Medibank to remain public

ALP officials have accepted the policy of keeping Medibank Private in government hands.

The party's draft platform, to be debated at the ALP national conference in Sydney this week, includes a provision for Labor to "retain Medibank Private in public ownership".

In the version passed at the last conference, in 2007, the platform said: "Labor is opposed to the sale of Medibank Private".

The future of Medibank became an election issue in 2007 after the Howard government said it would sell it after the election, a move Labor opposed.