IN BRIEF
- The 50th national conference of the Australian Labor Party was held in Adelaide over the last few days.
- The conference was almost entirely devoid of the passionate and public policy brawls once seen at such events.
"We are proudly a progressive movement: two words that can't be applied to the escalator in this building," Anthony Albanese said to much mirth at Friday's Labor Party conference dinner.
The viral moment — in which the prime minister's descent came to a sudden, jolting stop, followed by an expletive-laden reaction — was one of the very few times this week that the veteran Labor party animal didn't appear to have a level of mastery over events that unfolded in Adelaide at Labor's once-a-term policy palooza.
With his gag lapped up by the crowd of party faithful, many of whom paid a door charge of $135 to attend the gala dinner, Albanese continued:
"When it [the escalator] did come to a standstill, I'll admit there was a moment, just a moment, when the ladder of opportunity finally made sense," he said, riffing on former leader Mark Latham's ill-fated slogan from 2004, one of the party's more recent political low-points.
Two decades on, having achieved Labor's most powerful parliamentary majority in history, the prime minister said the party "can finally laugh about making him leader".
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While the glow may have dimmed in the wider electorate, judging by recent polling, Albanese seemingly retained the halo of that 2025 election result among the delegates who 'debated' the party's platform this week.
The conference's myriad factions moved deftly to almost entirely avoid the passionate and public policy brawls of the past, which Albanese, the apex predator of the Labor left, used to once involve himself in.
VAD motion sees rare moment of debate
All but one of the various amendments and motions was passed with unanimous support on the floor.
The sole outlier, a commitment for the government to remove barriers around using telehealth to access voluntary assisted dying (VAD), allowed a sole delegate to speak against the motion, the sole amendment to pass where some delegates voted against.
The party also enshrined in its constitution a conscience vote for MPs on this issue, similar to that allowed on abortion.
Trade Minister Don Farrell — a longtime Labor right power-broker who remains opposed to euthanasia — rejected suggestions debate was being suppressed among delegates.
"Far from a graveyard, this is a flowering of democracy," Farrell told the floor on Saturday to much applause.
Husic's Gaza resolution dropped
Backbench MP Ed Husic had a far more pessimistic assessment, arguing that a perception has formed among Labor MPs that "taking a different stand or taking different ground presents a risk to the stability of government".
The former industry minister has found liberation in his backbench demotion by fashioning himself as a rebel with no shortage of causes.
Beyond his well-known divergences with party colleagues on Israel and Gaza, he's also pushed for a new gas tax and a rethink of AUKUS.
On Friday, he called for the government to implement the outstanding elements of the Uluru Statement from the Heart.
But despite claiming some credit for the government's decision to recognise Palestinian statehood last year, his advocacy this year ultimately led to nought in Adelaide.
He cut a lone, isolated figure on Saturday morning roaming the cavernous halls of the Adelaide Convention Centre, as he learned he'd lost the support he required to put up a rival resolution on the Gaza war.
"You've got to be able to find a way to disagree respectfully and try and work with people and have that discussion," Husic told journalists shortly after it became clear his support had evaporated.
Husic's resolution, as seen by this correspondent, was ambitious in its language.
It called on Labor's platform to acknowledge a 2024 International Court of Justice ruling that Israel's legal actions in the West Bank breach International conventions on apartheid, and that the party expressed alarm over the UN independent commission of inquiry's findings of Israeli-conducted genocide against Palestinians — both of which Israel refutes.
The resolution also advocated a ramp-up in sanctions on Israel, the prosecution of dual nationals alleged to have committed war crimes with the Israeli military, and for the government to withdraw defence co-operation and diplomatic personnel from the Australian embassy in Tel Aviv.
The chance of it being allowed to go to a debate seems even more remote, given the criticism expressed by other groups, including the Israeli embassy, that the draft platform had been too soft on Hamas, having omitted a call for the group to disarm from the wording.
In the conference's fringe area, where the panels among punters presented far more of an ideological contest than the conference floor, a booth set aside for Labor Friends of Israel was left empty on the event's opening day, and removed by the weekend.
"To be able to have those discussions is a sign of strength, not a sign of weakness," the Western Sydney MP said, mimicking one of the prime minister's favourite bits of Medicare stage play by flaunting his own Labor membership card.
"They can put me in the freezer, I don't give a sh-t."
Jewish-Palestinian duo support current position
Husic's hastily called press conference clashed with the start of the foreign policy debate, meaning he walked onto the floor midway through back-to-back speeches from Jewish MP Josh Burns and Palestinian Australian MP Basem Abdo in support of the unamended foreign policy platform.
Burns said both he and Abdo were "fathers who dream of taking their children to a land free from conflict" and spoke positively of the solidarity shared by his colleague in the aftermath of the Bondi terror attack, as well as the importance of recognising the pain of others.
Abdo, who since being elected in 2025 has kept a low profile in parliament on the war, spoke about the occupation experienced by generations of Palestinians, conceding "no single motion can do justice" to the challenges experienced in recent years by both of their communities.
The Albanese-era Labour Party has ultimately been successful in making this conference a showcase of unity in purpose, with any show of dissent successfully cauterised by the countless closed-door discussions between Labor's myriad factions, away from the cameras of the substantial media pack.
It makes the passionate on-stage embrace between Burns and Abdo, which merited a lengthy standing ovation, stand out even more.
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