Federal Labor leader Anthony Albanese will not be attending the Labor party's state conference in Tasmania this weekend.
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Labor party state secretary Stuart Benson confirmed Mr Albanese was unable to attend the conference because he will be travelling to East Timor with Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
Shadow Treasurer Jim Chalmers will instead give the keynote address to the conference on Saturday morning and state Labor leader Rebecca White will give a speech on Sunday.
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More than 200 party delegates are expected at the annual event where members will debate and adopt new platforms and policies.
Mr Benson said the conference would have a strong focus on jobs, regional development, housing and homelessness, health and workers' rights.
A motion calling on Tasmanian Labor to develop a policy of freedom of speech for public sector employees is set to be debated at the conference.
The party will consider the motion by the Derwent Valley branch which is calling on the conference to note public sector employees are effectively gagged and are afraid to publicly express their concerns or thoughts on government policy or activity.
The motion would allow public sector employees to express their views freely without risking their jobs, provided their views are clearly identified as personal opinion and no confidential information is divulged, including on social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook.
Delegates will also consider a number of motions in favour of providing additional support to the social housing sector.
The Bellerive/Howrah branch will bring forward a motion calling on Labor to commit to the goal of raising social and affordable housing to 10 per cent of all residential stock.
A motion by Rainbow Labor will call on the party to put Tasmania's housing crisis at the forefront of its decision making, noting minority groups such as LGBTQ+ people and youth face the highest rates of homelessness in the state.