Labor national conference stakes couldn’t be higher for Anthony Albanese
One of the most unpleasant incidents I ever experienced in politics was being spat on as I left an ALP conference in the 1980s for supporting Bob Hawke’s uranium mine policy.
ALP conferences are not for the faint hearted. Indeed, no one could ever accuse Labor delegates of lacking passion and commitment.
The ALP’s history and composition ensures there is vigorous conference debate and a battle of ideas, some of which are not always electorally popular. But that is the way it should be.
The ALP national conference is therefore a test of leadership for every Labor prime minister to ensure the party is heard through policy formulation but that the government is not destabilised in the process. National conferences assume a greater importance when Labor is in government.
Some of this debate, of course, takes place in backroom factional meetings, where deals are thrashed out between factional leaders, as the prime minister of the day seeks to stamp their authority on the conference and the party, while at the same time protecting the government’s standing in the electorate.
Factional leaders such as NSW’s Graham Richardson from the party’s Right, Victoria’s Gerry Hand from the Left and WA’s Peter Cook from the Centre Left pulled the numbers together to secure stability in the Hawke-Keating years. But it was the intellectual power of Bob Hawke, Paul Keating and Kim Beazley that won the hearts and minds of the Labor rank and file.
These days, the legacy of the Hawke-Keating economic reforms is well established. Yet what is often forgotten is the tough conference debates that took place to achieve those policy changes. They were not unanimous decisions, and several were strongly opposed by many in the party who now passionately claim them as their own. On the floor of the conference, Hawke and Keating took no prisoners. They were simply magnificent debaters and the power of their arguments and the strategy they pursued dragged the party with them on the road to the modern Australia we now all enjoy. On foreign policy, Beazley matched both Hawke and Keating. It was clear the adults were in charge of Australia’s future.
Anthony Albanese lived through the Hawke-Keating years and knows the party well. He is in the best position to get the policy outcomes Australia needs on AUKUS, energy policy and Israel, but being prime minister is never easy. To leave a legacy, it always takes the courage and vision of a Hawke and Keating.
This national conference is being held in Queensland, which has been a basket case for Labor in recent federal elections.
That means the conference will be a showcase of Labor in office.
Queenslanders have been strong supporters of Labor at a state level since 1998 and equally strong supporters of the LNP at a federal level.
Indeed, in successive elections in the early part of this century, Queenslanders voted overwhelmingly for John Howard’s governments and then did the same for my Labor governments. That trend continued in the 2022 federal election. The ugly reality for Labor is that unless it can significantly improve its vote in Queensland, its hold on power, federally, will always be tenuous, and the problem is only going to worsen.
With interstate migration increasing, partly due to cost-of-living pressures in Sydney and Melbourne, Queensland’s population will increase on the back of the economic opportunities arising from the Brisbane Olympics.
Long term, this means more federal seats in Queensland. So how can Labor win more seats in Queensland? There is no point arguing about whether Queenslanders are different or not. The reality is Queensland is different in a positive way: the state is the most decentralised mainland state in Australia, and this decentralisation means regions are crucial to how Queenslanders think. Too often it’s forgotten in Canberra that Victoria could fit in that part of Queensland between Cairns and the PNG border.
Queenslanders are straightforward, commonsense-thinking Australians. Some practical conference decisions on regional development, infrastructure investment and strategic support for agriculture, education and health services will go a long way to delivering what Queenslanders need. But unless there is a clear energy policy, providing certainty for the mining industry and regional communities as Australia transitions to new energy sources, Labor has little hope of winning regional Queensland seats.
Queensland is a small business state. It is the backbone of the Queensland economy and a large employer. In order to win, small business has to be an essential part of Labor’s policy agenda.
Labor has three key federal minsters and they should be front and centre of Labor’s conference and any key announcements. Queenslanders like to see their representatives, such as Treasurer Jim Chalmers, Agriculture Minster Murray Watt and Minister for Aged Care Anika Wells, delivering on their behalf.
If the Labor Party is going to improve its electoral performance in Queensland at the next election, it has to start at this conference.
Peter Beattie served as Queensland premier from 1998 to 2007.
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