The real story was not the platform

The headlines following Labor’s National Conference have been predictable. The party’s revised platform on Israel and Palestine has shifted further against Israel, drawing criticism from Australia’s Jewish community while simultaneously disappointing those on the activist left who wanted it to go even further.

From the commentary, one could be forgiven for thinking the conference was simply another contest over who had won and lost. That, however, misses the most important story.

Politics is not merely the resolutions passed on a conference floor. It is also theatre, symbolism and the signals political parties send about the kind of nation they wish to govern. Sometimes those signals matter far more than the text of a motion, because they shape political culture long after delegates have gone home.

For that reason, the defining moment was the speeches delivered by Josh Burns and Bassem Abdo.

Here were two Australians, a Jewish MP and a Palestinian MP, speaking from profoundly different experiences of the same conflict. Neither diluted their convictions. Neither pretended that history or suffering could simply be equalised. Yet both spoke with restraint, empathy and, above all, a shared commitment to Australia. The standing ovation they received was recognition that there remains another way of conducting politics.