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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2018/dec/16/labor-national-conference-day-one-politics-live
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| Labor national conference, day one – politics live | Labor national conference, day one – politics live |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| David Hurley won’t take up the post until June next year – after the election. | |
| Asked why he was announcing it today, given that it is not an issue for another six months, Scott Morrison says: | |
| It needed to be done to provide certainty about the role going into next year. | |
| Next year is an election year and it is very important that I think this appointment be seen well outside the context of any electoral issues. | |
| The current Governor-General’s term nominally expires into the end of March, so this is a decision that I was advised coming into the role as Prime Minister that would need to be taken. | |
| It wasn’t my first order of issues the deal with, as I said at the time, but it was one that I knew I would have tow resolve and make a recommendation to the palace before the end of the year, which I have now done” | |
| He is officially the president. | |
| “This is the national conference, our opponents didn’t want,” he says. | |
| “...Let’s win the battle of ideas.” | |
| David Hurley said he was surprised to be offered the role, as he approached the end of his term as New South Wales governor: | |
| We know, though, that if I was to retire, the most significant part of our current role that we would miss would be the opportunity to visit and meet the multitude of extraordinary Australians in our community. | |
| I have certainly confirmed in my own mind over the past four years, something that I had sensed about Australia, but really hadn’t had the opportunity before to witness on a day-to-day basis – that Australia is a very rich country in a non-material sense. | |
| Australians have an amazing and, indeed, an enormous capacity to contribute their time, their energy, their time, their efforts and indeed their money to assist others I look forward to continuing to be involved with them in these pursuits. | |
| As the prime minister mentioned you can’t do these jobs without someone standing by your side. | |
| Linda has had such a unique manner the role in the last four years and I look forward for the two of us fulfilling the responsibilities of governor general together. | |
| My commitment to the people of Australia is that we will fulfil our responsibilities in the same full-hearted manner that I have worked in New South Wales or we have worked in New South Wales over the past four years, including supporting, encouraging them in community endeavours, recognising achievements and promoting those achievements at home and abroad. | |
| I will be enormously proud to represent Australia in the role of governor general. | |
| For those asking, we are told that the opposition was not consulted over the choice of the next governor general. | |
| An announcement has been made about the Governor-General of Australia. Read in full here: https://t.co/qvRvk1Gc3a pic.twitter.com/V2JasgUXDd | |
| The special guests are announced. | |
| Daniel Andrews and Jay Weatherill both received big cheers from the room when announced. | |
| The welcome to country is delivered, where the room is told that “my father says, we are always welcoming people to our home, but we never tell them to go home”, which gets some laughs. | |
| Scott Morrison has announced David Hurley as the next GG, which he said was his only choice. | |
| He talked about why: | |
| It was with these very important responsibilities that fall to a governor general – stability, continuity, certainty – that were foremost in my mind in exercising my responsibility as prime minister to make a recommendation to Her Majesty about who the next governor general for Australia should be. | |
| I had only one choice, my first choice, and he is standing next to me. | |
| General Hurley has served Australia for almost half a century and I’ve had the privilege to serve with him as a minister of a government in which he serve as the chief of the defence force. | |
| He joined the army in 1972. That was not a time when military service was popular, sadly, in our country. | |
| He served for 42 years and rose to become the chief of the defence force – a role he was appointed to by the former Labor government. | |
| It was General Hurley who first spoke the words, “The standard you walk past is the standard you accept”. | |
| That is a lesson to all of us. It is a phrase that embodies what Australian leadership is all about and it is a phrase that has embodied the service of General Hurley. | |
| Hurley will be the 27th governor general. | |
| The one-minute warning has just been issued. | |
| We are in the observers’ section ahead of the opening, where Elisa’s Rock Your Soul is playing. Which includes the repeated lyric “all I want is to rock your soul”, which seems fitting for a political party conference. | |
| Then we move into the economy section – which is where super and the like will be discussed, followed by environment. Which will be the big one. | |
| Bill Shorten will open the conference with his speech (still taking guesses on the song of choice), after which Tanya Plibersek will deliver hers. As incoming president (with the official handover happening this morning) Wayne Swan will then deliver a speech. | |
| Swan is also in charge of the “you’ve been speaking too long, wrap it up” gong, so that should be fun. | |
| The Right caucus went for 14 minutes, we are told. They are out and getting coffee. | |
| The Left are still meeting. | |
| Morning all, just the sum of my initial inquiries. No one is expecting major fireworks in the economic policy debate this morning (apart from an amendment to be moved by the CFMEU’s Michael O’Connor regarding new oversight for Asic and Apra, which has come out of left field). | |
| The values debate is the first cab off the rank, and seems unlikely to be controversial. The environment debate this afternoon could get interesting. There’s been a battle about environmental regulation behind the scenes for some weeks, and it is not yet resolved. There’s some talk that Bill Shorten will be involved in settling the final decision. We’ll keep you posted when we learn more. | |
| There is also, I hear, an unresolved fight in the right about their candidates for the national executive. | |
| On the governor general announcement, the ABC is reporting it is retired general David Hurley. | |
| That has been confirmed by Katharine Murphy, so yup. It is Hurley. | That has been confirmed by Katharine Murphy, so yup. It is Hurley. |
| That’s not unsurprising. He was the favourite. There were those who thought Scott Morrison might pick a woman but we’ve gone with another former defence force chief. | |
| Labor’s faithful have gathered in Adelaide for the 48th annual party conference, where everything from environment to asylum seekers to industrial relations policy will be nutted out. | |
| The conversations have been going on for months but have ramped up in recent weeks. | |
| Of course, all of this was meant to be settled in July, but then the super Saturday byelections were scheduled for the same weekend. So here we are, in Adelaide a week out from Christmas, and loving life. | Of course, all of this was meant to be settled in July, but then the super Saturday byelections were scheduled for the same weekend. So here we are, in Adelaide a week out from Christmas, and loving life. |
| Environment is the big ticket item today, and not everything is hunky dory or locked down in that space. Adani and its ilk have thrown up quite the quandary for Labor, and the protests have started outside the conference centre already. | Environment is the big ticket item today, and not everything is hunky dory or locked down in that space. Adani and its ilk have thrown up quite the quandary for Labor, and the protests have started outside the conference centre already. |
| Bill Shorten will open the conference very soon – the betting pool on what song he’ll emerge has opened, so put your guesses down below. | Bill Shorten will open the conference very soon – the betting pool on what song he’ll emerge has opened, so put your guesses down below. |
| So of course, Scott Morrison has decided today is the perfect day and the perfect time to announce the next governor general. | |
| We’ll cover that, and everything else that occurs over the next few days. You have me, Katharine Murphy and Paul Karp already at the keyboards. I am yet to find a coffee, so this should be fun. | We’ll cover that, and everything else that occurs over the next few days. You have me, Katharine Murphy and Paul Karp already at the keyboards. I am yet to find a coffee, so this should be fun. |
| Ready? | Ready? |
| Let’s get into it. | Let’s get into it. |