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Bill Shorten makes pitch to be next prime minister at Labor national conference – live Bill Shorten begins speech at Labor national conference as anti-Adani protesters removed by security – live
(35 minutes later)
Wayne Swan says that Labor is the oldest political party in the country and respects the right of different opinions and protest, but that doesn’t include the right to drown out the leader of the Opposition. On health:
He asks for security to remove them. We are a rich nation, we are a smart nation.
They sit with their arms crossed. Security begins to drag them off the state. And if you’re fighting breast cancer, or melanoma, or your child is badly ill.
“Off, off, off,” chants the crowd. If you’re living with chronic pain from bad knees or a crook hip, if you’ve got cataracts you need removed to get your quality of life back.
Bill Shorten says he can wait a few more minutes. There’s one thing that should matter.
“Come on Bill,” comes the shouts from the audience. Not your wealth. Not your postcode. Not your ability to pay a bit extra.
They are eventually removed, chanting to ‘Stop Adani’ as they leave the room. One thing. A Gough Whitlam vision that Bob Hawke made reality.
Shorten’s speech to the conference opens with Stop Adani protestors being carried off the stage #auspol A Labor promise, written in green and gold: your Medicare card.
Stop Adani is back on the stage. That’s why we are going to end the Liberals’ Medicare freeze
“Please stop Adani,” he says, mentioning Queensland’s natural disasters. Bill Shorten let’s him speak and asks to keep the flag. That is why we ill put back the money they have cut from hospitals and that is why we will fund more beds, more staff and more equipment.
Wayne Swan asks for him to leave the stage, but he is joined by more, who stand with a banner and then sit with arms crossed. When we invest Australian taxpayer dollars:We’ll maximise local content, like Australian standard-steel
A Stop Adani protester looks like they attempted to get up on stage, but was very quickly removed. We’ll make sure the regional towns – like Cairns and Townsville, the Central Coast and Northern Tassie - get their fair share of contracts, jobs and opportunities
At least that is what it looked like, from way up here in the back. And we’ll make a concrete rule: 1 in 10 people employed on site will be an Australian apprentice.
“Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the next prime minister of Australia, Bill Shorten”. Building more affordable housing is infrastructure policy. It is cities policy.
There is a standing ovation. It is jobs and productivity policy. And it is a fair dinkum population policy.
And he walks in to Labor’s campaign music. On housing:
There is a lot of hero music in this video. Like, Marvel levels of hero music. Today I am proud to announce that, if elected, a Labor Government will build 250,000 new affordable homes.
“He’s a loving husband, he’s a daggy dad, he’s a frustrated Collingwood fan and his kids tell me he’s a pretty average cook,” Tanya Plibersek says, before a video plays of a speech Scott Morrison made about what Australian’s want, while showing images of climate change, house prices and inequality. 250,000 new homes:
Plibersek is introducing Bill Shorten. She says she will take a “union leader over a failed advertising executive any day of the week”. For low income working families.
Tanya Plibersek is now up. She tells the 400 or so delegates and 1,000 observers about Labor’s wins around the nation, in both byelections and state elections. For key workers like nurses, police, carers and teachers.
Ged Kearney gets a cheer when she is shown in the video of the “hell of a year” Labor has had. And for the fastest-growing group of Australians at risk of homelessness – women over 55.
Kathrine Murphy has covered off the first announcement from conference: 250,000 new homes:
Bill Shorten will use his opening address to Labor’s national conference to unveil new subsidies to promote more affordable housing at a cost of $6.6bn over a decade. Universal design - fully accessible for all ages and for people with disability More energy efficient, meaning lower power bills
Shorten will use the opportunity of his opening pitch to the delegates and onlookers gathered in Adelaide for the three-day event to commit to a target of 20,000 houses built in the first term of a Labor government. And with a rental discount of 20 per cent.
The policy, to be unveiled on Sunday, would offer 15-year subsidies of $8,500 per year to investors who build new houses, with the taxpayer support conditional on the dwellings being rented to eligible tenants at 20% below market rent. Our plan will mean a family paying the national rental average would save up to $92 a week, every week.
On why Scott Morrison did not consult with Labor over the next governor general, given that 2019, when Hurley will step into the role, was an election year, Morrison says: We will work with the states and territories, local councils and community housing providers to manage development and congestion
This is a recommendation that is made by the prime minister, like all the appointments that are made by a government. ….and to make sure these homes are built where they are needed most and go to the people who need them most, not foreign investors or international students.
We had an election in 2016 and during the term of this parliament, the prime minister was to be making a recommendation to Her Majesty. That is the job of the government. And I want to see industry super stepping up and investing in affordable housing projects, investing in homes for the people of this country.
I mean the Labor party may think they are the government at the moment – and they be carrying like they think they have already won an election – but that has not occurred and I am assure them, they have got a fight on their hands. This will be the biggest national housing program since the War.
Wayne Swan introduces the South Australian opposition leader, Peter Malinauskas, stumbling a little over the surname. The room laughs. And we can pay for this $6.6 billion investment in jobs and housing and productivity because we’ve made the big reform decisions.
Malinauskas says he is excited about being on the precipice of having four South Australians in the federal cabinet – Penny Wong, Mark Butler, Don Farrell and Amanda Rishworth. On the NDIS:
He says South Australia has produced a lot of people who “every time they speak, they win Labor votes” and, for that, he thanks Christopher Pyne. The current system is over-engineered, over-complicated and over-populated with consultants and corporates who have no lived experience in disability.
“Delegates, this is our moment and the aim of our conference is to win the battle of ideas,” Wayne Swan says. “Our job is to show that we are the party of the people, for the people and by the people, not the party of, for and by the big end of town.” There are too many layers, too many delays and too many people with genuine need who are made to feel like frauds and cheats by assessors.
Back to Swanny, he describes Scott Morrison as “a grinning fool in a baseball cap who thinks the G20 is a good place to talk about sausages”. One Dad was asked: “How long has your daughter had Downs Syndrome?” Can you imagine that?
“Who would have thought they could find someone who could make Billy McMahon look good?” Labor created the NDIS to empower people with disability, to put them in control of their lives.
He says Labor is the only party that “reflects modern Australia” but there is “political chaos everywhere you look”. And Labor will restore the NDIS to its proper status – and put people with disability back at the centre of decision-making.
“That chaos has many causes but at the bottom of this instability and chaos lies this cause – inequality”. On pay equality:
“People feel their political parties have simply stopped listening,” he says. No more pay discounts just because you’re a woman – that’s Labor’s promise. We will strive for pay equity for feminised industries, including: aged care workers early educators and paid carers - the Australians we are counting on to deliver the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
He says that is because mainstream parties have failed to address the failings of trickle down economics. But that Labor was addressing that. On workers and wages
David Hurley won’t take up the post until June next year – after the election. In our first 100 days, we are going to restore Sunday and public holiday penalty rates for 700,000 people who’ve had them cut. We are going to make bargaining work again, so employees and employers can negotiate without the unfair threat of unilateral termination.
Asked why he was announcing it today, given that it is not an issue for another six months, Scott Morrison says: We are going to crack down on the use and abuse of labour hire casuals: because if you wear the same uniform, in the same workplace, perform the same tasks at the same classification, then you deserve the same wages and conditions. Under Labor, if you do same job, you get the same pay.
It needed to be done to provide certainty about the role going into next year. We are going to stop sham contracting and introduce a new, stronger test for the definition of casual employment.Because you shouldn’t be classed as a ‘casual’ for years just because your boss doesn’t want you to get holiday pay.
Next year is an election year and it is very important that I think this appointment be seen well outside the context of any electoral issues. We will create a Just Transition Authority, so workers and communities get help adapting to industrial change.
The current Governor-General’s term nominally expires into the end of March, so this is a decision that I was advised coming into the role as Prime Minister that would need to be taken. And friends, today I am proud to announce, we are going to make superannuation part of the National Employment Standards.
It wasn’t my first order of issues the deal with, as I said at the time, but it was one that I knew I would have tow resolve and make a recommendation to the palace before the end of the year, which I have now done” The retirement savings of Australian workers are a workplace right.
He is officially the president. They deserve the same strong protections as any other workplace right.
“This is the national conference, our opponents didn’t want,” he says. And bosses who rip-off their staff and steal their super should receive the same punishments and penalties as those who violate any other workplace right.”
“...Let’s win the battle of ideas.” He says Labor will review the Newstart payment, but does not mention whether Labor will commit to increasing it.
David Hurley said he was surprised to be offered the role, as he approached the end of his term as New South Wales governor: The Galilee Blockade have issued a statement on this morning’s protest:
We know, though, that if I was to retire, the most significant part of our current role that we would miss would be the opportunity to visit and meet the multitude of extraordinary Australians in our community. Two #StopAdani citizen activists disrupted Bill Shorten of the first morning of the ALP National Conference, appealing for him to show climate leadership and Stop Adani.
I have certainly confirmed in my own mind over the past four years, something that I had sensed about Australia, but really hadn’t had the opportunity before to witness on a day-to-day basis – that Australia is a very rich country in a non-material sense. Donna Smit, 49, holding the #StopAdani banner behind Bill Shorten on entry, said:
Australians have an amazing and, indeed, an enormous capacity to contribute their time, their energy, their time, their efforts and indeed their money to assist others I look forward to continuing to be involved with them in these pursuits. “I disrupted Bill Shorten because he refuses to pay attention to our climate emergency. Coal is fuelling climate change, resulting in deadly heat waves, bushfires, droughts and storms. We need Labor to take lead on climate change by committing to stop Adani’s coal mine now.”
As the prime minister mentioned you can’t do these jobs without someone standing by your side. “Adani are determined to dig their coal mine but we’re more determined to stop it, before the Federal election. Thousands of passionate people will be at every community event and press conference, making this the climate election that finally stops Adani’s disastrous mine.
Linda has had such a unique manner the role in the last four years and I look forward for the two of us fulfilling the responsibilities of governor general together. Isaac Astill, 25, who talked to Bill Shorten on stage and handed him a #StopAdani banner, said:
My commitment to the people of Australia is that we will fulfil our responsibilities in the same full-hearted manner that I have worked in New South Wales or we have worked in New South Wales over the past four years, including supporting, encouraging them in community endeavours, recognising achievements and promoting those achievements at home and abroad. “80% of Labor supporters believe new coal mines are no longer in the national interest. Yet Bill Shorten and the Labor Party still support Adani’s mine, opening up one of the largest untapped coal reserves on Earth.”
I will be enormously proud to represent Australia in the role of governor general. “Bill Shorten wants to be our next Prime Minister. Australians are looking for political leaders who will stand up to the mining billionaires who are keeping our economy in the dark ages and putting our future at risk.”
For those asking, we are told that the opposition was not consulted over the choice of the next governor general. On Tafe:
An announcement has been made about the Governor-General of Australia. Read in full here: https://t.co/qvRvk1Gc3a pic.twitter.com/V2JasgUXDd In the next four years, nine out of every ten new jobs will need either a university degree of a TAFE qualification. And I want ten out of every ten young Australians to be prepared for that economy and those new jobs. So Labor will uncap university places, meaning that in the next decade, another 200,000 kids from the regions and the suburbs can become the first in their family to get a degree. This is what Labor governments do. ‘We open the doors of higher education to everyone who studies hard and chases their dream. And friends, I am proud to declare that when it comes to vocational education, Labor is backing public TAFE all the way. In our first year in government, we are going to launch a great national program of renovating, upgrading and modernising TAFE campuses - starting in regional centres and the outer suburbs.
...In our first three years, a Labor Government will eliminate the upfront fees for 100,000 TAFE places in high priority courses. That’s Labor’s promise. And we will come down like a ton of bricks on companies using and abusing 457-style work visas, merely to avoid employing local workers and paying fair wages. Because no skills shortage should last one day longer than it takes to train an Australian.
On primary education:
I’m the son of a great teacher, I’m a parent to three wonderful children. And if I’m elected Prime Minister, I want every Australian child to get a great education at a great school. No matter what their parents earn, no matter where they live.Every school should teach the basics well: reading, writing, science, maths and coding. Every child should have the chance to try art and sport and music and drama and camps. Every child should get the individual attention they need to flourish. And every child should be free to be themselves, safe from bullying and discrimination – in the playground and online. A Labor Government will put in the money and resources and teacher training to make this a reality. No ifs, no buts. Nothing on the cheap. Blaming the teachers, no culture wars, no obsessing over the number of times Captain Cook is mentioned in the curriculum. Just a quality education, for every Australian child - that’s Labor’s promise.
On education:
Under a Labor Government, every Australian child will have access to two years of pre-school or kindergarten. 15 hours a week, 40 weeks a year, for every three year old and four year old in this country. All the experts tell us that 90 per cent of a child’s brain develops before the age of 5. And everywhere from the UK, France and Norway to China, South Korea and New Zealand, universal preschool for 3 year olds is the norm.
That includes a pay boost for child care teachers.
Bill Shorten:
...In a very real sense - our opponents at the next election are not just the Liberals and the Nationals, One Nation or the Greens.Our opponents are distrust and disengagement, scepticism and cynicism. And our Labor mission is not just to win-back government, it is to rebuild trust in our democracy, to restore meaning to the fair go.Around the nation, we must breathe new life into an idea that we gathered here in this hall hold as an article of faith……the idea that government has the power to bring meaningful progress into people’s lives. This is why we are committed to a real National Integrity Commission, with proper powers, to rebuild trust in our public institutions. And it’s why we have rejected a small-target strategy and built a bold and detailed policy agenda. A program for the next decade, not just the next election. A Labor vision for the 2030s. A plan to hand on a better deal to our kids - beginning with a once-in-a-generation reform to early education.
Some of the policy announcements from Shorten’s speech:
Closing the gap:
Let us pledge to take the Statement from the Heart into our hearts. If I’m elected prime minister, in my first week, I’ll sit down with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders. To talk about Closing the Gap, in genuine partnership. To talk about truth-telling and treaties. And to talk about Labor’s first priority for constitutional change: a Voice for First Nations people.
On gender equality:
Let us remember, at our last conference, we set a target of 50% women in our federal parliamentary party, by 2025. And, here in South Australia, the first state in the nation to give women the vote, the first place in the world where women could run for parliament. I am proud to say if we win the next election, our Labor government will be the first in Australian history with 50% women.
The economy:
Our Labor mission begins with building an economy that works in the interests of everyone. A strong economy with a skilled workforce, where businesses have the confidence and the incentive to invest and grow and employ. Including a 25% tax rate for 99 per cent of all businesses. A fair economy where middle class and working class people get their rightful share of the national wealth.
Australians who drive hours every day, to insecure work in three different jobs – earning less than they deserve, being paid less than they’re owed and yet paying more tax than a multinational company.
Families loading-up the credit card at the end of every fortnight to pay the bills. People being ripped off by power companies, private health insurers, payday lenders, dodgy bosses and the big banks.And people being let down and ignored by their government. Teenagers who can’t find an apprenticeship, mature-age workers who can’t get a look-in. Farmers and rural communities battling drought - but buried in paperwork. Small businesses burdened with a second-rate NBN.
Pensioners and veterans treated like second-class citizens, made to wait months for a modest entitlement you’ve paid taxes for your whole life. Yet this government can find half-a-billion dollars in half-an hour for well connected private foundations. Schoolkids who can’t understand why it’s so hard for the so-called adults in government to recognise that climate change is real and to do something about it. People financially ruined by the cost of cancer treatment, or who can’t find aged care for a parent diagnosed with dementia. These are Australians on the wrong side of inequality, cut-off from the fair go, isolated from the promise of our nation. And for them, politics is just another part of the problem – unhelpful, irrelevant, out-of-touch.
.@billshortenmp: With the Liberals languishing in their sixth year in govt, onto their third PM, people are looking to Labor like never before. They are looking to Labor for unity. Looking to Labor for stability.MORE: https://t.co/QHo2hW3tyZ pic.twitter.com/6NvI1YyrA3
Bill Shorten says the “deeper opponents” of the Labor party are distrust and disengagement, and it is the job of Labor not just to win the next election but restore faith in Australia’s democracy.
Shorten says constitutional recognition/voice to parliament is his "first priority for constitutional change"...so republic is down the list then. #auspol #alpconf18
I’m working on getting you a copy of the whole speech, and when I do, I’ll post it all here.
The first “shame” from the floor comes in reference to multinationals avoiding paying tax.
Anyone who wants to follow along with the speech, can do so here:
I am addressing the 48th ALP National conference. You can watch it live on Facebook or follow below. Labor is united, we are determined, and we are ready to govern.https://t.co/VxatyO5OgM