Australian Labor Party National Executive

Labor Party National Executive
Location	5/9 Sydney Avenue, Canberra, ACT;
Key people	Wayne Swan ; (National President); Paul Erickson ; (National Secretary); Susan Close ; (Senior Vice-President); Mich-Elle Myers ; (Senior Vice-President);

Last updated September 10, 2024

The Australian Labor Party National Executive, often referred to as the National Executive, is the executive governing body of the Australian Labor Party (ALP), charged with directly overseeing the general organisation and strategy of the party. Twenty members of the National Executive are elected by the party's National Conference, which is the highest representative body of the party's state and territory branches. The other eight members are party ex-officio members.

Members on the Executive may be officials of trade unions affiliated to the party, members of federal or state Parliaments, or rank-and-file ALP members. The ex-officio members are the National President, the National Secretary and two National Vice-Presidents (who are directly elected by Labor members), and the Leader of the Federal Parliamentary Labor Party,^[1] but of these only the party Leader has a vote.

The National Executive is concerned mainly with organisational matters. It does not decide party policy, which is determined by the National Conference. The National Executive does not elect the party's parliamentary leaders, which is done by a ballot of both the Parliamentary Caucus and by the Labor Party's rank-and-file members. The National President or Vice-President are elected by party members. Its most public role is to act as the final arbiter of disputes about parliamentary candidacies (preselections). On these matters the National Executive usually votes on factional lines. The Labor Right faction holds a majority on the National Executive,^[2] though it did not hold a majority at the 2015 National Conference.^[3]

The power of the National Executive extends to the reorganisation of a State Branch. For example, in 1970 to improve the party's chances of electoral success, the National Executive intervened in the Socialist Left controlled Victorian Branch, involving the sacking of State officers and dissolution of the Branch. Less drastic forms of intervention are more common, such as the final arbiter of preselection disputes.^[4] The executive has authority over policy as it can interpret the party’s constitution, platform and conference decisions.^[2]^[5]

Members of the National Executive

As of September 2024^[update], the current members of the National Executive are:^[6]

Member type	Member name	Position	Faction	State/territory	Voting member
Ex-officio members	Wayne Swan	National President	Right	Queensland	No
	Paul Erickson	National Secretary	Left	Victoria
	Susan Close MP	Vice-President	Left	South Australia
	Mich-Elle Myers	Vice-President	Left^[7]	New South Wales
	Manu Risoldi	National President of Young Labor	Right	New South Wales
		National Labor Women's Network Co-Convenor
		National Labor Women's Network Co-Convenor
	Anthony Albanese MP	Leader of the Federal Parliamentary Labor Party	Left	New South Wales	Yes
Elected members	Senator Tim Ayres	Senator for NSW	Left	New South Wales
	Gary Bullock	Queensland State Secretary, National Director of Politics and Vice President, National Executive Committee for United Workers Union	Left	Queensland
	Senator Raff Ciccone	Senator for Victoria	Right	Victoria
	Melissa Donnelly	National Secretary of the Community and Public Sector Union	Left	Queensland
	Sandra Doumit	National Vice-president at The Australian Workers' Union	Right	New South Wales
	Kate Doust MLC	Member of the Legislative Council of Western Australia	Right	Western Australia
	Gerard Dwyer	National Secretary of the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association	Right	New South Wales
	Senator Karen Grogan	Senator for SA	Left	South Australia
	Gerard Hayes	National President of the HSU	Right	New South Wales
	Julian Hill MP	Member of the Australian House of Representatives for Bruce	Left	Victoria
	Graeme Kelly	General Secretary USU	Right	New South Wales
	Michelle O'Byrne	Member of Tasmanian House of Assembly	Left	Tasmania
	Josh Peak	Secretary of the Shop, Distributive & Allied Employees’ Association South Australian Branch	Right	South Australia
	Sam Rae MP	Member of the Australian House of Representatives for Hawke	Right	Victoria
	Zach Smith	National Secretary & ACT Branch Secretary at CFMEU	Left	Australian Capital Territory
	Stacey Schinnerl	QLD Branch Secretary of the AWU	Right	Queensland
	Carolyn Smith	Former WA Branch Secretary of the United Workers Union	Left	Western Australia
	Wendy Streets	Queensland State Secretary of the Finance Sector Union	Left	Queensland
	Shannon Threlfall-Clarke	Victorian State Vice President of the Australian Workers Union	Right	Victoria
	Dylan Wight	Member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly for Tarneit	Left	Victoria

Executive leaders

National Presidents

Name	State	Term start	Term end
Thomas Givens	Queensland	1915	1916
Jack Holloway	Victoria	1916	1922
Richard Sumner	Queensland	1922	30 April 1924^[8]
Joseph Hannan	Victoria	30 April 1924	1928
James Kenneally	Western Australia	1928	1936
Norman Makin	South Australia	1936	1938
Clarrie Fallon	Queensland	1938	June 1944^[9]
Fred Walsh	South Australia	14 February 1945^[10]	29 November 1946^[11]
Abner McAlpine	New South Wales	29 November 1946^[11]	1950
John Ferguson	New South Wales	1950	1953
Denis Lovegrove	Victoria	1953	1 May 1955
Joe Chamberlain	Western Australia	1 May 1955	1961
James Stout	Victoria	1961	July 1962
Jim Keeffe	Queensland	July 1962	August 1970^[12]
Tom Burns	Queensland	August 1970	7 June 1973
Bob Hawke	Victoria	7 June 1973	2 August 1978
Neil Batt	Tasmania	2 August 1978	8 September 1980
Neville Wran	New South Wales	8 September 1980	3 July 1986
Mick Young	South Australia	3 July 1986	7 April 1988
John Bannon	South Australia	7 April 1988	25 June 1991
Stephen Loosley	New South Wales	25 June 1991	6 June 1992
Barry Jones	Victoria	6 June 1992	31 July 2000
Greg Sword	Victoria	31 July 2000	1 January 2004
Carmen Lawrence	Western Australia	1 January 2004	1 January 2005
Barry Jones	Victoria	1 January 2005	28 January 2006
Warren Mundine	New South Wales	28 January 2006	10 January 2007
John Faulkner	New South Wales	10 January 2007	27 February 2008^[13]
Mike Rann	South Australia	27 February 2008	27 December 2008
Linda Burney	New South Wales	27 December 2008	30 July 2009^[14]
Michael Williamson	New South Wales	30 July 2009	August 2010
Anna Bligh	Queensland	August 2010	1 July 2011^[15]
Jenny McAllister	New South Wales	1 July 2011	17 June 2015
Mark Butler	South Australia	17 June 2015	18 June 2018
Wayne Swan	Queensland	18 June 2018	present

National Secretaries

National Secretary	Period
Cyril Wyndham	1963–1969
Mick Young	1969–1973
David Combe	1973–1981
Bob McMullan	1981–1988
Bob Hogg	1988–1993
Gary Gray	1993–2000
Geoff Walsh	2000–2003
Tim Gartrell	2 September 2003 – 20 September 2008
Karl Bitar	17 October 2008 – 16 March 2011
George Wright	19 April 2011 – 30 August 2016
Noah Carroll	26 September 2016 – 26 July 2019
Paul Erickson	16 August 2019 – present

Cyril Wyndam was the first full time Secretary. Prior to 1963 the position was not full time^[16]

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References

↑ "Australian Labor Party National Executive" . Retrieved 15 June 2020.
1 2 The Australian, 2 July 2015: Vote change to shift Labor’s power to the Left
↑ Sydney Morning Herald, 18 June 2015: Labor powerbrokers lose control with reform back on the agenda
↑ ABC News, 4 November 2015: ALP national executive pulls rank on WA branch attempt to dump MPs Gary Gray and Alannah MacTiernan
↑ The Age, 27 July 2005: Labor Left accuses Right of stacking branch rules
↑ "National Executive". Australian Labor Party.
↑ Carey, Adam (13 April 2018). "Unions dump Butler, back one of their own in run for ALP president". The Age. Retrieved 9 August 2018.
↑ "A.L.P. President: Mr. Hannan Elected". Evening News. Sydney. 30 April 1924.
↑ "Mr. Fallon Resigns Labor Office". News. Adelaide. 7 June 1944.
↑ "Federal A.L.P. President: Mr. Fred Walsh, M.P., Elected". The Advertiser. Adelaide. 15 February 1945.
1 2 "McAlpine New A.L.P. Federal President". Barrier Daily Truth. 30 November 1946.
↑ Senate Biographies - Keeffe, James Bernard
↑ "Australian Labor Party : Labor MPS, Senators & Officials". www.alp.org.au. Archived from the original on 5 February 2008. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
↑ "Australian Labor Party : Labor MPS, Senators & Officials". www.alp.org.au. Archived from the original on 22 July 2009. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
↑ "Australian Labor- Who We Are". www.alp.org.au. Archived from the original on 20 August 2010. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
↑ "Records of the Australian Labor Party, Federal Secretariat".

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[NatExec-1] "Australian Labor Party National Executive" . Retrieved 15 June 2020.

[Australian2July2015-2] 1 2 The Australian, 2 July 2015: Vote change to shift Labor’s power to the Left

[3] Sydney Morning Herald, 18 June 2015: Labor powerbrokers lose control with reform back on the agenda

[4] ABC News, 4 November 2015: ALP national executive pulls rank on WA branch attempt to dump MPs Gary Gray and Alannah MacTiernan

[5] The Age, 27 July 2005: Labor Left accuses Right of stacking branch rules

[6] "National Executive". Australian Labor Party.

[7] Carey, Adam (13 April 2018). "Unions dump Butler, back one of their own in run for ALP president". The Age. Retrieved 9 August 2018.

[hannan-8] "A.L.P. President: Mr. Hannan Elected". Evening News. Sydney. 30 April 1924.

[9] "Mr. Fallon Resigns Labor Office". News. Adelaide. 7 June 1944.

[10] "Federal A.L.P. President: Mr. Fred Walsh, M.P., Elected". The Advertiser. Adelaide. 15 February 1945.

[mcalpine-11] 1 2 "McAlpine New A.L.P. Federal President". Barrier Daily Truth. 30 November 1946.

[12] Senate Biographies - Keeffe, James Bernard

[13] "Australian Labor Party : Labor MPS, Senators & Officials". www.alp.org.au. Archived from the original on 5 February 2008. Retrieved 13 January 2022.

[14] "Australian Labor Party : Labor MPS, Senators & Officials". www.alp.org.au. Archived from the original on 22 July 2009. Retrieved 13 January 2022.

[15] "Australian Labor- Who We Are". www.alp.org.au. Archived from the original on 20 August 2010. Retrieved 13 January 2022.

[16] "Records of the Australian Labor Party, Federal Secretariat".

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Location	5/9 Sydney Avenue, Canberra, ACT
Key people	Wayne Swan (National President) Paul Erickson (National Secretary) Susan Close (Senior Vice-President) Mich-Elle Myers (Senior Vice-President)