Key unions have persuaded Labor not to wait until next year, in order to strengthen industrial relations commitments

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Labor looks set to schedule its national conference in mid-December after being forced to cancel the event because it would coincide with the “super Saturday” byelections.



Officials have told Guardian Australia the event will go ahead from December 16 through 18, pending formal sign off by the party’s national executive.

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The party stood to lose hundreds of thousands if it canned the event it had pre-booked in Adelaide, so the ALP looked to reschedule at the same facility. Initial advice suggested the first available date would be in January.

There were complications associated with rescheduling in the months between August and December because senior Labor figures are convinced the federal election will be this year, rather than next.

There was concern a rescheduling could be followed by another cancelation. There was also pushback from New South Wales about holding the national event in January because of a potential clash with the launch of the campaign for the state election in March.

While the rebooking process was fraught, unions launched a significant push behind the scenes to lock in another date for the national conference sooner rather than later.

Labor sources told Guardian Australia earlier this week key unions were determined to schedule the event before the end of this year in an effort to strengthen the current platform commitments on industrial relations.

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While Bill Shorten and the shadow workplace relations minister, Brendan O’Connor, have shown every inclination in public to deliver on the lion’s share of a detailed union wishlist for policy change, key unions want commitments locked in as platform amendments and are concerned their window of opportunity closes if the conference is pushed out beyond this year.

Shorten’s right faction is confident it will command the numbers on the floor during any contentious votes, making the conference manageable for the leader.

Scheduling the conference for December risks the party holding their major event after the next federal election in the event predictions about early polls prove accurate.

