Labor’s infrastructure spokesman and resident leadership alternative, Anthony Albanese, has gone on Miranda Devine’s Daily Telegraph live show and been grilled for being a “mad lefty”.

Albanese mopped some comments at the weekend in which he declared loyalty to the Labor cause rather than the current leader, Bill Shorten.

He said:

I play a role in the team, and Bill Shorten is the captain of the team ... What I was asked is who my first loyalty was to – the party or Bill Shorten. I said in response to that, my loyalty was to the Labor party and the Labor movement, nobody would be surprised by that. Bill Shorten would say the same thing – and so would every other member of the Labor party. The Labor party is bigger than any individual.

The truth is I also said, just like with other leaders of the party, that I’ve served – I’m loyal to Bill Shorten like I was to Kevin [Rudd] and Julia [Gillard] and Kim [Beazley].

Albanese said he was deputy prime minister when Labor introduced offshore processing on Manus Island, and says he still supports offshore processing now.
“Boat turnbacks is in the Labor party platform and I support that,” he said, before criticising the Coalition for failing to settle refugees in third countries.

Things got a little willing – Albanese described as “rubbish” Devine’s contention that New Zealand is a back door to Australia and said she was “trying to look for an argument that isn’t there” with the claim that Australia could take more refugees because it had stopped the boats.

“Twelve hundred people drowned – we watched them drown,” Devine said.

Albanese: “You didn’t watch them drown, Miranda. You weren’t on Christmas Island.”