ADDRESS TO THE 2018 OUTLOOK CONFERENCE

Good evening everybody. I should declare that like Paul, my academic career started at Monash University as well. 

I'd like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land upon which we meet, I pay my respects to elders past, present and emerging.

 

I think this is my fourth or fifth address to the Melbourne Institute, co-hosted by The Australian. 

 

I’ve seen three Liberal Prime Ministers address this forum, I'm now onto my third editor-in-chief at The Australian newspaper as well.

 

And like Paul Whittaker has done with The Australian, if we form a government, we aim to turn the deficit into a surplus. Congratulations on your new role Paul.

 

I’d like to thank our hosts, the Melbourne Institute, and in doing that, we should acknowledge the passing of a great Australian, and one of your own, John Deeble.

 

It was actually way back in 1965 that John was given a research task by the forerunner to the Melbourne Institute, to collate, for the first time ever, the national health expenditure figures for Australia. And out of that important but possibly seemingly mundane academic exercise, came the bones of Medicare.

John’s life and legacy reminds us all, that the right combination of expert research, persistent advocacy and political courage can change the direction of this nation for the better.

And really, that’s what I'd like to talk to you about tonight.

 

Because if Labor wins the next election, I intend to lead a government with the courage to do what is right.

It will be a government with faith in our Australian people, confident that if you explain why you’re taking the big and difficult decisions, and advocate for them, the Australian people will back you.

I intend to lead a government prepared to establish commissions and inquiries in the pursuit of information and facts. But also when we have acquired the facts, when we know what should be done, the government I intend to lead will have the ticker to actually get on and just do it.

I actually think that the political discourse in this country underestimates the people of our nation. 

 

Wherever I go, in big cities and the suburbs and small towns and the regions, I want to reassure you that the people of our nation are hungry, they're hungry for a government with a vision to explain where we want Australia to be in ten and twenty years’ time, they're hungry to hear the plan on how to do this.

 

It was back in 2014, the first occasion I addressed this gathering as Labor leader, I perhaps precociously said at the time, my united team would not waste the time in opposition. I promised that I and my team would do the hard yards of policy development.

 

I think that even if our harshest critics don't agree with everything we're saying, they would say we’ve certainly measured up to the task of offering a view about the future of this country beyond the next poll.

 

Labor is not trying to be a small target. We are currently assembling an economic and social program for the future of Australia and we will submit this to the people at the next general election, whenever it is in the next thirty weeks.

 

At the heart of our program for the social and economic benefit of the nation for the next decade and beyond, is a fundamental recognition that too many Australians are at the wrong end of the prosperity equation. The wrong end of the deal.

Too many of our fellow Australians feel that the wealthy and the powerful get the best of the deal; the best health care, the best education - in fact, the best of everything.

 

And too many Australians feel that influence on politics is reserved for the powerful few with the loudest voices.

 

Witness the organic backlash over the Opera House, our national icon being treated as a commercial opportunity, marketed as Australia’s 'biggest billboard’. 

 

It became a lightning rod, a proof-point for many ordinary people, that political decision-making in this country is perceived to have been siphoned-off to vested interests, to special pleading, that the national conversation is dominated by a familiar parade of organisations and spokespeople who can get wall-to-wall media coverage saying that everything is working fine just as it is.

 

This is not healthy for our country. 

 

You know, I’ve met older Australians who’ve been left waiting six months for an aged pension to which they are legally entitled. A vital bit of support that they’ve worked for and paid taxes for their whole life. How are these people supposed to feel when they open the pages of The Australian one day and read how a small private foundation could get half a billion dollars in half an hour, which they didn't even ask for.

 

This sort of thing is corrosive to our democracy. It feeds a dangerous perception that what matters in this nation is not your talent or your efforts – it’s your connections. It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.

 

I want to change this.

 

Because, at the end of the day, I think that most Australians would just like to know if there is someone in their corner. Someone who wants to make sure that they are included in our nation's prosperity.

 

They want a leader who recognises that the woman or man who comes home, worn out from a good but hard day’s work, is doing as much for this country as someone who sits in a tall office block playing the financial markets.

 

They want to feel that their effort is appreciated.

 

If I’m Prime Minister, I want these working Australians, millions of whom have gone home tonight some of whom are still serving us here, I want those working Australians who are doing their best, to know that they are as much the backbone of this nation as anybody else. And they are appreciated as much as anybody else.

 

Now my opponent I saw, even today at this conference, says somehow that when I talk like this, it is about the ‘politics of envy’. But that’s not true.

 

Quite frankly, I don’t mind how rich anyone is. I do not begrudge people their financial success, I salute it.

 

But for this country to work, to be the nation that we want to see in the mirror, that we want our children to see in the mirror, for our shared national enterprise to thrive, it cannot just be those who are already very well-off who keep doing very well.

 

Everyone needs to feel like they are getting a fair go - and the only way to feel like you’re getting a fair go, is if you are actually getting a fair go.

 

I do not believe Australia is a resentful society. But at the moment, I think that the number of people resentful about what they regard as unfairness in this country is a continuously growing number.

 

And a lot of the things I’ve seen in this job in the last five years convince me that people do have every right to feel that way.

The story of the past five years for many, if not most Australians is that everything has gone up, except their wages.

And challengingly for our democracy, for both of the major parties, is that people see politics as part of the problem – people do not see politics as part of the solution.

If we win the election, I want to do something about this fundamental and growing cynicism about our own democracy.

If Labor is elected as the next government, I want us to be known for our actions, not words.

I am ambitious for this country. But I am so ambitious for this country that I hope that the end of our first term of Government if we are elected, that people will come up to me and say, you know what, you actually did something, you didn't just talk about it, you had actions not just words.

 

I think this is how we restore some faith and trust in our system and how the great project of reform can continue.

If a government can demonstrate to Australians that their democracy is worth the trouble, that the decisions that are made in Canberra, the debates that are held there can deliver meaningful improvements in people’s daily lives.

I believe that’s how we moderate resentment, not by tearing anyone down but by building people up. By building people up.

And by eliminating some of the brutal unfairness and inequality in this nation. 

Because it is brutally unfair that today, the International Day of the Girl Child, that our daughters when they grow up and go to work they will effectively have to work the first two months of the year for free, compared to their male colleagues, our sons.

 

It is brutally unfair that our First Australians have a life expectancy a decade shorter than the rest of us.

 

It is brutally unfair that tonight there will be at least 100,000 of our fellow Australians sleeping rough.

 

It is brutally unfair that 121,000 Australians, at least – 95,000 of whom are living with complex conditions or dementia – are stuck on a waiting list for aged care support.

 

It is brutally unfair that some multinational companies can get rich in Australia and from Australia and from Australians, without paying tax in Australia.

 

And I think it is unfair to prioritise tax concessions and tax subsidies for people who are already very comfortable, over investing in Australians and investing in Australia's future. 

 

Now, I understand that some of the changes that we've worked on are not popular with everyone, they can't be.

 

You can talk to me up hill and down dale but you will not convince me that it is fair or sustainable for taxpayers to underwrite the tax office to issue a multi-billion dollar refund cheque every year for shareholders who haven’t paid any income tax for that year in the first place. When we could be using that same money to invest in the infrastructure of the nation, the schools, the TAFE, the universities, the early childhood education, the essential services, our hospitals that every Australian will need.

Now it’s not every day that I quote President Ronald Reagan’s chief economist, Martin Feldstein – but I think he put it very well when he said, and I quote: 

Limiting tax expenditures should be viewed as a reduction in government spending.

So I believe it is incumbent on government to look at tax subsidies, tax loopholes and tax concessions with the same rigour that we examine every other dollar of government spending, with the same respect for taxpayer funds.

And we make our choices based on this, we make our choices based on our priorities and our values.

Simply put: I believe a proper education for our kids is more important than subsidising a tax write-off for property investors buying their fourth and fifth investment property. 

I believe that good hospitals and healthcare are more important than enabling someone on half-a-million dollars to minimise their tax by splitting their income through a family trust, to an adult family member not working in the family business. 

I would rather our nation invest another $10 billion over the decade building the world's best early childhood education system, rather than spend five and a half times that amount, $55 billion, so we can be the only country in the world where the tax office sends cash refunds to shareholders who didn’t pay income tax in the first place.

 

This is not about increasing tax on middle class and working class people, that’s not what our plan does. 

It’s about closing unsustainable loopholes so that multinationals and the top end of town pay their fair share and then government expenditure goes where it will do the most good, for the future of this nation.  

This is what drives me, it is why I want to be Prime Minister: to hand on a better deal to the next generation than the one we inherited from those who came before us.

And it's all of us really, it doesn't matter if we're parents or policymakers, we understand that the best opportunity we can give our kids, that we can give Australian children, is a great education.

Yesterday, Tanya Plibersek and I outlined Labor’s plan for fair funding for every government school in Australia. 

$14 billion to deliver more teachers, more resources, more individual attention in the classroom and more specialised learning, whether it’s helping kids who need the extra help to catch-up, or stretching the bright students to be everything they can.

Parents move houses in this country to get into the zone of a great school. For those who send their children to private schools, they pay the extra cost because they know the difference that school will provide to their children in life.

 

What I want to do is end the zoning lottery by ensuring that every school in Australia is a great school.

I want every school to teach the basics well, to lift our national performance in maths and science and reading and writing. 

I want every school to enable children to be able to be able to fall in love with what they’re good at, to try art, to try music, to try drama, to try sport, to see the outdoors, to learn about teamwork through camps. 

I want every school to be a place where children have the confidence to be themselves, free from bullying, free from discrimination.  

Now fair funding, I acknowledge, is not the only piece of this puzzle. We can and must do more to lift teacher quality, to lift standards - also to elevate the very status of teaching - to pay teachers and educators like the professionals they are.

But none of this can happen without fair funding.

Fair funding is an essential precondition, it is a prerequisite for better schools. It is not all that will deliver better schools, but the absence of fair funding will guarantee we won't have the best opportunities for every child and in every school.

Nothing of what I am saying is particularly surprising when you come to think about it. Maybe many of you, are among the Mums and Dads who help out at sausage sizzles, the trivia nights, the school fetes, the fundraisers - they know that every dollar does make a difference to education.

 

Now I support choice in schools, I absolutely do. I fundamentally accept the proposition that parents who pay their taxes to Canberra, have a right to see some of those taxes invested back in their schools regardless of the system - Catholic, independent and of course, public.

I myself am the beneficiary of a Jesuit education, I fought very hard in the last year and a half for the Government to restore the funding they cut from systemic Catholic schools, from low-fee Christian schools.

 

But there can be no genuine choice for parents if we don't properly fund public education as well.

 

I think though, on top of proper school funding, the best way we can ensure every child starts school ready to succeed is to deliver quality early childhood education for every Australian child.

 

Last week, Labor announced arguably the biggest change to education in a generation, as transformative as lifting the compulsory school attendance age.

 

Within the next 3 years, by 2021 if we are elected, my vision, Labor's vision for preschool and kindergarten is that it should be available to every 3 and 4 year old in Australia. Fifteen hours a week, 600 hours a year - universally accessible.

 

The experts can explain to us that 90 per cent of a child’s brain develops before the age of 5. That is why starting preschool at 3 years old is world’s best practice.

 

I am not proposing anything radical by world's best practice.

What you learn at preschool has a multiplier effect on your education – and if you miss out, that multiplies too.

 

At the moment at least 22 per cent of Australian kids starting school aren’t ready. And that same group is twice as likely not to meet the minimum NAPLAN standards in Years 3, Year 5 and Year 7.

 

Either way - what happens to you at 3 and 4 is still predicting your learning at 12 and 13.

 

It’s a bit like what Einstein described as the miracle of compound interest: “If you understand it, you earn it. If you don’t understand it, you pay it.”

 

Early childhood education is compound learning.

 

Countries who understand it, who offer their kids and their families best practice, they are providing universal access, they give their children the learning, the foundation, reaping the benefits of stronger results.

 

The countries who don’t understand it, who don’t prioritise investing in it, they're paying the price down the track.

 

This is the truth behind every one of Labor’s education policies - you cannot go wrong by investing in people:

Education isn’t just a social good, it’s not only an equity measure. It’s an investment in our future economic success as a nation.

 

Investing in education doesn’t just open doors, it doesn’t just breakdown the cycle of disadvantage or reduce inequality.

 

Proper prioritised funding for education and training gives:

There are so many variables Australia can’t control in the world around us. There are so many things thrust upon us by the rapid and exciting transformation in our region; new technology, tectonic shifts in the world of work.

 

But what we invest in education is something that we can control. It is within our means to make this decision.

 

Education empowers our people to cope with economic change, it arms Australians with the skills and knowledge to compete and succeed, to win decent jobs and for people to secure their futures.

 

For me, for Labor, education policy is – and always will be- economic policy.

 

I said before that the principle which drove me is handing-on a better deal for the next generation.

 

If we want to hand on a better deal for our next generation, surely this includes taking real action on climate change.

 

Ten years of the Australian people’s time has been wasted fighting about an issue that a huge and diverse cross-section of our community – from farmers to tourism operators - want the parliament to act on.

 

Doing the right thing doesn’t require us to wreck the economy, or tear the coal mining industry down.

 

But I also want to tell you something - I do not intend to sit in my rocking chair or wherever I am in 40 years feeling guilty because I knew what was required and I did nothing when I had the chance to do something.

 

It’s time, long past the hour, that the Australian Government takes the world’s most qualified scientists seriously. Burying our heads in the sand is not going to get us anywhere.

 

I spoke earlier about Australians knowing that someone was in their corner.

 

For me, that means empowering people to have control over their own lives.

 

It’s a principle I worked on when I helped work on the development of the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

 

And it’s why I have an open mind about fast-tracking tax cuts for small and medium enterprises whose turnover goes up to $50 million.

 

We need to see the detail, we need to know where the money is coming from. But we recognise there’s some economic value in that proposition and also that the nation is over the two major parties simply saying no to each other because it was someone else's proposition.

 

But what I also say tonight is that no-one should imagine that a tax cut for small business is any kind of substitute for a fair-dinkum wages policy.

 

There is no way to tell any company receiving a tax cut, they must pass that on in increased wages and fair wages and decent jobs are fundamental to Labor’s vision for the future of Australia.

 

If I’m elected Prime Minister, I want Australians to have a sense of stability and security at work, not living their lives endlessly checking the phone each night as many Australians will do as we sit here, to check if they have a text message letting them know if they’ve got a shift of work the next day.

 

I want to make sure people aren’t stuck in the purgatory of permanent casualisation, with all the hours and commitment to a full-time job but none of the conditions.

 

I want people in this country to be able to plan for the long-term, to be able to take out a home loan, a car loan, to start a family, a relationship, to have confidence that their future can’t be just snatched or altered in a moment.

 

I acknowledge that I want Australians to have the ability to be represented by a union if they choose – and for that union to have the ability to negotiate and bargain for greater productivity and better pay, on an equal footing.

 

I want Australians who choose to work on Sundays or public holidays to be fairly compensated for their sacrifice.

 

I want Australians who work on the same site, doing the same job at the same classification, to receive the same pay and conditions as their colleagues – not be cheated out of the same pay by the complex manipulation of labour hire arrangements.

 

And everything we do in industrial relations, I want our focus to be on equality for the women of Australia: equal treatment at work and equal pay.

 

A huge factor in the current gender pay gap is the way Australia deals with so-called feminised industries, sectors of the economy that employ a substantial majority of women workers, for example:

Politicians on all sides throw a lot of compliments at these Australians and the important work they do, as we should. But thanks and praise, as these workers will tell you, doesn't pay the bills or put food on the table.

 

If we’re are fair dinkum about closing the gender pay gap, if we’re to fill  the shortages in these sectors as demand for all three of these jobs explodes in coming years, then we need a fair-dinkum national debate about equal pay for work of equal value.

 

Again - just as with education - equality for women, the equal treatment of women isn’t just a matter of fairness, it’s not just a question of principle - it’s smart economics.

 

It's an investment in economic growth and prosperity.

 

If we do nothing else in the future of this country but ensure that women were treated equally to men, this country would be the most prosperous on the planet.

 

This investment in economic growth, through the mechanism of the fair go for all, it's true for everything we seek to achieve:

These aren’t luxuries it would be ‘nice’ for Australia to have, these aren’t things you think about once you hit a certain record for corporate profits. 

 

These are nothing less than the foundation stones of a strong economy, for our future prosperity.

 

This country works best when we work together. This country works best when every Australian has the opportunity to contribute to the national story.

 

At the next election we will submit our program to the judgement of the Australian people, as an antidote to years of selfishness and short-term thinking.

 

We present our policies as a substantial, long-term vision for a stronger Australia, a fairer Australia.

 

A plan to invest in people which is good economics.

 

A plan that says the fair go for all is an efficient distributor of opportunity in this country.

 

It's a plan to deliver a better deal to the next generation.

 

It's a plan to deliver a fair go, for all Australians - our oldest national promise.

 

Thank you very much.