The Labor Right (LR), also known as Labor Forum, Labor Unity or simply Unity, is one of the two major

political faction A political faction is a group of people with a common political purpose, especially a subgroup of a political party that has interests or opinions different from the rest of the political party. Intragroup conflict between factions can lead to ...

s within the

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also known as the Labor Party or simply Labor, is the major Centre-left politics, centre-left List of political parties in Australia, political party in Australia and one of two Major party, major parties in Po ...

(ALP). It is nationally characterised by

social democratic Social democracy is a Social philosophy, social, Economic ideology, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports Democracy, political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achi ...

Third Way The Third Way is a predominantly centrist political position that attempts to reconcile centre-right and centre-left politics by advocating a varying synthesis of Right-wing economics, right-wing economic and Left-wing politics, left-wing so ...

economic policies, and competes with the Labor Left faction, which leans toward

democratic socialism Democratic socialism is a left-wing economic ideology, economic and political philosophy that supports political democracy and some form of a socially owned economy, with a particular emphasis on economic democracy, workplace democracy, and wor ...

. Labor Right is composed of autonomous groups in each state and territory of Australia. The groups within the Labor Right come together as a broad alliance at the national level. The faction includes members with a range of political perspectives, including

centrism Centrism is the range of political ideologies that exist between left-wing politics and right-wing politics on the left–right political spectrum. It is associated with moderate politics, including people who strongly support moderate policie ...

, partial privatisation, Keynesianism,

Social democracy Social democracy is a Social philosophy, social, Economic ideology, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports Democracy, political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achi ...

, and Labourism.

State branches

Factional power usually finds expression in the percentage vote of aligned delegates at party conferences. The power of the Labor Right varies from state to state, but it usually relies on certain trade unions, such as the

Australian Workers' Union The Australian Workers' Union (AWU) is one of Australia's largest and oldest trade unions. It traces its origins to unions founded in the pastoralism, pastoral and mining industries in the late 1880s and it currently has approximately 80,000 ...

(AWU), Transport Workers Union (TWU), the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association (SDA), Plumbing and Pipe Trades Employees Union (PPTEU) and the Health Services Union (HSU). These unions send delegates to the conferences, with delegates usually coming from the membership, the administration of the union or local branches covered by their activists. State-based factions (national sub-factions) which make up Labor Right include:

New South Wales

* Centre Unity

Queensland

* Labor Forum (dominated by the AWU)

Australian Capital Territory

* Centre Coalition

Victoria

* Labor Centre Unity (AWU: Consisting of Branch Members, Student Clubs, both federal and state members of parliament aligned with the Victorian branch of the Australian Workers' Union, and representatives from the Plumbing and Pipe Trades Employees Union) * Labor Progressive Unity (The Cons: Consisting largely of Branch Members aligned to and supporters of Labor Deputy Leader Richard Marles and the Transport Workers Union) * Labor Unity (The Shoppies: Consisting largely of branch members aligned to and supports of the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association)

Western Australia

*WA Labor Unity ( AWU, SDA, TWU). *Progressive Labor (Consists of AWU, SDA, TWU and CFMEU) An alliance between WA Labor Unity and the 'Industrial left' unions of WA, formed in 2019 for the purpose of binding at State conferences against some subgroups within WA's Broad left; such as the UWU. Historically, the MUA and CFMEU have voted at State conferences in alignment with the Broad left.

Northern Territory

* Labor Unity

South Australia

* Labor Unity (dominated by the SDA).

Tasmania

* Labor Unity

Political views

The faction is most famous for its support of

policies such as the economic rationalist policies of the Bob Hawke and Paul Keating governments, including floating the

Australian dollar The Australian dollar (currency sign, sign: $; ISO 4217, code: AUD; also abbreviated A$ or sometimes AU$ to distinguish it from other dollar, dollar-denominated currencies; and also referred to as the dollar or Aussie dollar) is the official ...

in December 1983, reductions in trade

tariff A tariff or import tax is a duty (tax), duty imposed by a national Government, government, customs territory, or supranational union on imports of goods and is paid by the importer. Exceptionally, an export tax may be levied on exports of goods ...

s, taxation reforms such as the introduction of dividend imputation to eliminate double-taxation of dividends and the lowering of the top marginal income tax rate from 60% in 1983 to 47% in 1996, changing from centralised wage-fixing to enterprise bargaining, the privatisation of

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and Commonwealth Bank, making the

Reserve Bank of Australia The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) is Australia's central bank and banknote issuing authority. It has had this role since 14 January 1960, when the ''Reserve Bank Act 1959'' removed the central banking functions from the Commonwealth Bank. Th ...

independent, and deregulating the banking system. Alongside these economic reforms, Labor Right also supported more traditional social democratic policies, such as the introduction of Medicare under Bob Hawke in 1984 and compulsory superannuation under Paul Keating in 1992. The faction also supported significant socially progressive policies, including the blocking of the Franklin River Dam construction and the passage of the Native Title Act in 1993 following the High Court's Mabo decision.

Federal members of the Labor Right

‡ Sterle was formerly a member of the now-defunct Centre Left.