Matt Smith: Penny Wong warns Labor colleagues not to get too far ahead of themselves

Matt Smith explains why SA’s most high profile Labor MP has warned her colleagues not to get too far ahead of themselves despite polls showing the party is in the box seat to win the next election.

Leader of the Opposition Bill Shorten with Senator Penny Wong, who has issued a warning to her Labor colleagues.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten will on Sunday address hundreds of party faithful for Labor’s first National Conference in South Australia for four decades.

SA’s most high profile Labor MP, Penny Wong, has warned her colleagues not to get too far ahead of themselves despite polls showing the party is in the box seat to win the next election.

The razor-sharp Senator would remember 2001 when the party led by Kim Beazley snatched defeat from the jaws of victory despite months preparing for electoral glory.

In SA, polling suggests Labor is just as popular here as anywhere in the country. But Mr Shorten knows that five days can be a long time in politics, so five months can be an eternity.

As Senator Wong told The Advertiser this week: “There’s a long way to go and we have an obligation to win the trust of the Australian people”.

“As divided and chaotic as the Coalition are, our job is to try and win votes so we can have a Labor government that does good things for the country and good things for the Australian people.”

On the national stage Labor has been desperate to project a united front on boat turn-backs and asylum seekers.

They started talking about asylum-seeker policy earlier in the week in a bid to clear the air before the start of the conference on Sunday.

They have also, quite rightly, pointed to their years of stability following the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd years.

With Mr Shorten at the helm Labor has spent more time talking about those opposite than themselves. But the Opposition Leader is still not popular, and is seen as one of the greatest tools in the Liberals’ armoury against Labor.

During the conference there will be the odd skirmish with various factions of the party seeking to flex their authority and fly the flag for those they represent.

But discipline will be the order of the day.

With that in mind it provides Mr Shorten, not a frequent flyer to Adelaide, the perfect opportunity to show South Australians how he thinks the state will do better if he becomes prime minister.

It is also an opportunity to clear the air over some key issues for SA.

These include the Australian Space Agency, the City Deal and population growth.

Mr Shorten yesterday moved to alleviate concerns that Prime Minster Scott Morrison’s promise to make Adelaide the home of the nation’s first space agency could be reversed.

Amid universal applause Labor’s position from Canberra was a little unclear, sending a shiver up the spine of Labor MPs in SA.

When asked yesterday if Labor supported Adelaide as the space agency home as opposed to Canberra Mr Shorten told reporters: “We certainly want to see jobs go to Adelaide and we are certainly very committed to a space agency. Therefore we will look at the evidence and if it is the right case to move jobs to Adelaide we certainly will.”

Labor’s infrastructure spokesman Anthony Albanese provided a similar response to concerns a Shorten-led government would not honour an Adelaide City Deal, also signed this week.

Mr Albanese, who is on the public record as critical of City Deals, expressed a desire to do the right thing for SA’s capital — but stressed any deal would be on Labor’s terms.

The Steven Marshall-led State Government has made no secret of its desire to grow South Australia’s population.

Mr Shorten says he wants to tackle Australia’s population issues in a joint-party plan tackling the country’s growth.

He has indicated he could support a new settlement policy that would redistribute people away from the congested capitals of Sydney and Melbourne.

But it is still unclear is what Mr Shorten would do to reduce the state’s brain drain to the eastern states and getting people to live and work in regional SA where populations are declining despite skills shortages.

From Sunday he has three days to outline his vision for not just Australia but more specifically SA.