 A frequent delegate to Labor conferences from Waverley, she called for child endowment, equal pay and political and social rights for women at the rowdy pre-World War I conferences.Together with Kate Dwyer and May Matthews, Seery contested Labor Party preselection for the Senate in 1916 but was unsuccessful, ultimately being endorsed instead as the candidate for the safe conservative seat of Robertson; she and Henrietta Greville were the first women endorsed by a major party to contest the Australian Parliament.Seery strenuously opposed conscription and also opposed the socialist objective at the 1919 Labor conference.