News and politics recap: Labor National Conference faces Israel row over Palestine recognition push

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A radical motion at Labor’s national conference designed to pressure Anthony Albanese to recall Australian representatives from Tel Aviv has reopened a bitter divide within the party on Palestine on a day Chinese diplomats stormed out over a separate stoush sparked by the presence of Taiwanese officials at the annual gabfest.

Former minister Ed Husic, now a backbencher after his demotion by the Prime Minister last year, led the push to insert a resolution into the party’s platform which would also acknowledge Palestinians have a “plausible claim” of needing protection from genocide and push Labor to establish full diplomatic ties with a state of Palestine.

“Israeli authorities and security forces have deliberately targeted Palestinian children, resulting in genocide and atrocity crimes in the Gaza Strip and war crimes in the West Bank,” it states, referencing the findings of a United Nations inquiry.

A rival motion put forward by the right-wing Shop and Distributors Alliance would seek to revive a demand — scrapped before the conference for the sake of party harmony — for Hamas to disarm.

Read the full story here.

Labor’s National Conference has wrapped up for a second day, running over time due to a larger amount of amendments.

The chapter including health and housing had especially drawn more amendments.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will attend the National Conference Dinner on Friday evening.

He is expected to award outgoing Labor president Wayne Swan and former Indigenous Minister Linda Burney life memberships at the event.

The only minor ruffle of feathers at the Labor National Conference on Friday was during a resolution to enshrine the rights to a conscience vote into the party’s Constitution for any issues relating to voluntary assisted dying.

The resolution was carried by Attorney General Michelle and seconded by Finance Minister Katy Gallagher but attracted the most disagreement of the conference.

Despite considerable disagreement heard compared to other votes the chair had carried the motion and no one in the opposing camp had called for a card court.

The resolution had stated that “conference resolves that the matter of voluntary assisted dying can be freely debated at any state or federal forum of the Australian Labor Party, but any decision reached is not binding on any member of the Party”.

The only other matter where a conscience vote is mandated is abortion.

The Party also removed barriers to accessing VAD through telehealth “while maintaining appropriate clinical safeguards”.

The Defence Minister insists a military trial is the “appropriate” way to prosecute a senior navy figure over several charges involving lucrative contracts despite concerns from former officials about a lack of transparency.

This week, The West Australian revealed a recently retired star-ranked officer was facing eight separate charges relating to work carried out at WAS’s Henderson shipyard.

During a visit to Adelaide’s Osborne shipyard Richard Marles was questioned about the revelations and whether the matter should be instead heard before a civilian court and judge.

“It is appropriate, but because this is now in a legal process, there’s not much I can really add to this in a public way. We now let those processes play out,” he said, while unveiling funding for local AUKUS work.

Pressed on whether he was “alarmed” at the accusations revealed by The West Australian, the Defence Minister responded: “I mean, I think we need to let those processes play out”.

Read the full story here.

A heated debate on Israel is emerging at Labor’s national conference as delegates are asked to insert a resolution into the party’s platform acknowledging Palestinians have a “plausible claim” of needing protection from genocide.

The resolution introduced by federal backbencher and former Minister Ed Husic also calls on the Albanese Government to begin full diplomatic ties with the State of Palestine and withdraw representatives from Tel Aviv.

“Israeli authorities and security forces have deliberately targeted Palestinian children, resulting in genocide and atrocity crimes in the Gaza Strip and war crimes in the West Bank,” it states, referencing the findings of a United Nations inquiry.

Ahead of the Labor’s national conference this week in Adelaide the Israeli embassy in Canberra issued a statment critical of the party’s draft platform, a move which Mr Husic condemned.

Barnaby Joyce’s wife Vikki Campion has “banned” ABC 7.30 from their property, calling Sarah Ferguson a “sanctimonious host” after Mr Joyce’s viral TV appearance in which he yelled at his dog.

Ms Campion took to Substack on Wednesday to share her thoughts on the controversial moment.

“Never again. ABC 7.30 is banned from my property,” she said.

“Sorry we aren’t a television studio; we are a working farm, and this is what it sounds like,” she wrote.

“What viewers and a sanctimonious host missed on Monday night was a mostly-black dog, barking into the pitch-black night at a passing vehicle she found suspicious.”

The former media staffer said “Ferguson told (Mr Joyce) not to worry about the dog, focus on her question” and shared her frustration with “Sydney media”.

Read more.

The Federal Environment Minister has defended his decision to let Woodside Energy’s flagship project run for decades longer, denying he was captive to the energy giant’s wishes as it downplayed the operation’s impact.

Murray Watt gave the green light in September to extending the North West Shelf joint venture in WA’s Pilbara until 2070, a decision now being challenged by Australian Conservation Foundation and Friends of Australian Rock Art.

The activist groups outlined concerns about the Karratha gas plant’s emissions on climate change and the Burrup Peninsula’s ancient Aboriginal petroglyphs in Melbourne’s Federal Court earlier this week, and it was the Minister’s turn to respond on Friday.

While ACF argued long negotiations between Senator Watt’s department and Woodside — including reams of emails and texts — gave rise to perceptions of apprehended bias, his barrister Stephen Lloyd SC said the evidence showed there was none.

The Minister knew the department was having those discussions over three months as conditions on the approval were thrashed out, Mr Lloyd said.

Read the full story here.

Labor’s newly elected National President Kate Ellis will initially be based in Spain as she and her family relocate to Europe for six months.

The former Adelaide MP has been overseeing this week’s ALP National Conference in her hometown and has confirmed she will not be working in her regular job as the chief executive of Raising Literacy Australia.

Ms Ellis, a minister in the Rudd-Gillard years, has confirmed she will complete her new Labor party duties remotely from Spain but return to Australia when required.

Labor has indicated a step towards universal dental access at its National Conference.

In Friday’s session dedicated to health, the draft policy platform was amended to include stronger direction towards universal access.

It’s something the PM and health minister Mark Butler have said they would like to move towards but it would be a huge cost to the budget.

In the amendment, wording has been changed from “Labor will engage” in a consultative process to “Labor will develop a roadmap towards improved access to dental services”.

It also added on a note that “prioritising those with the greatest need, such as children who are eligible and not accessing the Child Dental Benefits Schedule, older people and other priority populations”.

A second related amendment also added that “Labor will pursue a staged, evidence-based approach to expanding access to dental care”.

“Labor recognises that universal dental care will require sustained reform over time,” it stated.

“Labor will progressively expand access while strengthening national data and planning to support long-term system improvement.

“Through a staged and responsible approach, Labor will lay the foundations for a future where all Australians can access affordable dental care as part of a fair and universal health system.”

Both amendments moved by NSW Labor’s Monika Wheeler and seconded by Linda Scott, was carried.