Protesters, politicians and Labor party insiders have descended upon Brisbane for an annual three-day summit, bringing the city to a stand-still.
The 49th Labor National conference is underway, as the party seeks to determine its policy platform on key voter issues moving forward.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese addressed the crowds, thanking Labor party volunteers for their dedication to the party agenda.
"And to the true believers. Here, representing our Labor rank and file, your dedication gives us all strength. My colleagues and I stand on your shoulders and we thank you."
It's the first face-to-face party meeting in 5 years and the first in more than a decade since Labor was last in power.
The prime minister faced the party, the nation, and his critics as the cost of living, climate and housing crises loom large around the country.
Following the national cabinet's focus on addressing housing affordability, Mr Albanese has now offered a start date for a long awaited election promise.
"Today, I'm proud to announce to this conference, that as a result of the agreement we secured yesterday with every state and territory government, our Help to Buy plan will commence next year, nationwide."
The Help to Buy scheme aims to help lower and middle income-earners enter the housing market with a much smaller deposit.
The government would step in to cover 40 per cent of a new build's purchase price, and 30 per cent for a pre-existing home.
The scheme will apply to 10,000 houses every year and buyers will have to live in the home.
This would be a small portion of the total number of house sales per year in Australia, with CoreLogic data estimating there were around 598,000 house and unit sales across Australia in the year ending August 2021.
Greens leader Adam Bandt says this policy does not get to the heart of the housing crisis and - with a third of the nation renting - he says more needs to be done.
“These new places being offered by Labor will be rarer than Willy Wonka golden tickets. It's not a Help to Buy scheme, it's a Hard to Get scheme. What Labor should be doing in the middle of the worst housing crisis in generations is stop giving billions of dollars a year in tax handouts to politicians, billionaires and property moguls, and instead use that money to build affordable housing for everyone and stop rents going up by the incredible amounts that we've seen that are putting people in huge stress."
This week national cabinet announced they would be increasing the Albanese government's goal of building one million houses over the next five years to 1.2 million.
However, opposition leader Peter Dutton says he doesn't believe the Prime Minister will be able to deliver on this ambition.
"Now, Labor promised a million houses in October of last year and we know they're not going to reach that target. So, increasing that to 1.2 million might sound good and the Prime Minister might be talking a big game but the Prime Minister never delivers. He doesn't get across the detail and I just don't think he's up to the task."
The Labor party is also being pushed to appease trade unions such as the Construction Forestry Maritime Mining Energy Union.
The construction union's has recently demanded a corporate superprofits tax to help pay for social housing, with the union's secretary Zach Smith telling the conference that it's a test of the government's political integrity.
"This is not everything that the union is demanding but it's a very significant first step and it's the sort of step that a progressive Labor government should be doing. We've been told since the 1980s to sit back and let the markets decide, that the great reform era is over. This is nonsense. The state has a role to play and it must play this role in corporate taxation and housing."
As debate turned to climate, Labor's environmental arm was unable to extract a concession to end native logging.
Delegates instead accepted a watered down commitment to review the nation's forestry policy.
Environmental advocates say the failure to secure a ban comes despite the move being endorsed by a majority of members prior to the conference.
Felicity Wade from Labor's Environment Action Network conceded that the continuation of native logging undermined the party's environmental targets.
"Native forest logging is a travesty in the 21st century. While it continues, we undermine the government's policy objectives of ending extinctions and on emission reductions, and we prove ourselves a little bit deaf to the deep environmental concerns of our members."
Despite the unease, the prime minister was able to organise key compromises to keep Labor's rank and file in line.
That may not be the case tomorrow as debate emerges over the Albanese government's plan to spend up to $368 billion on a suite of nuclear submarines as part of the AUKUS pact with the United States and United Kingdom.
More than 50 Labor branches have passed resolutions against the AUKUS deal, with concerns that the plan will set Australia on the path to war.
