There was a personal defence from Anthony Albanese. Aukus supporters lobbed claims of “appeasement” at its critics, which were angrily rejected by a Labor MP and leftwing unions. But in the end, Labor finally thrashed out its position on the Aukus nuclear-submarine acquisition.
Late on Friday morning, the deputy prime minister, Richard Marles, and the defence industry minister, Pat Conroy, sought to head off a party conference showdown, moving a 32-paragraph statement that argued spending $368bn on nuclear submarines would enhance Australia’s national security.
