RE-ELECTED Isaacs MP has lost the Attorney-General portfolio after reported factional infighting.
Dreyfus has been Attorney-General since the 2022 federal election. He previously served in the role under Prime Ministers Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard.
Last week, the daily newspapers reported that Dreyfus’ position was in jeopardy as a result of a factional war. On Thursday it was reported that Dreyfus and fellow MP Ed Husic had been removed from the cabinet.
Dreyfus had extensive experience as a lawyer prior to entering Parliament – he worked as a barrister for two decades, and was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1999. Among the critics of the move to dump Dreyfus and Husic is former Prime Minister Paul Keating. He said the decision is “a showing of poor judgment, unfairness and diminished respect for the contribution of others.” “The Prime Minister has recently made notable ‘captain’s calls’ in a number of otherwise rules-based pre-selection ballots. His non-intervention in respect of a New South Wales minister on this occasion is, in effect, an endorsement of a representative of another state group in this case, the Victorian Right faction led by Richard Marles. A faction demonstrably devoid of creativity and capacity,” he said. “And to round out the day, the factional lightweights also dumped the cabinet’s most effective and significant Jewish member, the attorney general, Mark Dreyfus.”
Dreyfus (pictured right on 3 May) was re-elected with an increased majority – with 83 percent of the vote counted he leads Liberal Fiona Ottey by a massive 14.6 percent margin on the two-party-preferred count.
First published in the Chelsea Mordialloc News – 14 May 2025