With two thumping Queensland by-election victories in the Labor bag since last year's talkfest there was a renewed sense of vigour among delegates, who came to hear Ms Plibersek address what she loosely termed the twin toxicities of a Campbell Newman-led state and a Tony Abbott-led country.

"We said in the election campaign that Campbell Newman was the curtain raiser for the Abbott Federal Goverment," she said.

"For Queenslanders, it's not bad enough just having to sit through the re-runs of the attacks Campbell Newman has made on your way of life, its that separately these two are poison.

"Put them together and they are devastating."

But while the mention of the Premier and Prime Minister's names prompted jeers from a crowd where there was standing room only, it was the mention of Federal Education Minister Christopher Pyne's name that prompted the most vitriol.

His education reforms that will see university costs rise, along with federal cuts to health services, formed the key tenet of Ms Plibersek's address as she lamented a country where both were again becoming a privilege reserved for the rich.

"The question of whether to fund university really shows the difference between us and them," she said.

"To us in the Labor movement health and education are not just businesses, they are the right of every Australian and reserving them for the privileged diminishes us all.

"We are only worthy of regaining government because of our hopes and aspirations for this country and because of what we stand for.

"A decent wage and strong rights at work, a health system where patients are treated on need, not triaged on the size of their wallets.

"Schools where every kid can get a decent education and where a difficult childhood does not mean you are lost for the rest of your life."

In a speech that at times strayed into the personal Ms Plibersek, the daughter of migrant factory workers, said she feared her generation would be the last to benefit from affordable education for all.

"We were the first generation to have that chance and I can not tolerate a vision of Australia where we are the last generation to have that chance," she said.

"The fact is we live in a country where any kid can go to school and we have aspired to any kid doing post school education not based on their wealth but on their ability and desire and dreams.

"We are not just robbing the individual kids, we are robbing the future prosperity of this nation if we don't invest in education."

In welcoming the new Labor state members for Redcliffe and Stafford, Yvette Dath and Anthony Lyneham, Ms Plibersek said the dramatic swings in both electorates against the Newman Government were a sign of things to come for Mr Abbott.

"In (Mr Newman's) first budget, he cut $3 billion from the Queensland health system and sacked 4000 workers. That's revitalising Newman style, rip the guts out of the services Queenslanders rely on," she said.

"But on top of all the broken promises on top of all of the cuts, they just stopped listening to the people who put them there and that's starting to sound like a very familiar story.

"Tony Abbott, right up until the night of the election said there would be no cuts to health, no cuts to education, no change to pensions, no new taxes, then he followed the usual playbook: in comes the commission of audit, out come all the recommendations hiding in a bottom drawer, then the cuts to health, education and other services."

Ms Plibersek skirted around the more controversial aspects of Federal Labor leadership in both the recent and distant past.

She curtly acknowledged Opposition Leader Bill Shorten had a "tough week" in going public about historic rape allegations made against him and refused to be drawn on the ongoing impacts of previous leadership tussles between former prime ministers Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard.

With just more than six months until the state election and with new polling this week placing Opposition Leader Annastacia Palaszczuk almost level with Mr Newman in the preferred premier stakes, there is for the first time in a long time, a sniff of victory in the air for Queensland Labor.

"We know in politics that opposition is the worst place to be," Ms Plibersek said.

"The difficulty of moving on from the past while staying united as a team.

"The frustration of seeing what you have built up torn down.

"The bitterness of being proved right on all the dire predictions we made on the campaign trail.

"It really is nothing short of remarkable that Queensland Labor has done so well at this difficult time under Annastacia's leadership."