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Shorten's Address To Federal Labor Caucus
Shorten's Address To Federal Labor Caucus
Shorten's Address To Federal Labor Caucus
Government has no-one else to blame for a budget which has placed the burden of
change, restraint, concession upon those who cannot afford it.
It is the Liberals, not just Tony Abbott, it is the Liberals, all of them voting gleefully
in the cabinet, it is the Liberals who voted for 100,000 degrees, the cutting of the
pensions, the tax on the sick, the GP Tax, punishing the unemployed. They are a
most dishonest group. They are responsible for looking backwards, continuing the
romance with the Australia of the 1950s. This is not a 21st century government.
They have no plan for our future. It is purely the past.
In 2015 I feel confident looking at all of you that we will be a strong opposition to a
bad government and its bad decisions. And my message on your behalf to the
Liberals will be simple - it doesn't matter who you choose, it doesn't matter who we
are up against, we know who they are and what they are and we will defeat them.
And if they want to do something good for the Australian people, it is time to drop
their unfair Budget in its entirety.
And let us talk about a group of people who never get talked about by this
Government. We would say here very clearly that we will fight to the last drop of our
breath the brutal attack on the poor in Australia. We will put social justice back up
the political priority. And there's another group of people who never get mentioned
anymore by the Liberals, it's the great Australian middle class. They are being
marginalised and pushed to the side. And why do I say that? Because this
Government wants to attack the minimum wage which is the underpinning of the
middle class.
They want to attack Medicare which allows parents to be able to get healthcare for
their children or their grandparents. They want to discourage the dream of the
middle class that whatever your background and whatever your post code, town or
country, whatever the occupation of your parents, the dream that you can go to
university or get a good TAFE education, and we will not let them wreck this.
The Government now cry out what would the Opposition do. Well, we'll tell you what
we will do. We stand for a strong national savings system in this country. We stand
for raising superannuation, not cutting superannuation. We do not believe the tax
concessions in superannuation should just be landed at the top half per cent of
Australian savers. We also believe in a modern Australia. We believe in climate
change, and unlike the great pretender of Wentworth, we will not sell out our
convictions just to run the Liberal Party.
We believe in our role in Asia. You won't see Labor leaders going to Buckingham
Palace to be part of the knighthood of Prince Philip. We would rather be in Beijing
and Myanmar. We would rather be working through the greatest economic story of
hundreds of years, the rise of Asia. We are capable of a nuanced foreign policy
which understands where our future is, not just hankering to the past. And we
should have the discussion about being a Republic. I believe Australians are ready
for a discussion about an Australian head of State. If we want to be an independent
nation with the blood energy running through our veins, our national veins, of a
future which is exciting, it may well be time that we stop borrowing the monarch of
another country and we are proud of who we are. And we will defend the ABC and
SBS. And unlike Sir Brave Heart Andrew Laming, today hell cancel the knights and
dames, tomorrow its not such a bad idea. We would just abolish knights and dames.
Returning to what I think is the story of 2015 and Labor, we say to the Government
just because you are at your weakest we will not join you there. We will never
reduce ourselves to your level. We will offer Australia more than a list of your lies,
more than a catalogue of your deceit. We will make sure that Australians and
Australia living through one of the great transitions in Australian economic history,
from mining to our cities, from the west to the east internationally, we will offer a
positive plan. We will have a plan to boost our national investment and to boost our
national savings. We will make sure that we have plans to end the delays and
infrastructure and encourage greater investment. We will have a plan for an
Australia that we perceive can be smart, modern and fair.
We say to the Government enough is enough, stop your infighting, enough of your
infighting, enough of your mutiny. Stop worrying about who's in the Prime Ministers
job or the Treasurer's job and start worrying about Australian jobs. I know this
caucus well. I know what animates the passions. I know what drives you all to be
here in this place. What I understand about all of you is that we know that when the
Government is at its weakest, we must be braver, we must be bolder. The Australia
that we love needs us. We will not only endure this next term of government, we
will prevail. Thank you very much.