Party Animals by Samantha Maiden

Party Animals by Samantha Maiden

Author:Samantha Maiden [Maiden, Samantha]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781760893163
Publisher: Penguin Random House Australia


11

AN UNEXPECTED WEEK AT PORTSEA

Bill Shorten drove down to a beach house in the Victorian seaside town of Portsea with his family after the election loss. The house belonged to millionaire liquidator Mark Mentha, an old friend. Friends from the neighbourhood came and went. It was good to get away from the television cameras that would be otherwise camped outside his home. Shorten was more focused on the kids and long walks on the beach than politics. The leadership contest to replace him was underway and Anthony Albanese was quick to declare. Former NSW Premier Kristina Keneally promptly stripped her social media of photographs of Shorten and replaced them with smiling pictures of her with ‘Albo’, who she had voted for in the original 2013 ballot. Her colleagues reflected on the brutality of her Shorten erasure with a mixture of awe and nervous laughter.

Down at the beach, Shorten did make some calls, urging colleagues to support Tanya Plibersek if she ran. This did not pass unnoticed by his critics. ‘Shorten loses again, trying to undermine Albanese leadership’ was the headline in The Saturday Paper. ‘Defeated Labor leader Bill Shorten has stunned colleagues by actively involving himself in the selection of his successor and attempting to hinder the run of left-wing powerbroker Anthony Albanese,’ was the story in The Sydney Morning Herald. Labor MPs accused Shorten of ‘actively lobbying people, making sure someone runs against Albo’.

As his deputy for six years, Plibersek built a close relationship of trust with Shorten. She regards as absurd the suggestion that he should have remained mute on his replacement. ‘Why shouldn’t he have a view? Everyone else had a view,’ she said. ‘It’s the Labor Party. He wasn’t the only person making phone calls – everyone was making phone calls.’

Former Prime Minister Julia Gillard and former ACTU Secretary Greg Combet were urging Plibersek to make a run, as was former Labor frontbencher Jenny Macklin. ‘There were many people urging me to run. He wasn’t the only person who wanted me to run.’

Plibersek explains Shorten’s conduct as a simple expression of loyalty to her for serving as his deputy, not an attack on Albanese. ‘He and I were never close before we became leader and deputy leader. We worked very well together. He was always honest and honourable with me and I was honest and honourable with him. I think you see something in someone’s character over time. The fact that he supported me after six years of working closely with me – I take that as a compliment. I think that’s him being grateful for the unity and stability I had provided as his deputy.’

Plibersek had made a sombre appearance on the ABC’s Insiders program on the Sunday, congratulating Scott Morrison on his victory. ‘As to what went wrong, I think there’s two main features,’ she said. ‘We faced a very cashed-up scare campaign from the United Australia Party. Eighty million dollars is the estimate of how much Clive Palmer spent, not to – it seems – win himself a spot, but to trash Labor.



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