Australian Labor Party National Executive

The Australian Labor Party National Executive is an internal body of the Australian Labor Party, one of the major political parties in Australia.

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 most recent National Conference was the 47th conference held from 24 to 26 July 2015. Members on the Executive may be officials of trade unions affiliated to the party or members of federal or state Parliaments. Other members of the National Executive 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 are ex-officio members of the Executive, but 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, though it did not hold a majority at the 2015 National Conference.

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. The executive has authority over policy as it can interpret the party’s constitution, platform and conference decisions.

The current members of the National Executive are:

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