The federal Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, faces a union push to stop MPs voting in support of free trade agreements struck by the government, in a controversial motion heading for a showdown at this week’s national conference.
The potential split among delegates over free trade comes as Albanese told Guardian Australia this week’s meeting will help finalise a “clear narrative” to take to the next election, with dozens of policies from the last election under Bill Shorten to be dumped.
Almost 400 delegates will take part in a virtual “special conference” on Tuesday and Wednesday that aims to renew Labor’s national platform and “chart Labor’s agenda for the post-Covid recovery and how we can create more well-paid, secure jobs”,
But sources say a “decisive fight” is looming over the issue of free trade agreements, with a motion backed by the Electrical Trades Union and the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union aimed at binding the parliamentary party to vote against the enabling legislation of free trade agreements that it has not negotiated.
The union-backed position comes amid concern that Labor has voted for free trade agreements while in opposition that are at odds with its national platform, which dictates a range of restrictions on the content of free trade agreements it would agree to if in government.
In 2019, Labor MPs and senators voted in support of enabling legislation for new free-trade agreements with Indonesia, Hong Kong and Peru, despite the Australian Council of Trade Unions urging it be blocked.
At the time, the ACTU president, Michele O’Neil, said the agreements would increase the number of short-term foreign workers and undermine Australian jobs.
“This is bad for local workers, will worsen the wage crisis and increase the exploitation for visa workers,” she said in 2019.
While the parliamentary party is largely in support of free trade agreements, the issue remains contentious within some sections of the union movement, who believe the agreements routinely undercut wages and conditions of their members.
The current platform says that Labor “in government will not enter into and will prohibit through legislation trade arrangements that undermine the Australian government’s capacity to govern in the interest of all Australians”.
The proposed amendment would make clear that in opposition, Labor should vote against enabling legislation that included certain provisions – effectively removing the ability of MPs and senators to respond flexibly to any enabling legislation relating to FTAs. “There will be no room for interpretation,” one said.
Guardian Australia understands the party executive has been attempting to have the ETU and AMWU amendments dropped ahead of the conference to avoid a vote that could see the parliamentary position undermined.
Albanese told Guardian Australia that there was some concern about government-negotiated free trade agreements, but he was confident the matter would be resolved over the coming days.
“Trade has been an important part of Australia’s economic growth and we live in a globalised world and we need to engage with that, but we need to do so in a way that protects Australian jobs and Australian wages and conditions and we can do both through fair agreements,” Albanese said.
“A clear majority of the Labor party support us being engaged with international trade, the debate is how that occurs in a way that protects the interests of Australian workers, that debate will come through over coming days, but … people are being constructive and I think that is one of the strengths of the Labor party.”
Albanese said his focus for the conference was on developing the policies he would take to the next election, flagging a focus on jobs and the economy.
He said he would also consider adopting ideas from the platform such as expanding paid parental leave to 26 weeks’ paid leave and lifting super to 15% to take to the next election.
“That is a policy that I would like to see develop further, but what we do is we have proper costings and a proper timetable,” Albanese said
“The Labor party is a party of ideas and of reform and one of the things that is lacking from the current government is they don’t have an agenda for reform.”
Following criticism that Labor took too many policies to the last election, Albanese said the party would pare back its commitments, but still have “an ambitious policy agenda”.
“The weakness identified last time was we had lots of policies and it didn’t come together in a narrative, that is why I will be having less than 284 costed policies,” he said.
“We can have a very clear narrative about jobs and the economy being the priority, but also about fairness and inclusive policy that is where climate change and aged care and other policies fit in as well as having a sustainable agenda.”
According to a postmortem of Labor’s crushing 2019 election loss, Labor lost the federal election because of “weak strategy, poor adaptability and an unpopular leader”.
The review noted that policies were “decided by a combination of the leader and his office, a shadow expenditure review committee and an augmented leadership group”, with no overarching strategy to inform the messaging.
