Chris Minns warns of need to ‘climb Everest’ to beat Pauline Hanson’s One Nation
Prime Minister Chris Minns has issued a clarion call to the Labor faithful, saying the party must overcome the “darkness at the ballot box” to stay in power.
Minns told Labor’s state conference eight months before the next state election in March that the party faces an unprecedented test as the specter of a resurgent One Nation and Pauline Hanson hangs over the meeting of delegates at Sydney City Hall.
After weeks of negotiations, faction leaders agreed to realign the party’s upper house ticket on the eve of the conference. Friday night’s deal demoted Agriculture Minister Tara Moriarty, one of two women on the list, to seventh on the Legislative Council list, putting her seat in the upper house in jeopardy.
The last-minute reshuffle, which saw outspoken, soft-left MP Anthony D’Adam move up the list, left Moriarty in a precarious position and dependent on the party’s primary vote remaining above 28 per cent. Latest Resolve Political Monitor pollIn mid-May, Labor’s vote rose to 32 percent.
In a reflection of the coalition’s dire prospects, One Nation and Pauline Hanson emerged as a central theme in delegates’ speeches on Saturday morning. Minns took aim at Hanson’s call for the nation to reject multiculturalism, saying Labor would “never play into the politics of fear”.
“But delegates, with all due respect, our task is greater than that; we must also defeat that darkness at the ballot box. Fear is a low-calorie diet; it cannot sustain you, cannot create common direction, cannot shape and grow our community, and offers no vision or purpose,” he said.
As politics evolves rapidly, Minns said the party must “climb Everest to stay where we are”.
“It is also true that in times of unrest, in times of uncertainty, in times of political upheaval in our country and around the world, in times of pressure on families and in times of divisive political leaders copying their policies from demagogues across the sea, the NSW Labor Party and this conference have served as a pillar for millions of people committed to the ideas of democracy, freedom, justice and liberty. [hope].”
“This campaign will throw everything at us. We are not facing a single opposition, but many parties. And it will test us like never before.”
Minns was warmly welcomed by the hundreds of assembled delegates as he entered the conference, but his entrance was interrupted when the Palestinian flag was raised from the upper floor; it was a sign of division even among his Labor faithful.
ALP deputy secretary George Simon said the political environment facing the party was “more complex than we have experienced in a generation” and federal Industry Minister Tim Ayres told delegates Labor faced “the fight of our lives” against “an evil reactionary coalition”.
“A vote for the Liberal Party is a vote for One Nation, a vote for One Nation is a vote for the Liberal Party,” Ayres said.
Jeff Drayton, a member of Labour’s New England branch who stood unsuccessfully in the Upper Hunter by-election, said the party had not done enough to counter the rise of One Nation and pleaded for more resources to combat insurgency in regional areas.
After weeks of agitation, including the threat of an unforeseen vote in the conference hall, Labor’s factions have agreed on a new upper house ticket. Three party sources, speaking anonymously to provide details of secret talks, confirmed that the eleventh-hour deal would provide support for D’Adam.
Finance Minister Daniel Mookhey and Energy Minister Penny Sharpe came first and second respectively, while Shop, Distributor and Allied Employees Association (SDA) member Bernard Govind came third. D’Adam was fourth, Unions NSW secretary Mark Morey was fifth and Byron Bay granola executive and Left wing candidate Asren Pugh was sixth.
A senior Labor source said the new ticket reflected how delegates would vote in the ballot box.
Hundreds of delegates, MPs and ministers were greeted by a small but noisy pro-Palestinian protest at Sydney City Hall, with party members flocking to the heavily fortified building on Saturday morning.
The conference marked the 50th anniversary of the election of the famous Neville Wran, who resigned after 10 years as prime minister in a speech to the Labor Party state conference.
Meanwhile, the Minns government announced this morning that it will invest $12 billion in the construction of the next generation Tangara trains at a production facility.
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Max Maddison is the state political correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald.
