A gas export tax, protections for workers impacted by artificial intelligence, and reducing gambling harms are shaping up to be key policy fights at this year’s Labor conference in Adelaide.

Already Labor has confirmed hundreds of amendments have trickled in before official debate starts on Thursday morning to shape the party’s platform for the next three years.

Anti-AUKUS pact and pro-gas export levy events will steal the focus of day one, while answering how Australia should deal with the fall out of AI will also be central and flow into Friday’s program.

The focus on AI comes after Anthony Albanese announced a significant intervention last week to control how tech giants operate AI down under and to impose rules on data centre construction.

The draft policy platform outlines the balanced approach Labor will try to walk over the next three years to capitalise from benefits embracing AI could deliver but also prepare for worst case scenarios.

The platform offers an insight into how the Prime Minister plans to carve out rules for AI in Australia, insisting it will be uncompromising on workers rights to ensure Aussies aren’t treated as “disposable”.

If AI leads “to the displacement of jobs at a significant scale” Labor proposes it will consider ways to “play an active role in an economy-wide transition”.

Unions attending are already on edge over the technology after AI has been cited as a driver behind mass redundancies across several sectors at home and abroad.

AI debate is also expected to dominate several sideline sessions, with tech giant Google and the Australian Institute for Machine Learning hosting fringe events — while Labor senator Tony Sheldon will launch a new group called “FAIR AI” to argue for worker rights.

Labor also plans to consider new ways to ensure employers “fairly” share productivity gains from new technology adoption and provide upskilling opportunities, while protecting them from intrusive AI surveillance.

The party’s platform explicitly states it doesn’t want employees lumped with more intense workloads or be “undermined” in “pay or safety” due to the adoption of AI.

It also flags that psychosocial safety issues relating to AI adoption will have to be considered — a hazard which Australian employers already legally have to mitigate under WHS laws.

Mr Albanese told the party it needed to continue to “evolve, develop” and “change with the times” during a ministry meeting on Wednesday — as more than 2000 Labor supporters, delegates, parliamentarians, unions and observers flew into Adelaide.

“No matter how turbulent the times are that we’re dealing with globally and we do deal with uncertain times,” the PM reminded colleagues in opening remarks.

“But I think all the delegates gathering here in Adelaide will know that they can be certain that our focus is on the national interests as we go forward.

“Over the coming few days, the National Conference will be a real opportunity to showcase, as well, the work that we’re doing.”

The PM is expected to outline his vision for the party and conference in an opening address on Thursday morning.

As attendees poured into Adelaide convention centre to check in on Wednesday, last meetings and negotiations played out to draft 11th-hour amendments for debate.

Before the three-day conference even began, the Israeli embassy in Canberra challenged the party’s proposed positions on Palestine, Hamas and settler violence in the West Bank.

In a four-page statement issued on Monday, it had claimed “several elements of the draft platform” would “risk placing responsibility for the conflict on one party” while not adequately focusing on the “obligations of the Palestinian leadership” and Hamas.

Angus Taylor on Wednesday warned Labor about “digging in” on the conflict in the Middle East at their 50th conference this week after the party’s draft platform ramped up criticism of Israel’s occupation in Gaza.

The Opposition Leader claimed the party’s decision to recognise Palestinian statehood had been “premature” and “should not have happened”.

He instead urged Mr Albanese to use the conference to “condemn Islamist extremism”.

“I want to see the Labor conference condemn Islamist extremism in this country. Condemn it straight out,” he said.

The wording and scope of references to Israel and Palestine has changed significantly between the 2023 platform and what has been drafted in 2026.

The 2023 conference in Brisbane was just months before the October 7 Hamas attack which has since led to years of Middle East conflict and inflamed debate globally.

This year’s draft platform, which will shape the party’s direction for the next three years, includes explicit opposition to the annexation and occupation of Palestinian territory and Israeli settler violence.

Speaking alongside Mr Taylor in Sydney, deputy Liberal leader Jane Hume accused Labor of “talking about themselves” while the Coalition was focused on “a plan to fix the economy and to protect our way of life”.

“While Labor are busy talking about themselves at their conference — Angus Taylor and I are talking to small businesses and families. We’re talking to ordinary Australians, everyday Australians, about the issues that are important,” she said.

Rank-and-file members Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union will also agitate for more to be done to relieve the housing crisis at the conference.

The union is expected to launch a new pro-worker housing reform campaign outside the convention centre on Tuesday morning before the PM stands up.

“As Labor delegates gather to set the party’s platform for the next term, the AMWU will put housing squarely on the agenda,” AMWU national secretary Steve Murphy said.

“It calls for tax settings that put homeowners before investors, a dramatic expansion of public and social housing, a new national housing commission to co-ordinate housing delivery, and a government-backed modular housing industry to build union-secured homes faster.”

The Prime Minister is also expected to give a nod to former treasurer Wayne Swan and former Indigenous Australians minister Linda Burney who are expected to receive life memberships for their service to Labor.

The party will also use the conference to unveil a new scholarship in honour of former Labor strategist Tim Picton who died after an alleged assault outside a Perth nightclub.