SUBJECTS: Tackling inequality: a Labor mission; Tax reform; asylum seekers.

BILL SHORTEN, LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION: Good afternoon. Today, I've re-pledged Labor to focus on tackling inequality in Australia. There's a real problem in Australia  at the moment, where we're seeing inequality spreading and working and middle class people’s aspirations diminishing. We have an elitist, out of touch government pursuing policies which see millionaires getting tax cuts; the largest companies in Australia to get a tax handout, at the same time as penalty rates are being cut. And we're seeing cuts to basic services for ordinary Australians.

 

Labor believes there is a better way. We believe if you tackle inequality, if you make sure that working and middle class Australians are the number one priority of government policy, then that actually improves not only their lives, but the Australian economy and the Australian community.

 

We're happy to take questions.

 

JOURNALIST: What are you actually targeting? Is it tax concessions or what are you actually looking at?

 

SHORTEN: We'll today's speech was a scene setter. We're saying there is a problem in Australia, that is of growing inequality. Real wages growth is the lowest it's been in a very long time. The share of the national economy going to wages and income as a proportion of the total economy is as small as it's been, and yet company profits are doing far better.

 

And we've got a government in Canberra who is just hopelessly out of touch. On one hand they want to give the world's richest banks a tax handout, on the other hand they want to take $365 off new pensioners for energy bills which are out of control. This government won't do anything to stand up for penalty rates.

 

If elected, Labor has made it clear, that the very wealthiest Australians will have to pay a little more income tax, but what we will do, is restore the penalty rates of hundreds of thousands of Australian workers and we will stop income tax rises for literally millions of Australians who are on average wages.

 

JOURNALIST: You said you wanted to look at the growing and old faults in our tax system. Are there some specific examples you could give us?

 

SHORTEN: Well today, what I did was remind Australians that Labor has led the debate on tax reform in this country, and we have led it from Opposition. Labor is proposing clamping down on the ridiculous amount of money that people can claim in tax deductions when they go to their accountant to minimise their tax. We want to cap that at $3,000. That policy will save over $1 billion dollars to the Budget and it will only affect one in every 100 taxpayers. We have also said that Labor has led the debate about stopping the over-the-top tax handouts and concessions to people who already have millions of dollars in superannuation, they simply don't need it.

And of course we want to do something to help first home buyers have a level playing field, so we're going to reform negative gearing tax concessions, capital gains tax discount concessions so that first home buyers every Saturday in Australia, will have a level playing field rather than subsidising property investors buying them.

 JOURNALIST: I guess I'm asking about new things. You said you're going to - you need to look at -

SHORTEN: Well that's not really the purpose of today's speech. I think that before we can talk about reforms we've got to get agreement there's a problem. That's what sensible political parties do. We see the Liberal Party in a vacuum of infighting; they're obsessed about talking to each about what Robert Menzies meant in a speech 75 years ago.

What I'm promising Australians who are disillusioned with the political process is we're taking our job as Opposition very seriously. Sure we're holding the government to account for the mistakes they make, and there's certainly a few of them.

But what we're also doing, is doing the hard work of preparing a social and economic program to present to the Australian people at the next election, which will give people a restoration of confidence and hope. And what you need to do to restore confidence and hope in this country is you've got to do something about inequality. Inequality between people who are in their 50s and 60s who can't find work and those who have got work.

The inequality where women suffer a gender pay gap where they get on average 20 per cent less than their males colleagues in Australia's workplaces.

Inequality between the regions on one hand and people who live in the inner city on the other. People in the regions have not got a plan from this government. You know, they get a series of ad hoc thought bubbles, you know, Barnaby Joyce's ill-fated moving of the Pesticides Authority to the McDonald's in Armidale which has undermined that crop - you know the crop industry in terms of scientific protection and testing. That's not a regional policy that's a though bubble.

There's a lot of inequality in this country. Labor is saying that we are going to put our focus on tackling inequality. And perhaps one of the greatest inequalities which is under way in this country, is the breaching and the failure of the generational contract where one generation of Australians wants to hand on a better deal to younger Australians in the future. And that's just not happening at the moment, and I think Australians are rightfully concerned.

 JOURNALIST: Would you consider income tax cuts for low income workers?

SHORTEN: That's well down the track;I have to say that consideration, what I am going to do is stop income tax rises for low income workers. Mr Turnbull and his team have been most dishonest with the Australian people saying that the only way that we can fund support for people with disabilities is by raising income taxes on low paid workers. I think that he could not go ahead with his catastrophic $65 billion corporate tax cut which is unfunded, he could do something about reforming negative gearing, stop handing away billions of dollars in tax concessions to the lucky few.

 There are plenty of ways to provide a strong safety net to help families and small businesses without putting the burden right back on to ordinary, average, working class and middle class Australians.
 
 JOURNALIST: Do you think that Kevin Rudd is trying to re-write history with his recent comments about asylum seekers offshore being resettled in Australia after 2013?

SHORTEN: Mr Rudd is a distinguished Australian and former Prime Minister and he's entitled to his views. But let me be clear about who is trying to rewrite history, it's Peter Dutton. I'd of thought he would have been better advised getting across his whole new mega portfolio than playing political games with Labor. Let me be very clear for the record. Labor will not see the people smugglers back in business. We made clear what our policy was before the last election, the policy we took to the last election and it has not changed.

I understand the legitimate frustration of Australians who say that on one hand they don't want the people smugglers back in business with their dangerous ways, but on the other hand, people being stuck in semi-indefinite detention is something which makes a lot of Australians, me included, deeply uncomfortable. What Mr Dutton should be doing, is focusing on negotiations with other nations to have these people resettled. We are pleased with the progress that's been reported about the United States. I think Mr Dutton should work with Labor, focus on what we can do to make sure that the situation improves. But he shouldn't start playing those sort of partisan games, and in fact when Mr Dutton questions the bipartisanship about boat turn backs and stopping the people smugglers he should be ashamed of himself because all he's doing is giving oxygen to those crooks and criminals in other parts of the world, putting vulnerable people on unsafe vessels and exposing them to death at sea.

JOURNALIST: But specifically on his comments were they wrong, I mean would asylum seekers have been resettled after that period?

 SHORTEN: I'm not going to start second guessing Mr Rudd’s policy before 2013. He's entitled to his views. What I’m interested in is what is Peter Dutton doing to resettle these people because I think a lot of Australians, including Mr Rudd are disturbed at the lack of action by this Federal Government, full stop. 

 

JOURNALIST: You talked in your speech about the [INAUDIBLE]. You’ve just got a nice pay rise, and I’d say you probably sit in the Chairman’s Lounge as well. What do you say to Australians who look at you and think, well you’re one of the (inaudible)?

 

SHORTEN: I was talking about taxation, Tom. If you don't think there's not a two class tax system in this country about taxation then I'm not sure that you understood what I was saying, but let me repeat it to be clear.

 What happens in Australia is most people are pay as you go taxpayers. Plenty of them will have filled in their tax returns, perhaps even by now. They've got a few vanilla deductions that they can claim. Maybe something for a salary sacrifice car if they're that fortunate. Maybe some work cost deductions.

 

What I'm saying today is I'm belling the cat here that what happens is we have a system though, that if you've got enough money you can pretty much choose to opt out of many of the taxation obligations which other Australians who don't have those resources to do. 

It's not about being unhappy, as perhaps your initial question went to, complaining about someone being more wealthy than someone else. These are facts of life.

 

But what I'm unhappy about is where you've got a two class tax system where the more money you have, gives you a greater chance to opting out of the same rules that everyone else applies to. And I am going to challenge this system, because Australians want to see one set of rules for all Australians.

 

There is a linkage which is fraying in our community between hard work and reward. There's a linkage fraying between the idea that you work hard and you educate your kids so that they can get ahead. Increasingly what's happening is that the wealth of your parents is becoming the key determinant to how the next generation do. And it's this generational contract under pressure by inequality, it's the loss of confidence in suburbs and small country towns around Australia where wages are flat-lining, where the tax system isn't fair, where we're seeing greater inequality.

 

This is a great country, it's a very good country. But unless we tackle the problems and the inconsistencies in the system then we're going to see greater inequality and a greater loss of confidence.

 

Perhaps I might take one more question.

 

JOURNALIST: Just going back to the refugees on Manus Island. NSW Labor left faction is pushing for changes for the immediate closure of Manus and Nauru to resettle in Australia. Do you agree?

 

Well, I haven't seen their resolutions. People in our party have got a range of opinions but let me be perfectly clear to Australians and indeed perhaps even people smugglers who follow the Australian media. Don't listen to Peter Dutton. Labor and Liberal are both equally committed to keeping the people smugglers out of business. The fact of the matter is that 1200 vulnerable people drowned at sea. We are not going to see the people smugglers get back into business. But I also recognise, it's not just parts of the Labor Party it's the community at large, is deeply disturbed by the failure of this current government to resettle people in third party countries, which was part of the deal.

 

Thanks everybody, see you later.