Gillard greets Thai PM as Labor row rages

Prime Minister Julia Gillard is attending official functions with her Thai counterpart, Yingluck Shinawatra, as a battle rages over jobs and the loyalty of her MPs.

Labor MPs arriving for four days of parliament sittings on Monday have been tight-lipped about reports chief government whip Joel Fitzgibbon has been counting the numbers for former leader Kevin Rudd.

And caucus members are at odds over who is to blame for the bungled announcement on Friday of a deal to allow the world’s richest woman, Gina Rinehart, to import 1700 workers to help build a massive iron ore project in Western Australia.

“The government is falling apart at the seams,” senior Liberal Christopher Pyne told reporters.

“It is untenable for Joel Fitzgibbon to remain as the chief government whip and not be a 100 per cent rolled-gold supporter of the prime minister.”

Government MPs Mark Dreyfus and Andrew Leigh repeated Ms Gillard’s brief comments on Sunday that Mr Fitzgibbon had made his support for the prime minister clear on Twitter.

Fairfax reported that ministers Chris Bowen and Martin Ferguson, who backed Mr Rudd in February’s leadership ballot, have told colleagues they were hung out to dry by Ms Gillard as she distanced herself from the worker visa policy in a bid to placate unions.

The ministers’ backers say Mr Bowen had informed Ms Gillard’s office almost two weeks ago that Ms Rinehart would be the first to be granted an enterprise migration agreement.

Labor senator Doug Cameron said there had been a lack of communication and consultation and he would raise his concerns at a caucus meeting on Tuesday.

Skills Minister Chris Evans said he was not aware of the specific details of the decision before Mr Bowen announced it.

“But the important thing is that the policy is a good policy,” Senator Evans said.

Meanwhile, unions are angry about the potential for massive job losses at engineering firm Hastie Group, which has gone into voluntary administration.

Industry Minister Greg Combet acknowledged there were great pressures in some areas of the economy, especially manufacturing.

“Some people unfortunately are losing their jobs and we want to ensure that there is best access to areas where jobs are growing,” Mr Combet told ABC Radio.

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