Left-wing unions reject Anthony Albanese’s draft platform as ‘empty vessel’

Anthony Albanese is facing a revolt from left-wing unions over his political strategy and decision to condense the party’s platform.

Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese in Sydney on Tuesday Picture: Dylan Coker

Anthony Albanese is facing a revolt from left-wing unions over his political strategy and decision to condense the party’s platform, with the Labor leader’s Victorian powerbase calling the draft policy document an “empty vessel”.

Unions from Victoria’s Socialist Left faction, a key support bloc of the Opposition Leader, say they are concerned about the “party’s apparent overall strategy leading into the next federal election” and are calling for a rerun of Bill Shorten’s large, detailed policy agenda.

In a letter to Labor figures who are drafting the platform, Socialist Left faction convener Dylan Wight said major unions did not have confidence in the draft policy platform.

He wrote the letter on behalf of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, the Electrical Trades Union, the Community and Public Sector Union, the Meat Workers Union, the Australian Services Union, the Communication Workers Union and the United Firefighters Union.

The leaked draft platform, as revealed in The Australian on Tuesday, makes no mention of a 2030 or 2035 emissions reduction or renewable energy targets and its critics say it is full of “motherhood statements”.

Mr Albanese is facing an internal push to drop medium-term targets and focus on a policy of net-zero emissions by 2050.

Mr Wight wrote that Labor’s policy agenda needed to be “bold”, saying the “pursuit of a small target strategy has never served our party well”.

He said unions would lobby against watering down the platform produced in 2018 because “we need detailed and courageous reforms now more than ever”.

The 99-page draft policy document is about one-third of the size of the platform created ahead of the 2019 election as Mr Albanese tries to simplify Labor’s message.

“The removal of 75 per cent of the content from the previous 2018 platform does not make this a more appealing document,” Mr Wight wrote. “Much of the detail in previous platforms took generations to develop — to see that detail gutted in this manner is incredibly disappointing.

“Now is the time to be bold — we have the ability to reset local supply chains and once again become a self-sufficient nation, create a strong public sector and provide social justice for our most vulnerable. In order to achieve this, we must have the confidence that the party has the policies to help working people recover from the worst economic disaster since the great depression.”

Opposition environment spokeswoman Terri Butler has flagged a rewrite of parts of her policy section after the draft outlined opposition to handing environmental approvals processes to the states. This would put the party at odds with the interim recommendations from the Samuel review into the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Act.

The draft said Labor would “terminate any arrangements that give states these powers” and flagged the creation of a new Australian environment act within the first term of government.

Ms Butler told The Australian Labor remained open to the proposals in the Samuel review. “I anticipate these paragraphs will be redrafted at a time closer to the national conference, once the current environmental law reform process has progressed further,” she said. “The environmental laws have not yet changed since the 2019 election, and therefore these paragraphs of the draft reflect the status quo.”

The 2018 platform would have committed a Bill Shorten-led government to an emissions reduction target of 45 per cent of 2005 levels by 2030, and a 50 per cent renewable energy target.

The absence of a 2030 or 2035 target from the party’s platform does not preclude Mr Albanese from going to the election with a medium-term target but gives his team flexibility.

On Tuesday, Mr Shorten did not voice any protest to the prospect of Labor junking a 2030 emissions reduction target and declared it is “all about the jobs after COVID”.

“Climate’s important, but let’s face it, so are jobs,” Mr Shorten told Nine’s Today show.

Opposition resources spokesman Joel Fitzgibbon said a 2030 target was “redundant” and Labor should keep the focus on a net-zero emissions by 2050 target.

“The pathway to 2050 won’t be a linear one because as technologies evolve and improve, the task will get less difficult along the way,” he said. “So I think the idea of having a medium term target is a bit of a distraction.”

Labor climate change spokesman Mark Butler, however, said Labor would adopt a medium-term target before the election. “We have said that we are reviewing our 2030 targets,” he said.

“We have said very clearly that our position on medium-term targets would be made very clear before the next election.”