Dumped cabinet minister Ed Husic says his decision to speak out on the conflict in Gaza was partly to blame for him being dropped from the frontbench, while making an extraordinary accusation that the deputy prime minister acted as a “factional assassin” out of naked ambition for his branch.
Mr Husic told Insiders his experience in cabinet was that Labor had to be “encouraged” to speak out on the issue, but said he would not be silent on it.
“To be able to take part in a cabinet meant a great deal. You can’t celebrate diversity and expect it to sit in a corner silent,” Mr Husic said.
“I certainly took the view you need to speak up for the communities you care about. I certainly tried to help us navigate wretchedly difficult issues, such as Gaza post the horrors of October 7.
“I don’t think I could ever stay silent in the face of innocent civilians slaughtered in tens of thousands, starved out of Gaza.”
The outgoing minister also lashed out at Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles, who had a hand in Mr Husic being booted from the frontbench.
“I think people, when they look at a deputy prime minister, they expect to see a statesman, not a factional assassin,” he said.
“The difficult issue here is that we’ve had bare-faced ambition and a deputy prime minister wield a factional club to reshape the ministry.”
Ed Husic said Richard Marles was a “factional assassin” operating on naked ambition within his Victorian branch.
He added that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese should have intervened to stop the factional play, but failed to do so.
Mr Husic said he respected the need for factions to manage merit and ambition, but Mr Marles would have to answer for his role in himself and Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus being demoted.
The pair were dropped in a brutal factional play on Friday in order to make way for Victorian MPs Daniel Mulino and Sam Rae, a close ally of Mr Marles, and to balance the left and right factions in NSW, from where Mr Husic hails.
Ed Husic accused the deputy prime minister of being a “factional assassin”.
Mr Husic, the first Muslim cabinet minister and the first to be sworn in on the Quran, has been one of the most vocal in the government on the conflict in Gaza.
The Sydney politician has also been a key player in engaging with Muslim communities angry at the government’s response to Israel’s war following the October 7 attack by Hamas.
Mr Husic said there needed to be “faith in Muslim communities that their voice was being heard”, but that sometimes had to be encouraged.
Able to speak more freely now that he is on the backbench, Mr Husic was blunt in his assessment of the Netanyahu government.
“We’ve seen just in the past week or so, the Israeli parliament say it wants to annex Gaza and effectively that is a form of ethnic cleansing. We’ve seen the starvation of its people through the failure to provide humanitarian assistance,” he said.
“It should be held to account. Starvation is a war crime.”
The conflict has roiled within Labor, last year prompting Muslim senator Fatima Payman to quit the party after it punished her for voting against the government on a motion to accuse Israel of genocide in Gaza.
A United Nations report earlier this year accused Israel of “genocidal acts”, which was rejected by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as false, biased and antisemitic.
Liberal leadership contest expected to be close
The political parties are all reorganising their ranks for the next term of parliament, with Labor juggling a deeper bench of talent and factional allegiances, while the Liberal Party and Greens search for new leadership after shock defeats at the federal election.
Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price this morning confirmed her candidacy for deputy Liberal leader under Angus Taylor, who is contesting for the leadership against Sussan Ley.
Liberal senator Dave Sharma, who openly expressed his desire to enter the shadow ministry on Sky News, said he expected the contest between Mr Taylor and Ms Ley to be very close.
“I think it’s very important, whatever the outcome is, everyone respects the result and everyone gets behind the new leader,” Senator Sharma said.
“I know that’s not going to be easy, but we don’t have the luxury of being able to tear ourselves apart over the next year or two.”
After Senator Nampijinpa Price’s dramatic defection last week from the Nationals to sit in the Liberal party room, Senator Sharma said she was welcome in the party and entitled to put her hand up for deputy — but the party would decide its leadership team.
Jacinta Nampijinpa Price said the Liberal Party must be the party for “forgotten people”.
In a statement, Senator Nampijinpa Price said her new party must return to its “basic values”.
“There is no question that returning to our roots as a party is critical right now,” Senator Nampijinpa Price said.
The Northern Territory senator said the Liberals must fight for the “forgotten people” and, in a statement, raised her Warlpiri grandparents, who had grown up “washing their clothes in the creek” in Warners Bay on the coast of NSW.
“My Warlpiri grandparents caught the vision and transitioned from nomadic desert life into community life during the emergence of a modern Australia,” Senator Nampijinpa Price said.
“They were the original Aussie battlers — the forgotten people.”
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