Speculation, that most destructive of political phenomena, climbed when a group of the Labor right-wing’s discontented were photographed leaving a Chinese restaurant in Canberra on Wednesday evening.

Among them was Bill Shorten, former leader and one-time kingmaker and heartbreaker of the leaderships of Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard. Shorten’s lieutenant in intrigue, South Australian Don Farrell was also there. And yes, Joel Fitzgibbon, who has been making noise in recent times about the Albanese Labor Party’s alleged failure to pay enough attention to coal industry workers. Fitzgibbon, of course, hails from the NSW Hunter Valley, home of coal mines.

Could this trio, plus colleagues of similar mind, once known as the Otis Group for their allegiance to a restaurant of that name, have had Albanese’s future on the sizzling wok at the Blue Duck, the latest Canberra Chinese restaurant to appeal to their gastronomic taste?

Fitzgibbon’s chosen reading material on Thursday appeared to add hot sauce to the menu.

John Howard himself pooh-poohed the idea that he could regain the leadership of the Liberal Party after having won and then lost it to his arch rival, Andrew Peacock, followed by years of disappointment. A comeback, he quipped, would be as likely as “Lazarus with a triple bypass”.

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But of course, as recounted at length in Lazarus Rising, Howard became Liberal prime minister and his term of almost 11 years remains second only to Sir Robert Menzies.

Fascinating reading, clearly, for a discontented Labor man after a quiet meal with the likes of Bill Shorten, whose loss at the last federal election, followed by his rival Albanese’s ascension, would obviously place hm in the Lazarus class should he ever make a comeback.