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.”

Many therefore concluded that Labor’s activist wing had suffered a defeat, and that the party’s position remained largely unchanged.

They were only half right.

The significance of the Adelaide conference does not lie in the failure of Husic’s gambit, but in the platform delegates ultimately adopted.

Between the consultation draft released in April and the final platform endorsed in Adelaide, two important statements quietly disappeared.

The first stated that “Hamas must disarm and can have no role in the State of Palestine.”

The second committed Labor to “continue to work with the international community to hold the Palestinian Authority to its commitments and to encourage normalised relations between Israel and its neighbours.”

These clauses emphasised two critical components of the Albanese Government’s approach to the conflict.

The Government has recognised that a negotiated two-states-for-two-peoples solution can only succeed if Hamas – a listed terrorist organisation and the architect of the October 7 massacre which it promises to repeat “again and again” until Israel’s destruction – cannot dominate any future Palestinian state or continue to operate as an armed force outside government control.

Moreover, the second omission is particularly striking because the Government’s recognition of a Palestinian state last year was itself contingent on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ personal commitment to PM Albanese that Hamas would have no role in its future governance, that the Palestinian Authority would recognise Israel, demilitarise, abolish “pay for slay”, reform its governance and education systems, and hold democratic elections – pledges that remain unfulfilled.

Indeed, Foreign Minister Penny Wong publicly reaffirmed those very principles only days before the conference.

Their disappearance therefore demands an explanation – yet none has been forthcoming.

The omissions matter because they further unbalance an already lopsided platform that devotes considerable attention to Israel’s obligations, but offers only minimal discussion of Palestinian responsibilities or of the conditions necessary for a durable peace.

Not only has the explicit requirement that Hamas disarm and play no role in a future Palestinian state disappeared, Hamas is also now mentioned only once, grouped together with other violent “extremists” whose actions are condemned.

The Gaza war ended months ago. The way forward outlined under the Trump peace plan – which is also not mentioned in the platform – remains stymied by Hamas’ refusal to disarm and relinquish power as that plan demands. Indeed, the platform ignores the longstanding offers to negotiate an end to the conflict made by every Israeli leader since 2000, and the several generous proposals for peace that Palestinian leaders have rejected.

Instead, much of Labor’s internal debate continues as though the Gaza conflict still rages.

For example, the platform states that “Under international humanitarian law, Israel must comply with obligations as an occupying power, including in respect of food and medical supplies for the Palestinian civilian population. Labor is part of the international demand for Israel to allow aid providers and NGOs to provide lifesaving assistance to Palestinians in Gaza, in full cooperation with the United Nations.”

This provision ignores recent Israeli and UN data showing Gaza has an abundance of food and medical aid and the UN’s own condemnation in July of Hamas’ looting of humanitarian supplies.

Ed Husic urged delegates to support language asserting that Israel was committing genocide. Like too many of Israel’s critics, he relied on the oft-repeated claim that the International Court of Justice found there was a “plausible genocide” in Gaza.

Except it did not.

As the Court’s former President, Joan Donoghue, has explained, the Court ruled only that Palestinians had a plausible right to protection under the Genocide Convention while South Africa’s case proceeds. She explicitly made clear it did not find that Israel was plausibly committing genocide.

Yet that falsehood continues to circulate throughout Australia’s media and political class long after it has been authoritatively corrected.

Rather than reassessing their positions as more information has emerged, too many participants in Labor’s internal debate appear determined to continue litigating yesterday’s political arguments.

That is the real significance of Adelaide.

If the Albanese Government genuinely continues to believe that Hamas must disarm, that the Palestinian Authority must reform and that peace requires responsibilities as well as rights on both sides, it should have ensured those principles were reflected in Labor’s national platform.

Instead, we saw them removed, presumably to placate the pro-Palestinian activists in the party – who, in reality, can never be appeased. Every concession only makes them increase their demands – as we can see from the current angry outcry coming from many over the failure of Husic’s extremist amendments.

Allon Lee is a Senior Policy Analyst at the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC).