Right-Wing Social Democrats for Coal
The Australian Labor Party’s right wing has a new faction, the “Otis Group,” that uses the language of jobs and economic prosperity to pit working-class interests against the fight to stop global warming. It’s a cynical strategy that won’t pay off — and will continue cooking the planet in the meantime.
Opposition leader Anthony Albanese (L) and shadow minister for sport Don Farrell arrive for a news conference at Parliament House on February 05, 2020 in Canberra, Australia. Tracey Nearmy / Getty
On February 12, a story broke about a group of Australian Labor Party (ALP) parliamentarians who have been dining regularly on the sly in a swanky Canberra restaurant, OTIS. Dubbed the “Otis Group,” they are a cabal of right-wing Labor MPs who want to push the party in a more coal-friendly direction. According to right-faction power broker and member Don Farrell, the group’s purpose is “supporting coal workers.”
The membership list of the Otis dining club is a who’s who of Labor’s hard right. Farrell comes from the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association (SDA), a union known for its yearslong opposition to same-sex marriage, abandoned only after the reform was won. The SDA is also possibly the only union in the country to have won worse conditions and rates for its members, in enterprise bargaining agreements (EBAs) applauded by the industry group and conservative MPs.
Other members of the group include Kimberley Kitching, whose cheerleaders in the right-wing Murdoch press have in the past congratulated her for making reactionary appeals to “Judeo-Christian” and “Western” values.
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