Victorian Labor members have voted to immediately recognise Palestine, heaping further pressure on the Albanese government to join Canada, France and the UK in their push for a sovereign state.
Rank and file members at Labor’s state conference on Saturday also carried an urgent resolution to review the Aukus submarine deal. However, the wording of the motion was watered down before the vote.
Labor Friends of Palestine’s motion calling on the federal government to immediately recognise Palestine, extend existing sanctions on two Israeli ministers to all members of Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet, and to end all direct and indirect military trade with Israel was carried.
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The internal campaign group’s Victorian convener, Oliver van Ingen, told the conference the measures were “appropriate, effective steps that Australia can take to contribute to peace in the Middle East” and were backed by unions, Labor members and the wider community.
“The time has come for sanctions and an end to military trade – they are the only option to prevent further atrocities and work towards a long-term solution,” van Ingen said.
The motion was seconded by Tony Piccolo, from the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union, who said: “Apartheid is never right, no matter who the perpetrators are and the reasons they say it stands.
“The behaviours we walk past – whether they be in the world, in our community, on the job site, or anywhere else – [are] the behaviours that we accept, and, comrades, we can’t accept what is going on in the name of self-defence,” Piccolo said.
“I won’t, and I hope you won’t either.”
Attempts to amend the motion were put forward by Nick Dyrenfurth, from Labor Friends of Israel, and Dean Sherr, a former Albanese adviser and lobbyist, who is also a member of the Jewish community, but failed.
Dyrenfurth told the conference it was “impractical to recognise a Palestinian state at this juncture” and criticised “one-sided extreme motions, which endlessly demonise just one party in this ongoing conflict”.
Anthony Albanese has so far stopped short of matching his UK counterpart Keir Starmer’s promise to recognise the state of Palestine in September unless Israel abides by a ceasefire and commits to a two-state solution.
Two other resolutions by Friends of Palestine – to increase aid and for the protection of civil liberties, including the right to protest – were also carried.
As was a motion urging a federal review of the Aukus submarine deal – but only after criticisms of the US president, Donald Trump, were removed, alongside a sentence calling for a “withdrawal” from the partnership.
“Despite the best efforts of ministers’ offices to have this vote killed off, we prevailed and the voice of the rank-and-file has been clearly heard,” the Labor Against War Victorian convener, Hamish McPherson, said.
A committee report that called on the government to suspend funding during the proposed inquiry and for the Victorian branch to make a submission calling for withdrawal from the Aukus partnership, however, passed.
While non binding on state or federal Labor MPs, the motions represent one of the most effective ways for rank-and-file members and unions to influence party policy.
With the prime minister in the Northern Territory for the Garma festival, the deputy prime minister and defence minister, Richard Marles, was the most senior party figure at Moonee Valley racecourse on Saturday.
But he received a lukewarm reception, with some delegates refusing to stand as he arrived.
During Marles’ speech, a group of delegates held up their phones to display Palestinian flags.
Tim Ryder said he participated in the “silent protest” to “hold the federal government to account” over their lack of action on Palestine.
He also criticised the conference for banning placards on the floor this year, saying branches were “white hot” with “rage” over the move.
Pro-Palestinian protesters also gathered outside but were unable to make it into the racecourse as they had last year, due to tighter security.
Marles said the recent federal election result – where the party won 27 of the 38 seats and 56% of the two-party preferred vote – “enshrines Victoria as Australian Labor’s home base”. He thanked volunteers for their “countless hours” volunteering during the campaign and vowed to deliver on the “entirety of the agenda that we took to this election”.
The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, used her speech to announce a key policy commitment to enshrine in law the right to work remotely two days a week, setting the stage for the 2026 state election, which she said “won’t be easy”.
“We’ve got a fight on our hands, a fight for what we’ve built, a fight for the people who rely on us, a fight for the future of this state,” she said.
“But let me tell you, it is a fight we will win because our cause is just, our record is strong, our vision for the future is clear, and our movement is unstoppable when it remembers what it is fighting for.”
