View from The Hill: Labor’s ‘managed democracy’ reaches high point as blanket thrown over Israel-Gaza dissent

By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra

Labor national conference has been a textbook exercise in managed democracy.

This reached its pinnacle when the powers-that-be – ministers and factional heavyweights – worked behind closed doors to squash an attempted revolt over the party’s draft platform on Israel and Gaza.

Labor’s rank and filers are strongly pro-Palestine. Former minister Ed Husic (who is Muslim), the rebel of the conference’s corridors, wanted to make the draft much tougher on Israel, including, among other points, a reference to a United Nations inquiry that spoke about genocide.

Intense…

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