Australian Labor Party National Conference

The Australian Labor Party National Conference, sometimes referred to as the National Party Conference or the Federal Conference, is the highest representative and decision-making body of the Australian Labor Party, incorporating all of the party’s state and territory branches. The National Conference takes place triennially and is hosted in Australian cities on a rotating basis. The 49th and most recent National Party Conference was held on the 17th to the 19th of August 2023 at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre and was attended by over 2,000 delegates.

The previous National Party Conference was the 48th conference held in Adelaide in 2018,^[1] which was attended by 397 party delegates,^[2] and the pivotal 2011 National Conference held on 3 December 2011. The conference following the 48th in 2018 was intended to take place in March 2021.^[3] However, this was cancelled due to Covid-19 precautions, thus the 49th National conference was not held until August 2023.^[4]

The National Conference drafts a statement of party policy, called the National Platform,^[5] In practice, however, Labor policy is determined by the leader of the Parliamentary Labor Party.

Decisions of the Conference are implemented by the National Executive. Twenty members of the National Executive are elected by the National Conference. The National Conference does not elect the party's parliamentary leaders, which since 2013 has been by a ballot of both the Parliamentary Caucus and by the Labor Party's rank-and-file members. The national president and vice-presidents are elected by a vote of party members. On many matters votes at the Conference take place on a factional basis. In the past, the Labor Right faction held a majority at the National Conference, though it lost the majority at the 2015 National Conference.^[2]

Notable actions and positions

Socialist objective

The 1922 National Conference adopted a "socialist objective". The resolution was qualified, however, by the "Blackburn amendment," which said that "socialisation" was desirable only when necessary to "eliminate exploitation and other anti-social features."^[6] In practice the socialist objective was a dead letter. Only once has a federal Labor government attempted to nationalise any industry (Ben Chifley's bank nationalisation of 1947), and that was held by the High Court to be unconstitutional. The commitment to nationalisation was dropped after urging by Gough Whitlam in the 1970s, and in the 1980s Bob Hawke's government carried out many free market reforms including the floating of the dollar and privatisation of state enterprises such as Qantas airways and the Commonwealth Bank. The socialist objective was reviewed in 2015; however it still remains a part of the party's current constitution (adopted in 2023) subject to numerous modifications and clarifications present in a subsequent paragraph introduced in the 1980s.^[7][8]

Expulsion of the New South Wales branch

Further information: Australian Labor Party split of 1931

In March 1931, a Special Federal Conference was called in response to the actions of the New South Wales state executive, which was controlled by the Lang Labor faction. The New South Wales state leader, Jack Lang, had been openly defying the federal Labor government for several months. The most immediate trigger was the state party's actions at the East Sydney by-election, where it announced that its candidate, Eddie Ward, would be bound only by the decisions of the state executive, not the federal caucus. At the conference, which the New South Wales Branch boycotted, John Curtin successfully moved for the branch's expulsion; the motion was carried by 25 votes to four.^[9] The conference also gave the Federal Executive the power to suspend or dissolve any other state branch "acting or having acted in a manner deemed [...] contrary to the Federal Constitution, Platform, and Policy of the Party".^[10] The conference subsequently moved for the establishment of a new ALP branch in New South Wales loyal to the Federal Executive, which became known as the "Federal Labor Party". As the Federal Executive had no power to dissolve the original branch (controlled by Lang), the two parties competed against each other at elections for several years. The rebellious branch was eventually re-admitted to the party at another Special Federal Conference in Melbourne in 1936.^[11]

Uranium mining

The 1977 National Conference voted in favour of an indefinite moratorium on uranium mining. However, the 1982 National Conference changed the anti-uranium position in favour of a "one mine policy". After the ALP won power in 1983, the 1984 National Conference adopted a "three mine policy".^[12] This referred to the then three existing uranium mines in Australia, Nabarlek, Ranger and Roxby Downs/Olympic Dam, and articulated ALP support for pre-existing mines and contracts, but opposition to any new mining.^[13]

Same-sex Marriage

The 2011 National Conference voted in favour of recognition of same-sex marriage in Australia,^[14] and also formally endorsed a motion to allow Labor members of parliament the ability to vote in accordance with their consciences. Nonetheless, a subsequent bill to recognise same-sex marriage was defeated.^[15] Equal marriage was ultimately introduced following by a conscience vote held under the Turnbull Liberal government, following a postal survey^[16]