Andrew Leigh

I appeared on ABC Lateline with host Emma Alberici and Liberal frontbencher Christopher Pyne to discuss the Coalition's hide-and-seek game with their policies, how their announced policies will disproportionately benefit the top 1%, naval bases and Labor's plan to invest in productivity through infrastructure and education.



A transcript (thanks to Lateline) is over the fold.

Transcript

EMMA ALBERICI, PRESENTER: Back to the election campaign and our Friday Forum. Joining me from Canberra is Labor MP Andrew Leigh, Opposition spokesman for education Christopher Pyne is in our Adelaide studio.

Welcome to you both, gentlemen.

ANDREW LEIGH, LABOR MP: G'day Emma.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE, OPPN EDUCATION SPOKESMAN: Good evening Emma, good evening Andrew.

EMMA ALBERICI: Andrew Leigh, let me start with you. You're an economist by background. Shouldn't you have known better than to be releasing Parliamentary Budget Office advice you knew to be out-dated and not an accurate reflection of current Coalition intentions?

ANDREW LEIGH: Well, Emma, all costings are based on assumptions behind them. You can change those assumptions and you get different costing results. What I used in having one of the Opposition policies costed - a policy that would do tremendous damage to my own electors - was what I thought was the most reasonable set of assumptions based on what was out there in the public domain.

Now of course you can make the results differ if you use unreasonable assumptions, for example, it now looks as though in the case of raising superannuation taxes on low-income workers, the Coalition want to, rather than using the reasonable assumption that that starts on the first of July next year, make the much more unreasonable assumption that it's retrospective. But if they're using these unreasonable assumptions then we need to see the detail.

If you go to the Parliamentary Budget Office website you'll see requests for 46 Labor costings, you'll see a bunch of Greens costings there, you'll see no Liberal party costings.

It's almost as though what the Coalition are doing in this campaign is trying to make the Greens party look respectable in terms of their economic management and their willingness to stand up to public scrutiny.

EMMA ALBERICI: Christopher Pyne, reasonable, these costing analyses by Labor? Of your policies?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, Emma, what we've seen and no amount of trying to gild the Lily by Andrew Leigh will detract from the fact that what we've seen is Labor tried to get away with one lie too many in this election campaign by claiming yesterday a $10 billion black hole in the Coalition's savings measures that were announced on Wednesday.

And tried to cloak that lie in the clothes of the department of finance, Treasury and the Parliamentary Budget Office and in the most unprecedented action that I've ever seen in eight elections that I've been running for Sturt, the heads of the Treasury, Finance and the Parliamentary Budget Office specifically repudiated and humiliated the Prime Minister and said that they would not be used for base political reasons with one of Labor's scare campaigns and lies in this campaign.

And all day today Labor's been trying to create a smokescreen about how this is something to do with the Coalition's costings. This issue is about the credibility of a Prime Minister who has lied and scared the electorate for the last four weeks. It's about credibility, it's about trust. That is the only issue that we're discussing in terms of this complete fiasco in which Kevin Rudd now has egg on both his faces.

EMMA ALBERICI: Andrew Leigh, first Kevin Rudd continued to repeat the $70 billion figure when it's been fact-checked exhaustively and found to be comprehensively wrong. Now this so-called $10 billion black hole has been entirely discounted by three of the country's most senior members of the public service. This does present a credibility problem for Labor, doesn't it?

ANDREW LEIGH: I disagree with that statement, Emma. What the heads of Treasury and Finance have said is no more and no less than the exercise of costings depends on its assumptions.

EMMA ALBERICI: No, they actually did say it was in appropriate for the Government to have claimed that the Parliamentary Budget Office had costed the policy of any other political party.

ANDREW LEIGH: Well, certainly what we have done is done our best attempt at letting the Australian people know what the Coalition's policies will cost.

EMMA ALBERICI: But it wasn't what you purported it to be, you'd have to admit.

ANDREW LEIGH: We have used the best information that's out there and the most reasonable assumptions to have a go at working out what the Coalition's policies will cost. If they're making unreasonable assumptions, if they're thinking about retrospective taxation, if they're thinking about getting into firing public servants within weeks, then they need to come clear and say that, Emma.

I don't want to be having this costing debate. I would rather be discussing the kind of future that Christopher and I want to build for our kids. This is an anodyne debate, not one we should be having but we're forced into this position because the Coalition has a massive black hole.

Whether it's the $30 billion that Saul Eslake says or the $70 billion Andrew Robb and Joe Hockey were saying...

EMMA ALBERICI: That was quite some time ago and as I just pointed out, it's been exhaustively fact-checked.

Mr Pyne, Joe Hockey has said publicly that the Coalition has 200 policies fully costed. If that's the case, why won't you reveal that information to the public? Already we know half a million Australians have already cast their votes and they weren't privy to information that would have helped them make that very critical decision.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: It's a perfectly fair question, Emma. The truth is that by mid next week, all of our policies will have been released. Now, as you would know in every election campaign there are upwards of over 200 policies released and we have over the last four weeks, with our policies, released savings measures and on Wednesday brought that together at the National Press Club and Joe Hockey released $31 billion worth of savings, but by mid to late next week of course all our policies will have been published...

EMMA ALBERICI: Excuse me for interrupting but when you say "mid to late next week", is it going to be Wednesday, Thursday or Friday?

EMMA ALBERICI: Tony Abbott said today that by mid next week you could expect all of the Coalition's policies to be announced and therefore you could get a Budget bottom line.

EMMA ALBERICI: Can you tell us which day?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: No, of course I can't tell you which day because I'm not privy to that particular piece of information but I can tell you that all the policies will be released by mid next week and you can then expect a Budget bottom line.

But we won't do what Labor did in 2007 under Kevin Rudd and 2010 under Julia Gillard and that is release our entire costings document at 5pm the night before the election.

And honestly, with Kevin Rudd having hit the wall so badly today over this humiliating issue to do with the there are $10 billion, I'm starting to wonder whether the Labor party wished they'd kept Julia Gillard as the Prime Minister.

They might have actually had a better run in the election rather than the faintly hysterical Kevin Rudd that we witnessed today at his press conference in Perth where even one of the people the fainted after having to leave his press conference because it was so hysterical and long-winded and faintly boring.

EMMA ALBERICI: Andrew Leigh, I'll give you a chance to respond.

ANDREW LEIGH: This isn't a game. We're not playing hide the costing. This isn't a pea and thimble trick in which the Labor Party says, "We've done our best to cost your policy based on reasonable assumptions," and you say, "Ah ha. No, we've made other assumptions. We won't tell you what the assumptions are but we come up to a different answer."

That is a crazy game do be engaging in and what it means is that ultimately there are cuts being hidden from the Australian people. We know the Coalition has a set of policies which are disproportionately going to advantage the top one per cent.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: You don't really believe this rubbish!

ANDREW LEIGH: Absolutely, Christopher. Let me talk you through some of the rubbish you're proposing.

You're proposing to give the private health insurance rebate back to millionaires and billionaires to pay them $75,000 when they have a child and to get rid of the mining tax and you're paying for that by raising the superannuation taxes on low-income workers, by taking away the school kids bonus from kids in their first day of school and by potentially driving the country into a downturn as we've seen in the UK and in Queensland when you cut too hard you cost jobs.

So you're going to benefit the top one per cent with your policies but the bottom 99 per cent are going to pay for it. It would just be nice if you were clear with the Australian people about exactly how it's going to add up.

EMMA ALBERICI: Christopher Pyne...

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: I think it's sad Andrew, honestly I think it's sad that you genuinely - if you genuinely believe that complete tripe you're spouting on national television, I think it's particularly sad and you really need to get out in the real world and actually read what's going on in the real world rather than tell bald-faced lies on national television about somebody else's policies.

ANDREW LEIGH: Which of those was a lie, Christopher? Where did I mischaracterise one of your policies? The top one per cent have done very well over the last 30 years. Their income share has doubled. They don't need $75,000 to have a baby. We don't need to restore the private health insurance rebate to billionaires and we certainly don't need a huge tax cut for Gina Rinehart and Clive Palmer paid for by taking my money from kids on their first day of school.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: You've been caught red-handed lying about the Coalition's costings in the last two days and you're still doing it. If you wanted to be honest you'd remind the audience that 1.7 per cent of women in the workforce earn more than $100,000 a year so in fact 98 per cent of women earn less than $100,000 a year in the workforce and as a consequence, they are the biggest winners from a paid parental leave scheme that treats them like adults and says if you're on holiday you should be paid your full wage, if you're on long service leave you get your full wage and if you go and have a baby you'll get your full wage for 26 weeks so that you can spend that time nurturing your child and knowing you can still pay your bills.

It is remarkable to me that Labor is opposed to one of the most significant social and economic reforms that has been proposed in this country. I actually think you would like to propose it yourself but now embarrassed that the Coalition's proposed it, have to diss it when your heart's not really in it.

EMMA ALBERICI: Christopher Pyne, I'm interested to know your view on The Economist magazine's editorial coming up this weekend. They're barracking for Kevin Rudd in this election. How big a blow is that for the Coalition?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: It's not a blow at all. In a free country, in a democracy like ours, newspaper editorials or magazine editorials can plumb for which ever political party they want and if The Economist wants to support Kevin Rudd, well, good luck to them.

ANDREW LEIGH: The Economist certainly noted the use of market-based mechanism to deal with carbon pollution and quickly poo-pooed Direct Action and, as you'd expect from a magazine with that title...

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Obviously the Economist doesn't care about people lying before elections.

ANDREW LEIGH: They noted the benefits to Australia of the rapid fiscal stimulus which saw us avoid recession. The alternative to that fiscal stimulus would have been the kind of sluggish growth that we've seen elsewhere in the world. That's what we would have got if we had a Coalition Government in place when the global downturn hit.

So it's appropriate that The Economist magazine recognises our strong economic policies and of course it would be remiss of me not to mention that internationally it's been Labor Treasurers who've gotten the Euro Money magazine award for world's best Finance Minister.

EMMA ALBERICI: Andrew Leigh...

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well I'm sure that the average voter in Australia is really sitting there in their lounge room tonight thinking how important it is that the Euro Money magazine gives awards to Australian treasurers or the view of the Economist.

EMMA ALBERICI: I know you'd like to talk amongst yourselves but I would like to get a couple of questions in here.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Of course Emma.

EMMA ALBERICI: Andrew Leigh, a number of announcements from Labor this week did seem like policy on the run at a time when Defence spending is being cut, tell us how does it make sense to spend six billion dollars on moving the Garden Island naval base from Sydney to Brisbane? How is that a priority given the current state of the Budget?

ANDREW LEIGH: Emma, we know Garden Island faces some challenges and there's - in terms of our strategic posture, the Government's view is that it makes sense to have a look at options based out of Queensland.

EMMA ALBERICI: But the Defence White Paper in May thought it was too expensive. What's changed?

ANDREW LEIGH: We're certainly looking at various options here and recognising that Australia's Defence posture always has to be adjusting. There's going to be a variety of views on these sorts of issues but exactly where we structure our naval bases is absolutely vital.

I think if you look at the strategic situation for Australia, our naval forces are probably the most important part of our military posture and so having them located in the right bases is really vital. We want to be able to help out in the region. We've been doing a good deal of stabilising operations in places like the Solomon Islands and then we also want to have the capacity to respond to international challenges. For those reasons, the Government thinks that these - the basing out of Queensland makes some sense.

EMMA ALBERICI: Christopher Pyne, this seems to have come as a surprise to the Liberal Premier, Barry O'Farrell?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Absolutely, Emma. If we just review the week very quickly, we've had five lovely Kevin Rudd slightly hysterical thought bubbles.

On Monday he announced $115 billion for a very fast train.

On Tuesday he announced he was moving Garden Island from Sydney to Brisbane without consultation with anybody.

On Wednesday he announced a crack down on foreign investment which his Minister for Agriculture said he hasn't discussed with anyone at all.

On Thursday he said he was bringing forward two naval supply vessels two years with non-existent billions of dollars.

And on Friday he was repudiated by the department of Treasury, the department of finance and Parliamentary Budget Office for telling bald-faced lies about had Coalition's costings.

So Kevin Rudd has not had a very good week and the Garden Island one was a real doozy. That's on top of the Northern Territory company tax cut to 20 cents in the dollar which was, again, not discussed with anyone so when he came back to Prime Ministership, Kevin Rudd said he was a new Kevin Rudd, he was going to be consultative and have Cabinet government and all we've seen is the old Kevin Rudd treating people poorly, whether it's the make-up artist Lily Fontana or the hostess on the VIP jets, announcing policies on the run, thought bubbles, no consultation, all money pushed out past the forward estimates.

Frankly, the Australian public are sick of it. They want adults running the Government and have their chance next Saturday to make that choice.

EMMA ALBERICI: Andrew Leigh?

ANDREW LEIGH: Certainly the two parties will be presenting very different visions to Australia on seventh September. The Coalition are clearly planning savage austerity. We know from estimates that John Quiggen has done that for every $10 billion they take out of the economy, the unemployment rate is going to rise half a per cent and we know the impact that that sort of a slump would have on the jobs and the life prospects of Australians leaving school.

Our view is that with an economy moving out of the mining investment boom, it's appropriate to invest in schools, to fund the Better Schools package for six years not four years and demand states don't withdraw money from schools. To continue investing in universities and of course to build the national broadband network.

Mr Abbott talks about being an infrastructure Prime Minister but it's Labor willing to spend on rail, it's Labor willing to take fibre to the home. Done lot of door-knocking and I'm yet to find anyone on my door-knocks who would prefer the fibre stopped in the cable down the street rather than coming all the way to their home.

Australians want the 21st century investments and want to be sure those trades training centres are going to stay in our schools. They want to be sure we're going to expand university places as the demand goes up and that we're going to continue to invest in the underpinnings of prosperity not simply regard productivity as being a case of cutting back wages and conditions and going back to the old WorkChoices model. That's not the solution for building prosperity in the 21st century. Productivity is about skills, education and infrastructure and that's what Labor will deliver.

EMMA ALBERICI: We're running out of time.

Christopher Pyne, notwithstanding a major mishap by Tony Abbott this last week of the campaign, it looks like he will be the Prime Minister in just a little over a week's time. Apart from getting rid of the carbon tax and the mining tax, tell us how will Australians notice a difference in your first 100 days in Government? What will be the most telling change?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, Emma, of course we will abolish the mining tax and the carbon tax which will help reduce electricity prices and secure people's jobs. We'll immediately move to genuinely protect our borders and stop the people smugglers from filling our humanitarian intake of refugees by bringing back temporary protection visas, turning back the boats where it's safe to do so and having rigorous off-shore processing.

EMMA ALBERICI: I guess I'm asking you how it will feel different for Australians in the first 100 days rather than these things which might not necessarily reap rewards for you in the first 100 days.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: I think it will feel different because people are sick to death of watching the television news and seeing unauthorised boats arriving, captained by people smugglers and losing control of our borders. You might dismiss that as not very important but I actually think out in the electorate, talking to people, they want their electricity prices down, they want to get rid of the carbon tax, they want their jobs to be secured, they want to have some faith in the economic management of the country and after the debacle of the last 24 hours, with the Prime Minister verballing the departments of finance, Treasury and the PBO, I think that's the last straw and they do want our borders to be protected. You might not think that is a big change but for most mums and dads who are trying to pay their mortgages and pay their bills, just knowing they can do that and that our borders will be protected will be a very big change.

EMMA ALBERICI: Thank you both, gentlemen, for coming in this evening.

ANDREW LEIGH: Thanks Emma.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: It's a great pleasure.

On 29 August, Andrew Leigh MP appeared on Sky PM Agenda with host David Speers and Liberal MP Josh Frydenberg. Topics included the Coalition's secrecy over releasing costings, and the situation in Syria.

Today in my electoral office I was delighted to meet local beneficiaries of the Creative Young Stars program. With financial support gained, Year 11 student Gabrielle Carter is heading to Glasgow to compete in an international ballet competition. Alison Plevey travels to dance festival in England and Jacob Niessl will be able to pursue his passion for music, competing in eisteddfods and community concerts with Canberra Youth Music.  My congratulations to all the winners.

MEDIA RELEASE

Twelve creative and aspiring young people have received Australian Government grants of up to $3000 to help them develop their  talents and chase their dreams.

The grants have been awarded under the Creative Young Stars program which provides individual grants of $500 and group grants of  $3000 to assist students and young people participate in creative, cultural, academic and community based activities, events or  training.

Two community groups in the electorate of Fraser are also beneficiaries of the program.

Member for Fraser, Dr Andrew Leigh, today congratulated the grant recipients and thanked all applicants, noting that the quality of young talent was outstanding.

“Our community is full of young people with many great talents. The exceptional contribution they make to our community and beyond will only increase with the chance to develop those talents further,” Dr Leigh said.

“The Creative Young Stars grants help young people of primary, secondary and tertiary school-age to participate in events such as competitions, eisteddfods, public speaking tournaments and other cultural, artistic or academic events.

“We want these young people to feel supported, and to have their talent and hard work recognised so their confidence and creativity develops.

“These grants do this but also support our young people in a practical way to make achieving their dream a little easier.”

On MixCanberra this morning, Liberal candidate Zed Seselja and I discussed optimism and talking with kids, kangaroos and roadside signs, Miley Cyrus and high-speed rail, and which Canberra agency will be forcibly relocated to the Central Coast if the Liberals win. Unfortunately, we didn't get an answer on all these issues, but here's a podcast.

Campaign Media Release

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus

Member for Fraser Andrew Leigh

NEW GRANTS FOR NATIVE TITLE ANTHROPOLOGY

The Rudd Labor Government is providing over $1.75 million to attract a new generation of anthropologists to native title work and to    encourage senior anthropologists to stay on in the field.

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus QC and Member for Fraser Dr Andrew Leigh today visited the Australian National University to  announce Native Title Anthropologist Grants for the next three years.

“I congratulate the successful recipients and welcome their contributions to the native title anthropology sector,” Mr Dreyfus said.

“These projects will provide a range of programs, including training for junior anthropologists, field work programs, an Indigenous internship and research placements.”

The successful recipients are:

• The Australian National University Centre for Native Title Anthropology


• The Aurora Project


• Yamatji Marlpa Aboriginal Corporation


• James Cook University


• South West Aboriginal Land and Sea Council


• A joint project between La Trobe University and Native Title Services Victoria

“These applications best addressed the program’s priority areas of need and will benefit the native title anthropology sector as a whole,” Mr Dreyfus said.

The ANU’s Centre for Native Title Anthropology will receive $677,050 over three years to expand the capacity of groups working with native title claimants around Australia.

“The funding will ensure representative bodies working on native title with Indigenous communities are more responsive,” said Dr Leigh.

“Better cultural mapping and recording ‘on country’ will help speed up the native title process.”

Since 2007, the Rudd Labor Government has invested in education and employment services across the country.

The Coalition must disclose if this funding will be one of the cuts Tony Abbott will make if he becomes Prime Minister.

A total of $1,751,000 over the financial years 2013-16 is available in this funding round and is already included in the Budget.

The priority areas of the Native Title Anthropologist Grant Program are:

• Training and development for anthropologists to smooth the transition from study to native title field work.


• Professional development and support for anthropologists working in the native title sector.


• Strengthening linkages between academic and applied anthropological work.

Details of all projects funded over the first four years of the program are available on the Attorney-General’s Department’s website under: Native Title Anthropologist Grants Program.

CANBERRA

27 AUGUST 2013

Campaign Media Release

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus

Member for Fraser Andrew Leigh

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus QC and Member for Fraser Andrew Leigh today announced new funding for the Women's Legal Centre ACT and the Welfare Rights and Legal Centre ACT.

The Rudd Labor Government will provide an extra $200,000 to the Women's Legal Centre ACT for the next four years and an extra $240,000 for the Welfare Rights and Legal Centre ACT over the same period.

“Access to legal advice and support is essential to strengthening our local communities and our democracy,” said Mr Dreyfus.

“The Rudd Labor Government is deeply committed to a fair go under the law and this funding for the Women's Legal Centre ACT and the Welfare Rights and Legal Centre ACT will make a real difference to people in Canberra.

“Legal services have not yet fully recovered from savage cuts under the former Coalition Government but, in a tough budgetary period, this is a significant boost.”

“This additional funding means the centres can help meet demand for domestic violence, anti-discrimination, property and family law services,” Dr Leigh said.

“This will make a big difference especially to Indigenous women and clients of non-English speaking background.”

“The Women's Legal Centre ACT and the Welfare Rights and Legal Centre ACT will be able to employ more frontline lawyers and staff to help with family law, mortgage stress, employment law, child protection and care matters, and consumer law,” Dr Leigh said.

“Having briefly volunteered for the Welfare Rights and Legal Centre ACT back when I worked as a lawyer, I know first hand the valuable work they do for the Canberra community.”

This funding is included in the budget and is part of an extra $33.5 million over four years for community legal centres across Australia.

The new funding for community legal centres is in addition to the $32 million already provided annually under the Australian Government’s Community Legal Services Program.

27 AUGUST 2013

CANBERRA





Communications Unit: T 03 8625 5111 www.alp.org.au





Authorised by G. Wright, Australian Labor Party, 5/9 Sydney Avenue, Barton, ACT, 2600

On 26 August 2013, Bill Shorten delivered the 13th Fraser Lecture on the topic “The Battle of Ideas and the Good Society”. The video begins with an introduction from me, and concludes with Bill taking questions. A full transcript of the speech is over the fold.

Introducing Bill Shorten’s Fraser Lecture
Andrew Leigh MP
26 August 2013

I acknowledge the Ngunnawal people, on whose lands we meet today.

Thank you to our hosts for today: ANU Labor Students’ Club, and their president Charlotte Barclay.

One of the standard tropes you hear in election campaigns is that there’s no difference between the parties – that it’s a choice between the Popular People’s Front of Judea and the People’s Popular Front of Judea.

But elections do change history. Imagine if the Howard Government had remained in office for the past two terms.

We wouldn’t have DisabilityCare and a seat on the UN Security Council

We would not have apologised to the Stolen Generations, tripled Australia’s marine park network and raised universal superannuation.

Our economy would be smaller, and unemployment would be higher, as we recovered from the recession of 2009.

Perhaps no issue better illustrates the differences between us and the Coalition than parental leave.

We introduced parental leave – a fair and affordable scheme, which has been used by over 300,000 families. Every parent gets the same deal.

But the Coalition don’t want equal treatment.

When they see a kid born with a silver spoon in his mouth, their first thought is – what he really needs is a gold spoon to go with it.

And by the way, here’s a plastic one for the working class kids.

Last year, Joe Hockey lectured us from London about the need to end ‘the age of entitlement’.

Now, the Liberals tell us that millionaire families deserve $75,000 for having a child because ‘it’s not welfare – it’s an entitlement’.

It’s a window into their thinking.

When a minimum wage worker gets a hand up, it’s welfare.

But when a millionaire gets money from the government, it can’t possibly be welfare – it must be their ‘entitlement’.

* * * *

Now, to our speaker for today.

In 1940, George Orwell wrote an essay about Charles Dickens in which he points out that for all the discussion of working class life that you get in novels like Great Expectations and A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens never really seemed to regard slum-dwellers, servants, criminals and agricultural labourers as equals.

Orwell makes the same criticism of Tolstoy – someone who seemed fascinated on the problems of poverty, yet averse to breaking bread with the poor.

I used to think this didn’t matter much. But now I do.

There’s a story that the people who clean the Prime Minister’s suite were not invited to the PM’s Christmas Party for 11 years from 1996. Then in Christmas 2007, they were invited, and have been ever since.

Here in my electorate of Fraser, I’ve seen Bill Shorten chat comfortably with people with disabilities – making them feel at ease immediately.

I’ve seen him speak to building workers in Belconnen, talking about the economic incidence of company taxes. Bill told me afterwards: ‘Andrew, don’t ever underestimate your audience’.

And I’ve been with him in Civic, at an event in the kitchen of a local hotel. We were there to talk with the chefs, but Bill immediately went over to introduce himself to the man washing the dishes.

Bill has been at the centre of many of the government’s big reforms.

He’s thoughtful, articulate and funny.

But what’s most important is that for him, progressive reform isn’t just about passing laws – it’s also about helping people.

Reaching out.

Hearing their stories.

And acting on them.

Ladies and gentlemen, Bill Shorten.

Minister for Education and Workplace Relations Bill Shorten

2013 FRASER LECTURE

‘THE BATTLE OF IDEAS AND THE GOOD SOCIETY’

AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, CANBERRA

26 AUGUST 2013

*** CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY ***

Introduction

I am honoured that Andrew Leigh has asked me to deliver the 2013 Fraser Lecture.

Andrew is a big ideas man and someone who advances those ideas in the public sphere.

Andrew is what I call a warrior for Labor on the great national battlefield of ideas.

Last Friday I had the honour to share a stage with another big ideas man.

One of the giants of the Australian Labor Party – Paul Keating - at my Maribyrnong campaign launch.

Keating was in vintage form: smart, funny, incisive.

Paul reminded us that Labor was on the side of the “angels”.

“The angels”, he described as “the men and women of Australia … who make the place what it is, the ones who've got nothing to sell but their labour, nothing to sell but their time. No capital, particularly, and who need the support of the political system to give them a better standard of living, a better way of life and a better future.”

How right he is.

Ask yourself: who made the reforms and investments necessary to ensure that the political system gave the men and women of Australia “a better standard of living, a better way of life and a better future” and did so by opening up the economy?

As Keating remarked, memorably, Australians moved up from the Commodore to the Audi.

We did of course.

The Australian Labor Party did.

We’re the dreamers, doers and fighters.

We have ideas, and we don’t just want to talk – we’re prepared to fight to make them a reality.

That’s what we do.

We don’t slavishly follow overseas fashions.

The Power of Ideas

That’s why Australia avoided the excesses of Thatcherism and what in America became known as Reaganism.

Ideas are powerful. They can change the world. But in the wrong hands, they can be dangerous.

When Sir Keith Joseph, the so-called power behind Margaret Thatcher’s throne, addressed the 1976 British Tory Conference he said:

‘Scorn not the vision; scorn not the idea. Power grows out of the barrel of a gun. A gun is certainly powerful, but who controls the man with the gun? A man with an idea.’

When he said those memorable words, Joseph was mocked, not least from within his own party.

But Joseph enjoyed the last laugh.

Thatcherism took the free-market theories of Hayek and Friedman from the eccentric fringe to mainstream reality.

I’m not anti-market by any stretch of the imagination.

In fact, I’m pro-market, pro-competition, pro-innovation.

But I don’t think the economy has to be at the expense of society.

On the contrary, I believe the two are linked – that you can’t have a strong economy without a strong society.

Friends, make no mistake: we are at a crossroad.

Once again, people are telling us we have to prioritise either the economy or the society.

And the correct answer is not either / or, but both.

And that’s why – unless we want to risk the Australian way of life and end up with the lack of social mobility that we can see in Britain and America – Labor has to prevail in this battle of ideas.

The stakes are high. Our nation’s future is on the line.

Today I want to talk about four fronts of the battle of ideas.

First, I want to talk about why ideas are so important to our democracy.

Second, I want to talk about why ideas are so central to the labour movement we hold so dear and why our ideas are more often than not superior to those of our opponents.

Third, I want to talk about why the Labor Party was put on this earth: to build the Good Society.

And finally, I want you to know what this Rudd Labor Government has been doing to win the battle of ideas.

Because we need to clear about why our Labor ideas are right for Australia.

Because our ideas have a vision, an over-the-horizons purpose to build the Good Society.

We know, Margaret Thatcher declared there was no such thing as society.

Many of her Conservative Australian disciples still feel the same.

Labor feels differently. Always have, always will.

We pursued free-market reforms.

We led the way – floating the Australian dollar to financial deregulation and opening up the Australian economy.

But, unlike Thatcher, we didn’t declare war on working people.

Hawke working with Bill Kelty and the labour movement and business, built a consensus around his government’s policies.

Just like Kevin Rudd is doing with the BCA and ACTU now.

Labor introduced a ‘social wage’ – Medicare, superannuation, expanded higher education and cut tax.

Australian Labor invented what Bill Clinton and Tony Blair later called ‘the Third Way’.

As economist Tim Harcourt has recently argued, the Third Way is really the Australian Way.

And the Australian Way works.

Australia is the best performing economy in the OECD.

No recession for 22 years despite the global financial crisis which was really a global recession for many nations.

By contrast, Britain has an unemployment rate of 7.8 per cent, compared with our rate of 5.7 per cent.

In the United States, it’s 7.4 per cent.

In Spain, it is an astonishing 26.3 per cent.

Their youth unemployment comes in at 56 per cent.

We’ve retained our AAA rating.

Interest rates are at record lows.

Inflation is under control.

The other night Paul Keating reminded us about one of the enduring legacies of his government.

He reminded everyone about how much real wages have improved since 1991.

Real wages have gone up 36 per cent – at a time when they have stagnated or gone backwards in many other developing economies – including the United States and Britain.

We’ve got bigger profits, more cooperation and better productivity.

And who made all that possible?

Labor’s Australian Way.

It wasn’t about luck.

It’s about better ideas and people.

Labor ideas and people.

Australian Labor: A Movement of Ideas

From day one, in 1891, the Australian Labor Party has been a movement of ideas.

Simple but important ideas.

Like our belief in a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work.

And bigger, sweeping nation-building ideas.

Like the National Broadband Network – lifting superannuation to 12 per cent – the Better Schools Plan – and the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

Like Gough Whitlam and the Family Law Act, bringing troops home from Vietnam and engagement with China.

Like the plans for industrial expansion drawn up by John Curtin and Ben Chifley during the dark days of World War Two.

Like Andy Fisher – one of Labor’s early and greatest Prime Ministers - building a transcontinental railway.

We’re the dreamers. The doers. The fighters.

William Kidston, then a humble Rockhampton bookseller who became the world’s first Labor treasurer, summed up our creed.

In 1891, he wrote a poem for the striking shearers gathered under the Tree of Knowledge in Barcaldine.

He urged them to shun extremism and seek ballot-box justice.

The title of his poem consisted of five simple words.

‘The ballot is the thing’.

Five simple words, one magnificent idea.

Claim your democratic rights.

Form a Labor party.

Win government.

Make Australia a better place.

Australia must be the Good Society.

Just eight years later, Queensland Labor stunned the world by forming the world’s first Labor government.

It only lasted a week but it whetted the appetite of our predecessors.

Five years on, Chris Watson formed the world’s first national Labor government, albeit a minority one.

In 1910, Andy Fisher’s party won government in its own right, another world first.

Then, as now, that year’s federal election was not simply the pursuit of power for power’s sake.

Of deciding who would form the next government of the Commonwealth of Australia.

William Spence, a fellow former AWU national secretary and Labor MP, boasted at the time:

“[t]he Labor movement in Australia has now become an almost dominant factor in the political life of the community.”

He argued that this coming triumph entailed more than churning out vote-winning policies.

Spence insisted that Labor was “a political as well as a propagandist movement.”

In other words, Labor had to have the better ideas and be able to communicate that to voters.

Labor must not aspire to be a party that merely reflects public opinion.

Voters needed to believe in our ideas.

It was ever thus.

And you know this belief – call it faith if you like – informs my political outlook.

I can think of three great causes in my life.

The first is my absolute conviction that we are born equal and unique. Each of us has something special within.

Our individual humanity deserves to be expressed fully, not stifled because of the postcodes and circumstances of one’s life.

And then there is my family. They give me my passion to look forward 10, 20, 30 years ahead.

Beyond the 24 hour media cycle.

My other cause is the Australian Labor Party. I joined at the age of 17.

I’ve devoted all of my entire adult life to serving the nation through this great Australian institution.

I joined because it was in my family’s DNA.

My Dad, a Geordie-born seafarer, had unionism and dockside politics pulsing through his veins.

My mum, the eldest daughter of a printer and trade unionist, was a freethinker who led an amazing career as a high school teacher and Supreme Court prize winner and historian.

So joining Labor was a gut feeling, a decision of the heart.

But my decision also came from the head because Labor was and remains the great Australian party of ideas.

From an early age I knew that elections weren’t just about power, or who gets what.

Or defending privilege and resisting change.

But about which side of politics has the ideas to confront the challenges that Australians faced.

Who has the ideas that can address the problems that Australia will confront in 10, 20 and even 50 years from now.

I was seduced by the Hawke-Keating-Kelty vision of consensus. By the length and depth and breadth – not to mention ambition – of their ideas.

Labor wanted the men and women of Australia to have a fair go.

A fair share.

A better future.

That was our ambition. Still is.

Labor wants Australians to get ahead in life.

And – unlike our opponents – we recognise that no one ever gets by just on their own.

We all need support.

We need strong families and strong communities if we’re going to have a strong economy.

And our opponents can’t beat that.

For them, it’s all about the individual.

For us, it’s all about the individual and the community.

Only Labor can do both. Only Labor.

Our values, our traditions, combine a belief in individual aspiration with the knowledge that we are all together in this life.

As the influential British Labour thinker Maurice Glasman recently said of his party: ‘Our tradition is our future.’

My favourite motto is the great Jesuit dictum, ‘be a man for others’.

It’s the ideal that I’ve always sought to live up to.

And it goes to the core of what I see as Labor’s enduring mission in political life.

What it was put on this earth for.

What the Rudd/Gillard Labor governments of the past five and a half years have pursued.

Building the Good Society.

It’s the reason I got into politics in the first place.

To leave this place a better place then we found it.

What is the Good Society?

First and foremost the Good Society is a prosperous, productive, competitive and diverse economy.

An economy where men and women are working in good jobs, treated decently, and are reasonably remunerated.

So that they can raise their children and lead long lives full of meaning.

Where well-being and resilience are central.

Where entrepreneurs and innovators can turn ideas into successful enterprises.

A Good Society means that people don’t merely work hard for their whole adult lives, only to retire poor.

A Good Society sees a cooperative relationship between business and unions as crucial to the creation of a competitive, dynamic Asia-focussed 21st century economy.

Housing should be affordable, whether people are buying their own homes or renting.

Our Good Society should have the best health system in the world, accessible to all, regardless of an individual’s wealth.

A Good Society must look out for those most in need –unemployed, Indigenous, pensioners and the disabled and their carers.

A Good Society means equal treatment of women.

A Good Society reveres education and the special role of teachers.

We also want our communities to be multicultural, tolerant and safe places sustained by respectful relationships, free from fear.

We want our communities to be well served by transport and infrastructure.

We want a clean environment so that our kids can one day dream of creating their own good society.

And not have to remedy problems their parents neglected to address.

Government cannot possibly ensure that nothing bad ever happens to people.

But we can help build resilient families and communities to get us through when life’s shafts of fate strike.

The Good Society is there to ensure that all are empowered to, lead meaningful lives.

Labor has played a leading role in building the Australian Good Society over 122 years.

And our mission is never finished.

We must continue to put ideas into action.

Ideas into Action: The Work of this Labor Government

There is a case to be made for the re-election of Labor on September 7.

Let’s look at education.

Labor legislated for Better Schools, initiated by Julia Gillard and Peter Garret, followed through by Kevin Rudd.

These are the most far-reaching educational reforms in decades.

It’s based on a simple idea – Labor believes in the transformative power of education.

Education has always been the door through which national and personal progress has been made.

For Australia to take advantage of its greatest opportunity since the Gold Rush – the Asian Century – education is the key.

So we believe that funding should be based on need for every student in every school.

We believe that education means that young people will:

Have a better job

Earn more

We know that the hourly wage gain from an additional year of schooling for Year 12 alone is around 11 per cent.

When participation effects are taken into account, annual earnings are 30 per cent higher.

But it’s not just the individual benefits that are profound.

A highly educated workforce is more productive which benefits all of us.  But it’s not all dollars and cents.

Investing in higher levels of education means our children are more likely to:

Be healthy

Live longer

And be more fully engaged in society.

Education is about discovery, friendship, excitement, pleasure, a sense of identity and cultural enrichment.

Education teaches us how to live together and to work together to build a better future.

In short, building the Good Society.

Now consider the National Disability Insurance Scheme known as DisabilityCare – an idea that I had the privilege to collaborate on.

Again built on a simple yet powerful idea – that all Australians deserve to be treated with dignity, to be full citizens and we are all worse off if their potential is wasted.

We’ve also introduced Australia’s first Paid Parental Leave Scheme.

Based upon the simple idea of equality for all women.

Then there’s the Labor invention of superannuation.

Based upon the simple idea that people should retire with dignity.

Oh and carbon pricing.

Based upon the simple idea that our planet is precious.

Our Prime Minister began the National Broadband Network.

Based upon the simple idea that our economy, and equality of opportunity, will flourish or wither on the vine of technology.

We put WorkChoices where it belonged – in the wheely-bin of Australian history.

We provided unfair dismissal protection for 7 million Australian workers.

The first ever national asbestos strategy.

Finally doing something about workplace bullying.

All based upon simple Labor ideas.

Because of the efforts of Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard and Wayne Swan we saved 200,000 jobs during the GFC, and created nearly a million new jobs since coming to power in late 2007.

And we now have a plan to grow jobs, build up new industries and invest in our economy beyond the China mining boom.

By contrast here are the ideas that the Liberals believe in:

They believe in ending fundamental workplace rights.

They believe in stalling and taxing superannuation.

They hate the idea of reducing our carbon footprint.

They believe in a Labor-lite Better Schools Plan. Christopher Pyne calls it a ‘Conski’ but a few days later supports us.

They are threatened by ideas of change. And don’t have the plans or burning ambition to build the Good Society.

When you wake up, hung over or not, happy or not, on Sunday September 8.

Whoever has won, if even Clive Palmer or Christine Milne or Barnaby Joyce has won, in the world you wake up to, one thing won’t change.

Labor will still be the party of ideas fighting for the Good Society.

Conclusion

You know, conservative writers, and vested interests, shout we can’t win on September 7.

They cry out that Labor has had its day.

They attack unions as no longer relevant.

They say working people have nothing to worry about.

They allege that the Good Society is a given.

But they’re wrong.

I believe, and you believe, Labor’s best days are yet to come.

The work of a great progressive movement – such as ours – can never be done.

Must never be done.

Never forget William Kidston’s words:

‘The ballot is the thing’

Five simple words which tell us what Labor is all about.

Five simple words which tell you how Labor changed Australia.

Five simple words which, I hope, tell you what I am fighting for.

Friends, right now the fight before us is this federal election.

We have 11 days to go.

11 days to win another election that many consider unwinnable.

We have a conservative Coalition hungry for power – contradicting themselves with a bleak ‘cut at all costs’ philosophy, masked by a reject shop sale of slogans.

To abolish the mining tax.

Create an unfair, unaffordable paid parental leave scheme.

Pay cash for boats.

We must fight tooth and nail to explain what we as Labor women and men are doing and why we are right.

Because if anyone says that to fight doesn’t get you anywhere, that politics can’t make a difference, that all parties are the same.

Then let them look over what our great Australian Labor Party has achieved over 122 years.

And over the past five and a half years.

So we over next 11 days must win every argument, great and small, and win the greatest battle of them all.

The battle of ideas.

We’ve done it before. We can do it again.



ENDS

On Fairfax TV today, Chris Hammer hosted Liberal MP Kelly O'Dwyer and myself. We discussed the need to invest in jobs and education, the Coalition's admission that they'll follow Labor's path to surplus, and why flat-rate paid parental leave is fairer and more affordable than a plan that gives the most to those that have the most. Here's a vodcast and here's a podcast.

This morning, I joined Bill Shorten and Gai Brodtmann for a tour of Questacon before announcing some funding certainty for the popular Parliament and Civics Education Rebate (PACER) program. The funding will deliver a steady stream of young patrons to the capital's vital national institutions:

MEDIA RELEASE

Minister for Education Bill Shorten, Member for Canberra Gai Brodtmann, Member for Fraser Andrew  Leigh

Minister for Education Bill Shorten joined the Member for Fraser Andrew Leigh and the Member for Canberra Gai Brodtmann on the steps of  Questacon today to announce a further $6.5 million for the  popular Parliament and Civics Education Rebate (PACER) program.

PACER provides a subsidy for schools travelling more than 150 kilometres to visit the national capital as  part of a civics and citizenship education  excursion.

Federal Labor believes it is important to assist Australian schools to engage students in civics and citizenship education at national democratic, historical and cultural institutions.

Schools must visit Parliament House, Old Parliament House and the Australian War Memorial, and participate in an education program at these institutions. The program also allows students to visit other national institutions like Questacon where they can learn about science in a fun and interesting way.

Federal Labor firmly believes that all students should receive a first class education and learning experience, irrespective of where they live or what their parents earn.

PACER provides financial support ranging from $20 to $260 per student, for students in Years 4-12, and according to the distance travelled to reduce the costs for individual students.

PACER has benefited over 600,000 students since the program commenced in 2006-07 and over 2,000 schools are expected to be supported by PACER in 2012-13.

PACER is popular with regional schools with more than 38 per cent of the schools accessing PACER in 2011-12 from outside metropolitan Australia.

Demand for PACER exceeded available funding from 2007 through to 2011 and supplementary funding has been provided to ensure no school eligible for the rebate missed out.

In 2012, additional funding of $3.2 million was made available to meet expected demand and to help more students visit the nation’s capital.

Funding for this commitment is already included in the budget.

For more information please visit www.civicsandcitizenship.edu.au

CANBERRA

26 AUGUST 2013





Communications Unit: T 03 8625 5111 www.alp.org.au





Authorised by G. Wright, Australian Labor Party, 5/9 Sydney Avenue, Barton, ACT, 2600

MEDIA RELEASE

Minister for Education Bill Shorten, Member for Canberra Gai Brodtmann

The Centre for Quality Teaching and Learning will deliver professional learning programs and research from next year under a new agreement signed with the University of Canberra.

As announced in May 2013, the Rudd Labor Government is investing $26 million in the Centre for Quality Teaching and Learning to support the implementation of the Better Schools Plan in the ACT and beyond.

The Minister for Education Bill Shorten was joined by the Member for Canberra Gai Brodtmann at the University of Canberra today to celebrate the new partnership and witness firsthand the cutting edge teaching technology that the University of Canberra offers.

The $26 million Centre for Quality Teaching and Learning will support the Better Schools goal of being in the world’s top five in reading, numeracy and science by 2025.

Research has shown that there is nothing which influences student performance more than the teacher standing in front of the classroom.

By investing in teacher education and development, we are directly investing in the quality of the education our children receive.

With the agreement finalised, work is now underway to appoint a board and recruit staff for the Centre.

University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor Professor Stephen Parker confirmed today that teachers could be updating their skills in the Centre as early as January next year.

Of the $26 million available over six years, $2 million is for establishment costs and the remaining funding will be allocated in equal proportions to Professional Development, and Research and Development into Teacher Effectiveness and Performance Feedback.

Minister Shorten congratulated the University of Canberra on being at the forefront of teacher education, particularly in the fields where Australia needs to improve.

The Centre is being established in association with the University of Canberra and the ACT Government to support the implementation of the reforms under the Better Schools Plan.

Federal Labor is investing in education because we know that it reaps dividends well beyond the school gate.

Funding for this project is already included in the budget.