Thank you for that welcome to country and I also acknowledge the Kaurna people as the traditional owners of the land we meet on. I pay my respects to elders past and present and extend those respects to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people joining us today.
Well delegates, it is with great delight that I welcome you to the 50th National Conference of the Australian Labor Party
I am so very proud to stand before you as your incoming National President.
I do that with some very, very big shoes to fill.
Wayne Swan is a giant of our movement. I want to acknowledge the huge contribution he has made and the immense success of his presidency. Our party is better for his hard work and commitment. As we all know, Wayne is a Labor warrior and I have no doubt will long continue to be so. He knows no other way. A huge and heartfelt thank you to you Wayne.
Now, I stand here ready to serve as your incoming President. I do alongside Vice Presidents Mich-Elle Myers and Rhiannyn Douglas. I note that this is the first time in our, and our nations, history that we have an elected leadership team that is all women.
While others bicker about if and how and when women deserve representation within our political structures, we are getting on with the job.
I congratulate Mich-Elle and Rhiannyn on their election and look forward to serving beside them.
We meet here in my beautiful home city of Adelaide.
It’s a pretty important place for the Labor Party. We meet in the home city of our Senate Leader Penny Wong, our Senate Deputy Don Farrell and Senior Minister Mark Butler and Amanda Rishworth as well as our amazing MPs and Senators- and the Malinauskas Labor Government
We stand in the city and indeed the electorate that I had the honour of representing in the federal parliament for 15 years before standing down in 2019.
I don’t stand before you because I missed the limelight though. I really have not.
I stand before you because I recognise how important the contest before us is. Because I know that there is too much at stake for anyone to sit it out on the sidelines. The risk is too high.
We meet after a historic victory by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his team. But we don’t take a minute for granted.
We face a time when there is a massive political re-alignment happening both globally and at home.
There are people hurting. Some of them are angry about it.
At this conference we show that rather than turning our back on these people or turning their hurt into more anger and division, or grandstanding and chasing cheap headlines, we will do what Labor does best.
Work to make the real decisions that improve the lives of the Australian people.
At this conference we will add to our incredibly long and proud history of standing up when it matters, delivering real change and working to make a real difference to the people who rely on us.
We are the ones who work to make this country the best version of itself. And to do that we need to be our best. Our most united, our most focussed and our most determined to make the decisions that will improve the lives and opportunities of the Australian people.
Some see politics as a game or a sport. I love sport. But this is much more important than that.
We know that when others are in Government, people hurt. Lives are made harder.
We will deliver the real changes required – to health, to housing, to tackle head on the opportunities of AI and the threats to the jobs of the Australian people.
We are the ones who recognise that quality early childhood education and care is not a babysitting service, but a vital need for working parents and a way to prevent the number of children who start school already way behind the rest of their peers.
We are ones who strive to ensure that every child should have access to quality education.
We recognise that the migrants who have built our multicultural community are an asset we can never underestimate.
This conference we once again show that we don’t pursue government for government’s sake but to make a real difference to Australians lives.
As for me, I fiercely believe that politics is at its core about connection.
In this role I will work to ensure that we are connecting with our members and ensuring that they know the vital role that they play in our movement.
I will push to activate our supporters – to take the next step and become members and grow our party.
And I will ensure that that we are innovative and constantly working to find new ways to engage with the voters.
Politics is an ancient battle, but we must constantly modernise our tools of engagement and never stay standing still.
We must be at the cutting edge and use digital technology to enhance our reach whist remaining committed to personal engagement.
My focus will be on working to ensure that we are that we are our best and most united. That we are well organised, well run, and the strongest political party in this country.
At this conference we stand up for our remarkable and broad movement: our political leaders, our Ministers and MPs, also union leaders, union members, the Labor party members and volunteers who work tirelessly for us and ask for nothing in return but our focus and hard work.
Most importantly, at this conference we hold first and foremost our deliberations in our communities.
The people who put their faith in us to stand up and fight for them and for their lives to become fairer, easier, with more opportunity.
It is for all of them that we come together at this conference to debate and adopt our plan to build a better future.
I look forward to the work we will do together for the next three years to support the Albanese government and the hard and important work that they do.
And to make every effort and pull every lever to make Australia better, stronger and fairer.
So, delegates, welcome to the 2026 Australian Labor Party National Conference.
It is now my great pleasure to invite my friend, Premier Peter Malinauskas, to welcome delegates to South Australia.
