Grattan on Friday: One Nation’s spectre hangs over Labor national conference

Bill Kelty has been a member of the Labor Party since 1964 but he is not among the hundreds of delegates at the party’s national conference in Adelaide. If he were, maybe the conference’s Thursday debate on the economy might have seen a touch of fire.

Earlier in the week, Kelty – a central player in the union movement’s key role in the Hawke-Keating economic reforms – unloaded with an acerbic critique of Australia’s situation.

Kelty, giving evidence to a parliamentary committee regarding a dispute between the government and Armaguard (of which he is a non executive director), highlighted the recent dismal picture of the Australian economy presented by the OECD. Its report showed a 5% decline in real wages since 2021.

“We know the underlying malaise,” Kelty said in his written submission. “Productivity change is the third lowest in the OECD. Investment is low. Growth per capita is non-existent. Government expenditure is rising much faster than inflation. The tax on working people is increasing faster than their wages.

“It is easy to blame the governments of the past and present but ultimately we are all to blame. Something is wrong with this place and we need to do something about it,” Kelty said.

In the economic session at Labor’s supreme organisational body’s triennial conference, there was no deep, contested debate about Australia’s fundamental problems.

The conference’s economic debate proceeded with the emphasis on speed and unity. No one spoke against any of the many amendments moved. They just sailed through.

In his address to the conference Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was at at pains to empathise with ordinary Australians’ woes.

“I understand that for many Australians right now, looking to the future runs second to the immediate pressures they are under,” he said.

“The last decade has inflicted one global shock after another. And people have been given every reason to feel like the economy is simply not working for them.

“That goes deeper than sentiment, it’s a reality people are up against. It is a challenge confronting governments and democracies right around the world.”

Albanese said the government’s focus “remains squarely on helping with the cost of living, on the practical measures that matter to people”.

He announced two specifics: an extension to a new range of allied health students the government’s “prac payment” for those on placements (at a cost of $158 million from 2026-27 to 2029-30), and a new Fair Work Court.

The latter is a win for the unions. Albanese told the conference workers “who have been underpaid hundreds, even thousands, of dollars shouldn’t have to wait years for justice, or be told their case will cost more than their claim”.

Albanese said Labor would fix this with its new court that would deal with disputes faster and cheaper, benefiting employees and workers.

Independent economist Saul Eslake says the conference is reflecting Labor’s “more interventionist stance” across various areas, which is in some ways a contrary philosophy to that of the Hawke-Keating government. “But there is not much indication so far of any thinking of how [we] will pay for the expanding role of government.”

More generally, Eslake points to “a transition [under Labor] from the traditional Australian social security system, based on means-tested cash payments to people with particular needs, to a European-type system of providing services to people who meet various determined criteria – for example being old, being sick, people living with a disability, people with children – irrespective of means. But no one is prepared to say we need to have European-style taxes to pay for it.”

In the celebration of unity, the highest-profile discordant voice around the corridors is that of former minister Ed Husic.

Husic is an advocate for a new gas tax, an initiative that has strong support among the public but not from the government – at least not at the moment.

Husic told a news conference: “A lot of Australians reckon we’ve been ripped off. Labor can stand up, seize this moment, seize the money, also seize the agenda long term.”

But the government doesn’t want to “seize this moment”. The Middle East conflict has elevated the need to make sure other countries are convinced of the reliability of Australia when it comes to contracts.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers once again squashed the gas tax idea “for the foreseeable future” – while carefully leaving wriggle room for it some time later. “The reason why that is not on the government’s agenda is because we’ve got other more pressing, more important things to focus on,” Chalmers told Sky.

The gas tax sizzle did not even get to the conference floor. The new platform simply says: “Labor will ensure that the Australian people receive a fairer return from their natural resources including through appropriate taxation arrangements, while securing Australia’s role as a reliable international energy supplier and investment partner”.

The spectre of Pauline Hanson hangs over this three-day conference. One Nation is a convenient punching bag, but Labor is also increasingly aware of the potential threat the populist party could present to it. It received numerous references.

Albanese said: “Beyond One Nation’s personality clashes, policy confusion, conspiracy theories and candidate chaos, and regardless of who leads the Liberals to the next election, in every way that matters, the Liberals, Nationals and One Nation are already a coalition”.

Housing Minister Clare O’Neil told the conference: “One Nation is trying to use the language of working people to sell an agenda that works against them”.

South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas had the best line: “In an erratic world filled with ill discipline and division, we’ve been reminded this week of that time-honoured political truth: if you can’t govern your dog, you can’t govern the country”.

Barnaby Joyce’s now notorious shout at his dog during his interview on the ABC’s 7.30 might be seen as a metaphor for Joyce’s wider frustrations – he can’t yell at his leader, or at rogue senator Malcolm Roberts and his conspiracy theories.

Joyce spends much time cleaning up after Hanson. This week he had to clean up after himself, with a tongue-in-cheek apology to the dog. Before week’s end an entrepreneurial One Nation was advertising for pre-orders for Sitdown! dog leads.

Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.