Mark Butler said he would switch portfolios or move to the backbench "in a heartbeat" if Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese wanted to make a change.

"If he decides that he thinks I'll be best placed somewhere else I would be entirely relaxed about that," Mr Butler told ABC radio on Friday.

"I have enormous confidence in Anthony's abilities to make those right calls and at the end of the day it's his prerogative."

However, Mr Albanese is adamant the South Australian MP will remain Labor's climate change and energy spokesman.

"Mark Butler is doing a fantastic job in that role," Mr Albanese told reporters on the NSW Central Coast.

"There's no one who knows more about this area than Mark Butler."

Mr Albanese has previously indicated he would wait until the prime minister reshuffles cabinet over summer before making any changes to his front bench.

Labor's Joel Fitzgibbon quit shadow cabinet earlier this week after an almighty row over climate change.

He demanded Mr Butler be stripped of the portfolio, concerned he was dragging Labor too far to the left on climate action.

Mr Butler flatly rejected his assessments of Labor's climate policies and electoral fortunes, but said he was willing to stand aside if it would take some heat out of the debate.

"It's not about me, it's about the party and the nation," he said.

Labor MP Pat Conroy, whose seat of Shortland neighbours Mr Fitzgibbon's Hunter electorate in NSW, said the party's climate policies were popular with voters.

He savaged Mr Fitzgibbon's less ambitious stance on energy and climate.

"I believe Joel's strategy is a strategy for permanent opposition," Mr Conroy told the Newcastle Herald.

"It is a strategy that divides the two great bases of the Labor Party (progressives and blue-collar workers)."

ALP national president Wayne Swan said public brawls over internal policies were doing Labor no favours.

"Joel has got a point, but (it) would be better if he kept it in the tent so we could sort out the difficult policy issues," he told the Nine Network.

"It is certainly a challenge, we don't need people like Joel going rogue."

Labor deputy leader Richard Marles conceded the party was going through a bruising period while reshaping its climate and energy policies.

But senior coalition minister Peter Dutton said Mr Fitzgibbon was merely a stalking horse in a Labor leadership struggle.

"The trouble for Joel is that he's a fairly slightly built bloke and Richard (Marles) is a pretty big jockey," Mr Dutton said.

"So pony up and watch this race. It will be interesting."

Australian Associated Press