Prominent members of the government banded together this week to protect the AUKUS nuclear submarine deal from attacks from the left.
For the first time in more than 40 years, Labor’s Left faction finally had the numbers to control the national conference, the party’s triennial and paramount policymaking forum.
The anti-AUKUS sentiment among the Labor rank-and-file was not confined to the Left. After all, it was Paul Keating and Bob Carr, two former giants of the NSW Right, who initially stirred the pot. “By having strong defence capabilities of our own, and by working with partners investing in their own capabilities, we change the calculus for any potential aggressor.“Delegate Albanese”, who joined the debate on Friday, called AUKUS “an act of clear-eyed pragmatism [that] works in our national interests and in the context of the greater good”.
There was plenty of heckling throughout but to nobody’s surprise, Albanese, Wong and Defence Minister Richard Marles prevailed.Detractors of the prime minister pointed out he hasn’t always been so hellbent on saving the leader or the party’s political prospects at conference. Ultimately, Shorten was “saved” by the hard Left, or Socialist Left. Then-minister and factional convenor Kim Carr, swung behind Shorten with sections of the Left-aligned AMWU and the CFMEU.
Which, his defenders say, is understandable given Labor is in government now and the prime minister needs to broaden his outlook well beyond the Left faction of the Labor Party. “We’ve seen a first-class fibre NBN replaced with copper, ignoring the productivity benefits,” he said. “We’ve seen the NDIS pushed to the brink.”
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