Premier Chris Minns has issued a clarion call to Labor faithful, saying the party must beat back “darkness at the ballot box” to remain in power.
In an address to the Labor state conference eight months out from the next state election, in March, Minns said the party faced an unprecedented test as the spectre of a resurgent One Nation and Pauline Hanson hung over the gathering of delegates at Sydney Town Hall.
Following weeks of negotiations, factional leaders agreed on a reordering of the party’s upper house ticket on the eve of the conference. Settled on Friday night, the deal demotes Agriculture Minister Tara Moriarty, one of only two women on the ticket, to seventh spot on the Legislative Council ticket, jeopardising her seat in the upper house.
The last-minute reshuffle, which promoted outspoken soft-left MP Anthony D’Adam up the ticket, places Moriarty in a precarious position and reliant on the party’s primary vote remaining above 28 per cent. The latest Resolve Political Monitor poll, in mid-May, put Labor’s vote at 32 per cent.
In a reflection of the Coalition’s dire prospects, One Nation and Pauline Hanson appeared as a central theme during the speeches that delegates delivered on Saturday morning. Minns took aim at Hanson’s call for the nation to reject multiculturalism, saying Labor would “never peddle in the politics of fear”.
“But delegates, I’m sorry, our task is bigger than that – we must also beat back that darkness at the ballot box. Fear is a low-calorie diet – it cannot sustain you, it can’t build a common direction, it can’t shape and grow our community, it offers no vision or purpose,” he said.
With politics rapidly evolving, Minns said the party needed “to climb Everest just to stay where we are”.
“It’s also true that at times of unrest, at times of uncertainty, during political upheaval across our country and around the world, with pressure on families and a rise in divisive political leaders who copy their politics from demagogues across the sea, the NSW Labor Party – and this conference – stands as a pillar for millions of people committed to the ideas of democracy, freedom, fairness and [hope].”
“This campaign will throw everything at us. We’re up against many parties, not a single opposition. And it will test us like never before.”
Minns was welcomed warmly by the hundreds of gathered delegates as he walked into the conference, although his entry was disrupted when a Palestinian flag was unfurled from the upper floor, a sign that he divides opinion even among the Labor faithful.
ALP assistant secretary George Simon said the political environment confronting the party was “more complex than we’ve experienced in a generation”, and federal Industry Minister Tim Ayres told delegates that Labor faced the “battle of our lives” against a “ramshackle reactionary coalition”.
“A vote for the Liberal Party is a vote for One Nation, and a vote for One Nation is a vote for the Liberal Party,” Ayres said.
Jeff Drayton, a member of Labor’s New England branch who unsuccessfully ran in the Upper Hunter byelection, said the party had not done enough to counter the rise of One Nation, and implored for more resources to combat the insurgency in regional areas.
After weeks of agitation, including the threat of an unpredictable vote on the conference floor, Labor’s factions settled on a new upper house ticket. Three party sources, speaking anonymously to detail confidential deliberations, confirmed the eleventh hour deal would boost D’Adam up the ticket.
Treasurer Daniel Mookhey and Energy Minister Penny Sharpe remained in first and second spots, respectively, while Bernard Govind, a member of the Shop, Distributive & Allied Employees’ Association (SDA), was third. D’Adam came in fourth, Unions NSW secretary Mark Morey fifth, and Asren Pugh, a Byron Bay muesli executive and candidate of the Left faction, sixth.
One senior Labor source said the new ticket simply reflected how delegates would have voted in a ballot.
Hundreds of delegates, MPs and ministers were welcomed to Sydney Town Hall by a small but boisterous pro-Palestine protest, and party members filed into a heavily fortified building on Saturday morning.
The conference celebrated 50 years since Neville Wran, who famously used a speech at Labor state conference to resign after 10 years as premier, was elected.
Meanwhile, the Minns government this morning announced a $12 billion investment to build the next generation of Tangara trains at a manufacturing facility.
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Max Maddison is a state political reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald.
