The annual NSW Labor state conference is often dominated by domestic policy, but events in the Middle East look set to overshadow this weekend’s gathering.
NSW Premier Chris Minns may have faced the judgment of voters a little over a year ago but the first-term Labor leader will come up against a far mightier force this weekend when the party’s state conference – the last before the federal election and the first since the NSW poll – must achieve two crucial objectives.It will need to cement the Minns government’s policies for the next year .
The party faithful stress that to understand NSW Labor, you must understand the supreme power of its conference. Inside the Labor’s so-called “secular cathedral” – Sydney Town Hall – Minns can demand policy change as much as he likes, but without the backing of the delegates, he is largely impotent. This year’s Victorian ALP state conference was held at the low-key Moonee Valley Racecourse. In Queensland, the party gathered in 2023 at the nondescript Mackay Entertainment and Convention Centre. NSW Labor, in contrast, has held its conference at Sydney Town Hall for more than a century, and delegates still lament the year they had to relocate to the Darling Harbour Entertainment Centre while their traditional home was being renovated.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will speak at the conference on Saturday, and Minns on Sunday, which itself has historical importance. A first-term prime minister and first-term premier have not addressed NSW state conference since 1941, when John Curtin and William McKell led the country and state respectively. But the Albanese/Minns show is certain to be overshadowed by what takes place outside Town Hall.
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