By Andrew Brown in Adelaide

Labor’s party faithful will “definitely” have the opportunity to debate Australia’s nuclear submarine deal, as billions of dollars in extra funding is committed for the construction of the boats.

Day two of the triennial policy forum will focus on aged care, the NDIS and health care issues.

Policies focusing on women and Indigenous Australians, along with employment and workplace relations, will also feature prominently.

But contentious issues are not expected to feature on the floor of the conference, with most of the bargaining happening behind the scenes.

While the Labor conference determines the direction of the party and its policy stance, it remains up to its parliamentary team to determine how, and when, the measures are implemented.

AUKUS remains one of the contentious issues among delegates at the Labor conference, with many rank and file members passing motions in local branches calling for the government to scrap the deal.

Defence Minister Richard Marles said there’s “definitely an opportunity” for AUKUS to be publicly debated at the national conference, but pointed to the issue being voted in favour of three years ago.

“Seventy-five per cent of the floor supported AUKUS so this was not close, and that’s the position of the party right now,” he told ABC’s Radio National on Friday.

“I understand that this is a huge public expenditure, and so people are entitled to raise questions and have debates, and I stand ready to do those debates.

“But at the same time, we are putting this in place.”

The visit to South Australia for the three-day conference coincides with an extra $4.6 billion being unveiled for the nuclear submarine construction yard at Osborne, north of Adelaide.

The construction yard will be used to build the nuclear-powered vessels as part of the $368 billion AUKUS agreement with the US and UK.

The additional funding will bring the spend on the construction yard to $8.5 billion, with the funding going towards building and development activities at the site.

The project is expected to create 10,000 jobs in South Australia, with 1100 people already working on the project.

Under the AUKUS pact, Australia is set to purchase used nuclear submarines from the US, before locally built vessels are brought online.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese discussed AUKUS with newly elected UK counterpart Andy Burnham during a call on Thursday to congratulate him on his appointment and invite him to visit Australia.

Mr Albanese used his keynote address to the conference on Thursday to urge members to make meaningful change as a way to counter the growing popularity of One Nation.

Pauline Hanson’s party has been rising in the polls, and recently overtook Labor on a primary vote in some opinion surveys.

News all day, every day at CityNewsQBN.com.au.