The Australian Labor Party National Conference, sometimes referred to as the Commonwealth Conference or the Federal Conference, is the highest representative and decision-making body of the Australian Labor Party, incorporating all of the party's state and territory branches. The National Conference takes place triennially and is hosted in Australian cities on a rotating basis. The 50th and most recent National Party Conference is being held in Adelaide at the Adelaide Convention Centre from Thursday 23 July until Saturday 25 July and was attended by over 2,000 party members.

The 49th National Party Conference was held on 17–19 August 2023 at the Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre and was attended by over 2,000 party members along with 399 elected delegates. The 48th conference held in Adelaide in 2018,ALP: Welcome to the 47th Australian Labor Party National Conference was attended by 397 party delegates,Sydney Morning Herald, 18 June 2015: Labor powerbrokers lose control with reform back on the agenda and the pivotal 2011 National Conference held on 3 December 2011. The conference following the 48th in 2018 was intended to take place in March 2021. However, this was cancelled due to COVID-19 precautions, thus the 49th National conference was not held until August 2023.

The National Conference approves a statement of party policy, called the National Platform. This document is drafted in the lead-up to the National Conference by the ALP's National Policy Forum, co-chaired by the parliamentary leader and the national president. In practice, however, Labor policy is ultimately determined by the leader of the Parliamentary Labor Party and the Australian Labor Party Caucus.

Decisions of the Conference are implemented by the National Executive. Twenty members of the National Executive are elected by the National Conference. The National Conference does not elect the party's parliamentary leaders, which since 2013 has been by a ballot of both the Parliamentary Caucus and by the Labor Party's rank-and-file members. The national president and vice-presidents are elected by a vote of party members. On many matters votes at the Conference take place on a factional basis. In the past, the Labor Right faction held a majority at the National Conference, though it lost the majority at the 2015 National Conference.

Delegates

The Australian Labor Party National Constitution outlines the process for the nomination and election of conference delegates, including ex-officio non-voting delegates. The national constitution is re-approved at each conference, and amendments to the constitution can be proposed as individual motions. A simple majority of voting delegates is required to pass motions amending the national platform and national constitution.

Size of delegations The current national constitution, adopted in 2023 by the 49th National Conference, outlines the following process for determining the total number of delegates:

+ ALP Conference Delegate Allocations New South Wales Victoria Queensland Western Australia South Australia Tasmania Australian Capital Territory Northern Territory Federal Caucus Party Leadership Young Labor 105 89 73 45 33 23 9 7 6 4 3

Notable actions and policy positions

Conscription

Socialist objective and nationalisation

The very first detailed and published Australian Labor Party National Platform was developed at the 2nd Commonwealth Conference in 1902. The platform held "Nationalisation of Monopolies" to be one of the party's top federal priorities, along with establishing a "commonwealth bank of deposit." Both policy priorities were signs of the strong democratic socialist values of the early Labor Party. The 1902 platform also called for the nationalisation of railways in Australia.

By 1921, the party's platform had become significantly more socialist, now including the primary objective of "the socialisation of industry, production, distribution and exchange" with the following implementation methods:

The emergence of the Cold War and a subsequent nationwide fear of communism in Australia led to the party platform's objective being amended from "The Socialisation of Industry, Production, Distribution and Exchange" in 1948 to "the Socialisation of Industry, Production, Distribution and Exchange – to the extent necessary to eliminate exploitation and other anti-social features in those fields" and 2 years later to "the Democratic Socialisation of Industry, Production, Distribution and Exchange—to the extent necessary to eliminate exploitation and other anti-social features in those fields." The same objective would remain unchanged until an amendment at the 1981 conference added "the Australian Labor Party is a democratic socialist party.".

Only once has a federal Labor government attempted to nationalise any industry (Ben Chifley's bank nationalisation of 1947), and that was held by the High Court to be unconstitutional. The Hawke and Keating governments of 1983–1996 had seen a dramatic shift in how the party handled the issues of nationalisation and privatisation, the most notable example being the privatisation of Qantas and The Commonwealth Bank following significant debate at the 1990 Special Conference.

From the 1998 platform onwards, primary party objectives speaking to socialisation or nationalisation of industries had been removed entirely and instead moved to the party's constitution.

The socialist objective was reviewed in 2015; however it still remains a part of the party's current constitution (adopted in 2023) subject to numerous modifications and clarifications present in a subsequent paragraph introduced in the 1980s.

+National Platform Objective Year Objective Ref 1948 The Socialisation of industry, Production, Distribution end Exchange 1955 The Socialisation of Industry, Production, Distribution and Exchange – to the extent necessary to eliminate exploitation and other anti-social features in those fields—in accordance with the Principles of Action, Methods and Progressive Reforms set out in this Platform. 1957 The Democratic Socialisation of Industry, Production, Distribution and Exchange – to the extent necessary to eliminate exploitation and other anti-social features in those fields—in accordance with the Principles of Action, Methods and Progressive Reforms set out in this Platform. 1981 The Australian Labor Party is a democratic socialist party and has the objective of the democratic socialisation of industry, production, distribution and exchange, to the extent necessary to eliminate exploitation and other anti-social features in these fields. 1998 Providing security, creating opportunity, managing change

Expulsion of the New South Wales branch

In March 1931, a Special Federal Conference was called in response to the actions of the New South Wales state executive, which was controlled by the Lang Labor faction. The New South Wales state leader, Jack Lang, had been openly defying the federal Labor government for several months. The most immediate trigger was the state party's actions at the East Sydney by-election, where it announced that its candidate, Eddie Ward, would be bound only by the decisions of the state executive, not the federal caucus. At the conference, which the New South Wales Branch boycotted, John Curtin successfully moved for the branch's expulsion; the motion was carried by 25 votes to four.

The conference also gave the Federal Executive the power to suspend or dissolve any other state branch "acting or having acted in a manner deemed [...] contrary to the Federal Constitution, Platform, and Policy of the Party".Crisp (1978), p. 62. The conference subsequently moved for the establishment of a new ALP branch in New South Wales loyal to the Federal Executive, which became known as the "Federal Labor Party". As the Federal Executive had no power to dissolve the original branch (controlled by Lang), the two parties competed against each other at elections for several years. The rebellious branch was eventually re-admitted to the party at another Special Federal Conference in Melbourne in 1936.Crisp (1978), p. 44.

White Australia Policy

The first meeting of the Federal Labor Party in January 1900 (referred to as the Political Labour League) had included a policy of "total exclusion of coloured and other undesirable races." This policy was formalised once again at the subsequent Australian Labor Party Commonwealth Conference in 1902, with "Maintenance of a White Australia" being the first item on the party's platform.

By 1921, the policy had developed into "The cultivation of an Australian sentiment, the maintenance of White Australia, and the development in Australia of an enlightened and self reliant community." The 1959 platform included the following explanation for the party's continued support for racially-motivated immigration restrictions:

However, by the very next conference in 1961, the following section had been added:

The 1967 conference saw a major overhaul in a number of policy areas, thanks in no small part to the advocacy of progressive party members Gough Whitlam, Don Dunstan and Lionel Murphy. Any reference to "white Australia" was removed entirely, and the following section inserted:

The Whitlam government introduced a number of important national reforms in the area of multiculturalism and immigration, including the Racial Discrimination Act 1975, and this progress continued under successive Labor governments. The Hawke government established the Advisory Council for Multicultural Affairs, the Keating government amended the Racial Discrimination Act to allow determinations of the Australian Human Rights Commission (established to monitor violations of the Act) to be registered by the Federal Court of Australia and given judicial force.

The most recent Australian Labor Party National Platform contains the following sections on Multiculturalism in Australia:

The 2023 platform further states: "Australia is, and will remain, a society of people drawn from a rich variety of cultural, ethnic, linguistic and religious backgrounds. Australia is, and will remain, a multicultural society."

Uranium mining

Out of government from 1975 to 1983, the Labor Party was deeply divided over uranium mining, with tensions aggravated by continued French nuclear testing. The 1977 National Conference voted in favour of an indefinite moratorium on uranium mining. However, the 1982 National Conference changed the anti-uranium position in favour of a "one mine policy".

After the ALP won power in 1983, the 1984 National Conference adopted a "three mine policy".Burgmann, Verity (2003). Power, Profit and Protest pp. 174–175. Retrieved 15 December 2010. This referred to the then three existing uranium mines in Australia, Nabarlek, Ranger and Roxby Downs/Olympic Dam, and articulated ALP support for pre-existing mines and contracts, but opposition to any new mining.Evans, Chris (23 March 2007). Labor & uranium: an evolution, Labor E-herald. The three mine policy was abandoned by the Howard government after it won the 1996 Australian federal election.

At the 2007 national conference, Labor Leader Kevin Rudd supported a successful motion to remove the party's opposition to more than three mines, but adding "stringent restrictions." the platform reinforced restrictions on the export of ore to nations who had not guaranteed the uranium would not be used for nuclear weapons production:

After returning to government following the 2007 Australian federal election, Labor approved a fourth uranium mine in July 2009, the Four Mile uranium mine in South Australia.

Same-sex Marriage