[11] On 22 October 2008, Fitzgibbon instructed the Department of Defence to cease debt recovery procedures against SAS soldiers who had been accidentally overpaid.

[12] In May 2009, Fitzgibbon announced a new defence white paper titled Defending Australia in the Asia Pacific Century: Force 2030.

[13] On 26 March 2009, Fairfax Media reported that officers in the Department of Defence had conducted a covert and unauthorised investigation into Fitzgibbon's friendship with a Chinese-Australian businesswoman in the belief that it constituted a security risk.

Nick Warner, the Department's Secretary, stated that he had not seen any information to confirm the claims and that there were no circumstances in which secret investigations into Ministers could be authorised.

[16] Fitzgibbon was reported to be "furious" about the investigation, and suggested that it may have been conducted by officials opposed to his reforms to the Australian Defence Organisation.

[20] Following the June 2013 Labor leadership spill, Fitzgibbon was appointed as Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry in the Second Rudd ministry.

The roughly 40 percent remainder were to become part of Paterson, with the Liberal margin calculated to be notionally reduced from 9.8 to just 0.5 points as a result.

After the election, he was a vocal critic of his party's direction, claiming that "Labor must reconnect with its blue-collar base and get back to the centre".

In November 2020, Fitzgibbon announced that he was quitting the shadow cabinet, a response to moves by Labor's Left Faction to push for more action on climate change which, he believes are "delusional.

"[29] In September 2021, Fitzgibbon announced his retirement at the next election, claiming that he has been successful in bringing back the Labor Party to the political centre.

[34] As the Labor Shadow Agriculture spokesman, Fitzgibbon opposed the Government's decision to stop the sale of S. Kidman & Co as "political" and accused it of running a "discriminatory foreign investment regime".