A tale of two Labor conferences

Barely three weeks separated the NSW Labor Conference from last week’s ALP National Conference in Adelaide. But what a difference three weeks made.

In Sydney, the party leadership largely succeeded in keeping Israel and Palestine off the conference agenda.

Adelaide was different.

Much of the media attention focused on Labor MP Ed Husic’s unsuccessful attempt to secure support for poisonous amendments to Labor’s national platform, accusing Israel of “genocide” and “apartheid” and demanding it be severely punished.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese declared afterwards that the platform had “got the balance right.”