Nothing’s more draft than a draft platform

Anthony Albanese will use the ALP national platform to scrape off election-losing barnacles left behind by Bill Shorten, Chris Bowen and Mark Butler.

Anthony Albanese. Picture: Getty Images

Anthony Albanese will use the ALP national platform to scrape off election-losing barnacles left behind by Bill Shorten, Chris Bowen and Mark Butler.

The COVID-19 pandemic has provided cover for Albanese to avoid the usual theatrics on the floor of the ALP’s national conference, where Left and Right factions test their numbers and jostle for policy amendments.

The two-day “special platform” conference at the end of next month will be held online for the first time, with 400 delegates taking part virtually.

After languishing in opposition for three terms, the final ALP policy blueprint will likely be a whitewash to avoid stoushes over contentious issues, which will come closer to the election. As one Labor MP said on Sunday, “there is nothing more draft than a Labor draft platform”.

At the 2018 ALP national conference in Adelaide, held five months out from an election that few Labor MPs thought they would lose, Shorten did everything he could to neutralise potential flashpoints on key policy issues, including asylum-seekers and industrial relations. As one union leader said at the time: “I don’t know why we’re here. We may as well go home.”

With Albanese under pressure on climate change, coal and energy, it is expected the AWU, CFMEU and pro-coal Labor MPs will use national conference to push back against Labor’s attitude to the resources sector. Questions will also be raised over what’s not in the draft policy document, including no commitments on medium-term emissions targets and how Labor will raise cash to pay for its election promises.

In a National Press Club speech in late 2019 following an internal review into Labor’s election defeat, Albanese said under the party’s four-stage renewal project, the third stage would “rewrite and consolidate the Labor platform, which has been described as possibly the longest of any comparable centre-left party in the world”.

“I want it to tell a positive and compelling story about the future of our country and how it can be renewed to the benefit of all our people,” he said.

Senior Labor MPs are desperate to not duplicate the 2018 national platform, which was more than 300-pages long. At 110 pages, the 2021 final draft has been designed to keep Labor out of the weeds and focused on key economic and health issues.

The Coalition will pick the eyes out of the policy document. They want to get back to policy fights with Labor on energy, border security, national security, the economy and health.

With the vaccination rollout under way, Scott Morrison will want to get the government back on message after a fortnight dealing with sexual assault allegations in parliament.