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<\/p>\nIf Labor has a policy fight behind a closed door and nobody else hears, did it really happen?<\/p>\n
To the agitators and internal critics, the answer is a resounding no.<\/p>\n
To the outside world vaguely aware something Labor-related has been going on in Adelaide this week it probably doesn’t matter.<\/p>\n
But for the few hundred delegates who sat through three days of meticulously choreographed politicking it’s a little more complicated.<\/p>\n
Despite outward appearances, there was no shortage of disagreement at the ALP’s 50th National Conference in Adelaide this week.<\/p>\n
Unions, rank-and-file members, MPs and factional powerbrokers arrived with competing views on issues like gambling reform, artificial intelligence, gas taxation and Israel.<\/p>\n
But watching the formal proceedings inside the Adelaide Convention Centre it would have been easy to miss.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
To the outside world vaguely aware something Labor-related has been going on in Adelaide this week it probably doesn’t matter. (ABC News: Matt Roberts)<\/p>\n
Behind-the-scenes negotiations<\/p>\n
Motion after motion carried on voices alone \u2014 meaning not one vote required a division and formal count \u2014 and backed by effusive speeches liberally punctuated with the word “comrade” (more on that later).<\/p>\n
A casual observer might have thought the biggest controversy was how long the conference’s coffee cart line got at peak hour (though given the hot beverages were paid for by the ALP there weren’t even any complaints about the wait times).<\/p>\n
It was a different story just outside, where activists holding a giant fluorescent green inflatable “toxic” nuclear submarine and pro-Palestine choir jostled for space to protest.<\/p>\n
At one point there was even an anti-sea dumping billboard featuring a frankly disturbing AI-generated image of Environment Minister Murray Watt as a shirtless merman.<\/p>\n
This columnist can’t unsee that one, but as far as eyewitness accounts go there’s little to share on the real business of the conference.<\/p>\n
It was in the backroom meetings that amendments to Labor’s 2026 national platform were traded, rewritten, folded into compromise motions or quietly abandoned.<\/p>\n
By the time an issue reached the stage, arguments had already taken place, the numbers counted and ending agreed.<\/p>\n
None of that means the negotiations behind-the-scenes were meaningless.<\/p>\n
Parties need to negotiate and governments especially cannot approach every disagreement as an invitation to blow up political enemies on national television.<\/p>\n
But there is a difference between avoiding gratuitous warfare and removing almost every visible sign that politics has occurred.<\/p>\n
Take the election of members to the ALP’s national executive.<\/p>\n
There were 20 positions up for grabs ahead of the conference, and what do you know, only 20 people applied \u2014 how neat.<\/p>\n
Loading…A demonstration of unity<\/p>\n
Labor’s conference was designed to demonstrate unity at a moment when the party wanted voters focused on its opponents \u2014 particularly the growing threat posed by One Nation \u2014 rather than any division within its own ranks.<\/p>\n
Senior figures repeatedly warned that Pauline Hanson’s party was exploiting genuine economic frustration and redirecting it towards minorities and other convenient targets.<\/p>\n
Yet the conference’s own treatment of policy disagreement risked reinforcing one of the grievances on which populist parties thrive: the suspicion that important decisions are stitched up by political insiders.<\/p>\n
Speaking on the sidelines of the final day of the conference, backbench MP Ed Husic went so far as to warn One Nation’s success was a “test” for Labor in learning when to ditch the talking points and instead try to “convince” voters of the progressive cause.<\/p>\n
Husic, who has assumed the role of agitator-in-chief since he was ousted from cabinet amid factional manoeuvring last year, has ended up largely isolated for his efforts.<\/p>\n
The constant dissent has only fed cynicism among Husic’s colleagues about his motives, while some insist his failed attempt to rally support for a conference floor debate on Gaza would have been more effective if he’d stuck to the one issue.<\/p>\n