It began with an obscure opinion poll in mid-January conducted for the CFMEU, led in Victoria by former Labor stalwart turned vehement anti-Albanese force, John Setka. Perhaps unsurprisingly this poll, conducted by a little-known polling company, of which scant details were released, found that the ALP could lose two heartland seats in the Hunter Valley. This was helpfully kicked along by Labor’s perennial thorn-in-the-side Joel Fitzgibbon, who quickly returned to his favourite and, it seems, his only, theme – coal – and his comments were circulated through NCA Newswire, Murdoch’s new newswire service. It was reported by other media as a leadership problem that now had to be dealt with, Albanese ‘forced to defend his position’, and the ‘Labor leadership crisis’ narrative had begun.