The idea of getting hundreds of rowdy and highly opinionated people to agree on anything would spark shivers in most.
Yet, that’s largely the goal of the annual major political party get-togethers, used to hash out positions and plans on any number of tricky (or trivial) topics.
Nuclear-powered submarines eventually bound for Australia under the AUKUS deal emerged as a major sticking point among Queensland Labor members at the weekend.
Even with extensive talks ahead of time, rifts often emerge.
The big one at the weekend’s Queensland Labor conference in Mackay came from underwater.
The drama emerged with an effort to “congratulate” the federal Labor government for its investment in a major foreign policy agreement between Australia, the US and Britain.
That plan, dubbed AUKUS, was set up by former Liberal PM Scott Morrison and has been anything but smooth sailing: sparking now-infamous accusations of lies around related plans to ditch agreed contracts for new French-built submarines with even more expensive nuclear-powered ones.
Those subs, some to come off-the-shelf from the US and more to be built in Adelaide, were a major sticking point in the proposed weekend motion, particularly among the Electrical Trades Union/left faction-aligned party members with concerns about jobs and nuclear waste disposal nationwide.
After much reported argy-bargy between the more politically left and right-aligned delegates handily seated on their respective sides, including suggestions those opposed “hated” Australia/PM Anthony Albanese, the motion was – for lack of a better word – torpedoed, 229 votes to 140.