All that mattered after the Conference happened off camera. The media had lost interest in the story once it ceased to be the pyrotechnics of abuse. The story revived from time to time when it suited the government to outline its present thinking or that part of such thinking it thought useful to put into the public domain. The actual story, the ongoing story before and after the Conference, required a knowledge of ALP history and tradition – the nuances behind ALP governance that makes a dysfunctional 19th-century party electable and relevant.

The government defies Conference

Once Conference adjourned, most of the delegates scattered to the four winds. They resumed their usual lives. Unlike the political class, they had real jobs with real employers where a real performance was required to earn their wages and salaries. Prosecuting the will of Conference fell to the leadership of Unions NSW and the ALP full-time officers. Omitted from the negotiating table were the representatives of the membership. Omitted were the people who had turned defeat for the government into a rout. The advocates of Conference supremacy around the table were plagued, some less than others, with doubts about pushing opposition all the way – wherever that might end.