Anthony Albanese opposed turning back boats in 2015

Labor leader Anthony Albanese reassured voters at Wednesday’s debate that he supports boat turnbacks, but was staunchly opposed to the policy as recently as 2015.

Anthony Albanese was the most vehement opponent of boat turnbacks as recently as 2015 in the midst of a brutal debate over the policy that nearly plunged the Labor party into civil war at its national conference in Melbourne.

Multiple Labor sources have confirmed that Mr Albanese was “the most strident” speaker inside a closed-door meeting of left faction delegates amid debate over then-leader Bill Shorten’s plans to change the policy to support boat turnbacks where it was safe to do so.

The revelations stand in contrast to Mr Albanese’s attempt to paint himself as having been on the path to embracing boat turnbacks as far back as 2013.

During his debate with Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Wednesday night, Mr Albanese said that his support for offshore processing was the “first step” he had taken towards moving Labor’s position into lock-step with the Coalition on border protection.

“We had established offshore processing in 2013 when I became deputy prime minister. That was the first step,” Mr Albanese said.

Australian leader of the opposition, Anthony Albanese during the first leaders' debate. Picture: Toby Zerna

Pressed by the prime minister who asked, “so you were going to do turnbacks?”, Mr Albanese said, “that’s right.”

However The Daily Telegraph can reveal that at a meeting of the left at Labor’s national conference two years later, Mr Albanese argued vehemently against embracing turnbacks “when safe to do so”, a change in policy backed by then-leader Bill Shorten as well as Richard Marles.

An asylum seeker boat at Christmas Island.

This newspaper has confirmed with multiple sources who were in the room that Tanya Plibersek, who was then Mr Shorten’s deputy, as well as a number of others urged the left to embrace the change on a variety of grounds including putting an end to drownings at sea and ending the business model of people smugglers.

While Mr Albanese voted by his own hand against embracing boat turnbacks, Ms Plibersek as well as fellow Labor frontbencher Penny Wong gave their votes to proxies who voted against turnbacks on their behalf.

Albanese allies Michelle O’Neill and Andrew Giles from Victoria as well as Linda Scott from NSW all also gave the now-opposition leader their support.

The revelations come as Fiona Phillips was forced to defend her stance on asylum seeker policy after it emerged she signed a petition urging Labor to end offshore processing, end mandatory detention, and rule out boat turnbacks.

Labor member for Gilmore Fiona Phillips. Picture: Mick Tsikas

Labor’s Gilmore MP signed the document ahead of the 2015 Labor conference.

Her signature on the petition emerged after Labor Leader Anthony Albanese again stumbled over boat turnbacks in the first leaders’ debate, with the Coalition seizing on the gaffe.

The document, signed by Ms Phillips, called on Labor MPs to “reject policies of mandatory detention, offshore processing and boat turn-back” and “recognise that Australia by closing its borders to boat arrivals is compounding the refugee crisis that is griping (sic) our region and the world”.

It called on Labor conference delegates to demand “onshore processing of applications for asylum, and closure of Nauru and Manus Island detention centres; an end to turn-backs of boats carrying asylum seekers; (and) an end to mandatory and indefinite detention”.

Labor’s Left flank had tried to ban the option of boat turnbacks from the party’s policy platform at the 2015 conference, but was ultimately unsuccessful after bitter debate.

Asked on Thursday when she changed her mind to support Labor’s current stance on boats Ms Philips said that party conferences are a place to discuss policy.

“I support Labor policy. I support regional offshore processing and, if required and safe to do so, boat turnbacks,” she said.

Originally published as Anthony Albanese opposed turning back boats in 2015