CAMERON MILNER: Labor national conference gabfest a missed opportunity for change

The ALP national conference could’ve provided the change voters were looking for. But it didn’t.

The carefully choreographed event was stale and lifeless.

It was just more of the same from the Albanese Government which has seen Labor’s primary slump to equal that of One Nation.

One Nation was always riding a wave of discontent and now they have tapped into a deep vein of disillusionment.

ALP national conferences in the past have had hard debates and impassioned pleas for change. There was a sense that Labor was the party of that change.

Ed Husic tried hard, but looked emasculated as he couldn’t even find a seconder among the factional daleks that pass for conference delegates. He made a good point that debate isn’t dissent. In the end the only difference Husic made was talking to journalists from Adelaide rather than Canberra.

Labor is the weaker for not having had a discussion about Hamas terrorism, the horrors of October 7, or Palestinian “pay for slay” and the abject corruption of the Abbas administration.

By taking a “nothing to see here” approach Labor is ceding control over the nation’s direction, because it lacks the maturity to have the debates that need to happen.

Voters were deeply shocked by the Bondi massacre and the Prime Minister’s feet of clay response.

It was his reluctance to call a royal commission or to acknowledge the home grown threats of radical Islam that has seen One Nation’s vote surge to parity with Labor.

Before Bondi, One Nation was largely a problem for the Liberals. Now because of Albanese’s failure of leadership it’s also a massive problem for Labor.

By silencing the debate at conference, Labor remains adrift on the issue of radical Islam as well as the other pressing issues of cost of living, crippling interest rates and the sense our nation is on the wrong track.

National conferences, like campaign launches, provide an opportunity for blanket media coverage and undivided coverage.

But Labor missed this opportunity, too fearful that a contest of ideas might further expose the small target ambitions of the Albanese Government.

The lack of policy narrative also meant that issues such as the metalworkers union wanting to change the Australian flag actually got coverage, such was the dearth of anything of interest otherwise being said at conference.

The difficulty for Labor is the rise of One Nation and their own voting slump are all their own doing.

With 94 seats, a Coalition in total disarray having swapped leaders of both parties, Labor should have a primary as high as 40.

Instead, they are neck and neck with a party with just a handful of elected representatives and are playing reactive, catch-up politics.

Labor delegates spoke over and over about One Nation. Pauline Hanson looks to be living rent=free in Albanese’s head.

But warning of the dangers of One Nation without tackling the root causes for her appeal to voters will just be more wasted breath and yet another missed opportunity.

Politics is faster moving than ever before.

In the UK, Sir Keir Stamer won in a landslide in 2024, but is already gone after voters decided the didn’t like what they saw.

In Victoria, Jacinta Allan looks like suffering a similar fate. What’s spooked factional bosses there isn’t the prospect of losing to the Liberals, but the rise of One Nation.

Like Starmer, both Allan and Albanese are trying to ignore the depth of the voter discontent before them.

Albanese’s position is under no threat, thanks to a compliant caucus and a supplication national conference.

But having the numbers isn’t a strategy to drive better outcomes.

As the UK and Victorian experiences both show, complacency and a refusal to address the root causes of voter disillusionment can be corrosive and powerful forces.

Labor’s conference should have had big debates about the Albanese Government’s endless spiral of out-of-control spending and out-of-control taxing.

Conference should’ve debated how we kick-start economic productivity having wrung the last of any advantage from enterprise bargaining.

The answer to our economic malaise shouldn’t be another hand-out or off-budget money-go-round.

Labor used to be proud to be both the workers’ best friend and strong economic managers. But the days of the Hawke/Keating era didn’t even rate a mention at the ALP national conference.

In the end you can deny the electoral reality all you like, but without reform, hard choices and strong leadership Australia will continue to go backwards as an economy.

The national conference should’ve been that opportunity, but uniformity was used as a proxy for unity.

Great political movements are driven by contesting ideas, debated in a civilised way. It is not advanced by shutting down debate all together.

Cameron Milner is a former Queensland Labor State secretary