won’t Take the Heat Off Labor

Commentary The decision by Joel Fitzgibbon, federal member of Parliament for Hunter, to retire at the next election means the Australian Labor Party (ALP) will lose one of the very few MP’s who have dirtied their hands in manual work for any extensive period. Fitzgibbon was an automotive electrician for 12 years, a real worker…


Pro-Coal Labor Party MP Joel Fitzgibbon to Retire After 25 Years

Australian Labor Party (ALP) member of Parliament Joel Fitzgibbon confirmed on Monday that he would not seek re-election for the New South Wales (NSW) seat of Hunter at the next federal election. Fitzgibbon entered the House of Representatives in 1996 when the Liberal Party’s John Howard was elected prime minister and has held his electorate for…


Australian Labor Party Leader Denies Losing Support of Mining Communities

Federal Labor leader Anthony Albanese has rejected suggestions that blue-collar workers have turned their back on the party following a loss in the Upper Hunter byelection. In contrast, fellow Labor MP Joel Fitzgibbon, whose federal seat covers a similar area, argued that the sharp decline Labor saw in its primary vote over the weekend should…


Federal Leaders Circumspect on Byelection Result in Coal-Rich Mining Region

Australia’s Federal Finance Minister Simon Birmingham is circumspect on the national implications of the weekend New South Wales (NSW) byelection in the coal-rich mining region of Upper Hunter, just north of Sydney. The byelection was watched closely by major political parties keen to see how popular support for the incumbent New South Wales (NSW) state…


Labor MP Warns Party of Straying Too Far Down the ‘Wokeness’ Path

Tania Mihailuk, a New South Wales (NSW) state MP has warned that the left-leaning Labor Party needs to steer away from “wokeness” and back to the centre, otherwise it risks losing the support of Sydney’s extensive multicultural and religious communities. The remarks follow the release of the NSW Parliament’s Joint Select Committee report into how…