The Australian Labor Party’s 50th Annual Conference, at the Adelaide Convention Centre, was a tightly stage-managed affair.
Under the reign of prime minister Anthony Albanese, there was little sign of public dissent, with motion after motion passing on the voices alone, which means not a single vote required a division and formal count. Facing a fragmented federal opposition, and the chaos of One Nation, the optics were all about presenting a united front to the Australian public, entertainment value be damned.
Marking 135 years since the formation of the party, the whole event was a far cry from ALP national conferences past, which have produced some of the most dramatic moments in Australian political history. Once upon a time, this was where the party’s real power struggles played out in the open, over issues including communism, the US alliance, uranium mining and privatisation.
In the dying days of the Whitlam government, back in 1975, the images of Bob Hawke and others lounging around the hotel pool at the Terrigal conference as the country lurched through economic crisis may have sealed Labor’s fate.
This year, with all the key numbers crunched behind closed doors long before public votes, it was left to the Fringe Program and the protests outside to provide the colour and movement, along with glimpses of what was once a party of activism.
Mr Husic is entitled to be an agitator
Dismissed by some as a self-important, trouble-making grandstander, the most prominent sidelined figure in 2026 was former minister for industry and science and current member for Chifley Ed Husic, who wants the government to bring in a gas export tax, get serious about Indigenous truth-telling, act on problem gambling, reconsider AUKUS and provide a clearer response to Israel’s ongoing war crimes in Gaza, among other things.
Husic’s pro-Palestinian motion failed to find a seconder on the conference floor, with the renegade MP claiming that an ‘extraordinary amount of energy’ had been applied against him by his colleagues to prevent any public debate in the national conference.
‘I think there’s been a broader issue in the party,’ he said. ‘The experiences of the Rudd, Gillard, Rudd years were so divisive that anything that looks like debate is a schism, a divide.’
Ed Husic suggests Labor has now become completely allergic to dissent, giving a public impression of a party of ‘robots’ which could be exploited by forces such as One Nation. He says it would be a sign of strength, not weakness, to allow members and MPs to publicly discuss the big issues.
There was some movement on the Gaza issue in the conference, but it had the smell of symbolism rather than action, after the Israeli embassy in Canberra publicly challenged the draft platform before proceedings even began. In the end there was some slightly tougher language, but the status quo was maintained.
Despite the opportunity for a reset with a new British PM, AUKUS was never debated on the conference floor, the gas export tax push failed, and the conference fell into line with the official government position on AI regulation, capital gains tax, negative gearing and Albanese’s general economic program.
‘We are engaged in the battle’
Beyond internal dissent, Labor’s outgoing president and former treasurer Wayne Swan had his eyes firmly fixed on the threat from Pauline Hanson’s One Nation in his speech on Friday night.
‘Let’s not kid ourselves, the stakes are high,’ he said. ‘As our friends across the globe have found, authoritarians can emerge in a flash.
‘There are polls now suggesting the tide may be turning on Hanson [but] the tide has not turned. We are engaged in the battle.’
Referencing Gina Rinehart and friends, Swan said, ‘The money has not gone anywhere, it has only changed horses.’
For his part, Anthony Albanese seems to be betting that political stability and incremental gains will win over the Australian public in these dangerous and uncertain times. Standing beneath a massive sign saying ‘Delivering Real Change’, the prime minister said ‘We choose outcomes over outrage. We choose real change that makes a real difference.’
Unfortunately for those who wish Labor would be more like it used to be, that seems to translate in practice as no meaningful progress on issues like AUKUS, the preservation of nature, gas taxes or problem gambling.
Very little seems to be changing for those who wish that Labor would rediscover its soul.
Originally from Canberra, David Lowe is an award-winning filmmaker, writer and photographer with particular interests in the environment and politics. He’s known for his campaigning work with Cloudcatcher Media.
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