Prime Minister: Queensland Labor Conference | Prime Minister of Australia

I begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet, I pay my respects to elders past, present and emerging.

I am proud to lead an Australian Labor Government committed to the Uluru Statement from the Heart, including a constitutionally-enshrined Voice to Parliament.

Thank you everyone for that warm welcome and thank you, Jim, for your generous introduction.

I know you’re a proud Queenslander – and you can be very proud of the Budget you delivered two weeks ago.

It was a Labor Budget, through and through: responsible in tough times, fairness at its core and focused on the future.

It’s a pleasure to be in Queensland again and it’s a special treat to be here on the Sunshine Coast.

Over the years I’ve spent so much time in this great state, building infrastructure which has boosted productivity, created jobs and made roads safer.

Just north of here, the Cooroy to Curra upgrade: a project which was ignored by Liberal-National Governments for so long.

And if you go further north – unlike the current leader of the Opposition – I know my Yeppen from my Yeppoon.

Can I acknowledge the outstanding Premier of your great state, Annastacia Palaszczuk.

Annastacia, you are a Labor legend – and a true friend.

As Opposition Leader, I could always count on your wisdom and support.

And I’m lucky to work with you as Prime Minister, as an important voice in the National Cabinet and a powerful champion for your state.

I also want to give a big shout-out to all the rank and file members and trade union representatives and true believers gathered here this morning.

I was reminiscing with a couple of my colleagues earlier about that rally we had in Brisbane on the last Sunday of the federal campaign.

I’ll never forget the energy in that room, the lift it gave to all of us in our final sprint to the line.

I want to thank all the members of the Queensland branch for the work you did to deliver a Federal Labor victory in May.

Never underestimate the difference your efforts made, not just to the success of the campaign but to the direction of the nation.

Because of what you did, because you gave your time and energy, because you made calls and knocked on doors and engaged with your fellow Queenslanders:

• Australia has a Treasurer from Logan
• Murray Watt is leading our support for disaster recovery around the nation.
• Anika Wells is working to fix the crisis in Aged Care and – as Minister for Sport, getting a phone call every day from the Premier about the Brisbane Olympics.
• Nita Green is protecting the Great Barrier Reef.
• Anthony Chisholm is working on two great Queensland Labor priorities – education and regional development
• Graham Perrett and Shayne Neumann are delivering for their communities
• And as Speaker, Milton Dick has helped make parliament a place where things get done again.

We are lucky to have all these talented and passionate Queensland Ministers and Members and Senators in our Federal Caucus.

But we want more!

We know the work of building a better future takes more than one Budget, indeed more than one term of government.

And we know that there are more communities in Queensland who need and deserve Labor representation in the federal Parliament.

This is where I look to Annastacia’s example and the long-term success of her government.

The lesson and the inspiration I take from the Queensland branch is this:

Queenslanders pay on results.

Queenslanders respect straight talk.

Queenslanders back leaders who show up, who step up, who take responsibility. 

And Queenslanders back governments who match their words with actions.

So the important task for Federal Labor here in Queensland is the same fundamental responsibility my colleagues and I take on everywhere, every day. 

• clean up the mess and chaos of a wasted decade
• restore trust in government – by treating people with respect and being upfront about the challenges our nation is facing.
• And deliver the plan for a better future that the Australian people voted for

And that’s why it’s so important that we can tell families in Corinda and Ipswich and Innisfail and Emerald they will save thousands every year under the Cheaper Child Care Plan we are delivering.

Good for their family budget.

Good for our national economy.

Good for our children’s early education.

And good for women’s economic equality. 

Our government, the first government in Australian history where the majority of the Caucus are women, 54 out of 103.

We recognise that the full, equal and respectful participation of women in the economy is Australia’s greatest untapped resource.

That’s why we are delivering cheaper child care.

Implementing all 55 recommendations of the Respect@Work report.

Making Paid Family and Domestic Violence Leave part of the National Employment Standards, enshrined in law.

And expanding Paid Parental Leave to 26 weeks, a full six months.

Giving parents more time, more support and more choice – so Mums and Dads can share the caring responsibilities more equally.

Delegates, up and down the Bruce Highway, from the south east corner to Cairns, I’ve had the privilege of meeting with members of our amazing health care work force.

Heroes of the pandemic, heroes every day of the year.

We know more needs to be done to take pressure off our health system – and we believe every Australian, wherever they live, has the right to world-class, affordable health care.

That’s why our first Budget makes new investments in primary care and hospitals across Queensland and provides $26 million to support Mental Health and Suicide Prevention. 

We’re restoring rural and regional psychiatric telehealth services too, so people don’t have to drive for hours to talk to someone who can help. 

We are funding new Urgent Care Clinics, to take pressure off Emergency Departments and ensure more Queenslanders can see a bulk-billing doctor.

And we are working together with the Palaszczuk Government to build a new, nation-leading Comprehensive Cancer Centre in Brisbane.

And speaking of the Bruce Highway, I’m really pleased to say our Budget is funding a major upgrade in Brisbane’s outer northern suburbs.

As well as Stage 3 of the Gold Coast Light Rail – and Stage 1 of the Coomera Connector to Nerang.

We’re backing bang-for-buck projects that are ready to go – not LNP pork-barrel fantasies like commuter carparks at train stations that don’t exist.

Friends

One of my favourite days of the election campaign, was when I was asked if I supported a pay rise of a dollar an hour for workers on the minimum wage.

I said: absolutely.

And one of my proudest days in government was when we secured a real increase in the minimum wage for the heroes of the frontline.

The Liberals said it was ‘loose’, they said it was ‘irresponsible’.

I’ll tell you what’s irresponsible – and immoral – a decade of forcing down wages for working people.

A decade of low wages being used as a ‘deliberate design feature’. 

We’re getting wages moving again.

Yesterday the Fair Work Commission granted aged care workers a 15% wage rise.

Do I welcome it? Absolutely!

These workers are the heroes of the pandemic.

This is the difference a Labor Government can make

Real wage justice for workers, mainly women, working hard, caring for older Australians.

Our Government is restoring the fair go at work.

Just like your Queensland Government – we’re going to make wage theft a crime.

And, friends, two weeks ago, we brought legislation into the parliament:

• To protect workers from sexual harassment.
• To make gender equity an objective of the fair work act.
• To stop companies advertising jobs for rates of pay below the minimum wage.
• And to fix the broken bargaining system, so workers in low-paid industries – nurses, carers, early childhood educators, disability care workers – can negotiate for a better deal.

At our Jobs and Skills Summit, big business, small business and unions all agreed that the current bargaining system isn’t delivering productivity gains or pay rises.

And it’s failing women worst of all, because it’s the workforces with the most women who currently have the least bargaining power and the lowest pay.

Our changes will mean the people who look after our loved ones when they are sick, who care for our parents when they get old, who educate our youngest Australians, who keep the promise at the heart of the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

Our changes will mean these Australians can hope for more than our thanks, they can seek the better conditions and better pay they deserve.

And the Coalition have already declared they’re against it.

Why?

Because, in the words of the Shadow Treasurer, ‘it will push wages up’.

I seriously doubt they even bothered to read the bill.

I bet they took one look at the title: ‘Secure Jobs and Better Pay’ and that was it, their reactionary gut instinct took over.

They went back to their WorkChoices happy place.

The fact is, whether it’s stagnant wages or denial over climate change or a Budget weighed down by a trillion dollars of debt – the LNP have learned nothing from their defeat.

They take no responsibility for the mess they have left behind.

And they show no interest in helping clean it up.

Let us be very clear, after the wasted decade they inflicted on Australia:

Never again can the Liberals pretend to be the party of fiscal responsibility or good economic management.

Never again can the Liberals pretend they support aspiration, when all they do is promote insecurity at work.

And never again can the Liberals claim to be conservatives, when all they do is trash our institutions and undermine our democracy.

Delegates, you can trace our movement’s fight for fair pay all the way back to the roots of the tree of knowledge.

But getting wages moving again is also fundamental to helping families with the cost-of-living pressures we are confronting right now.

So is our plan for cheaper childcare.

So is our action on cheaper medicine, the first cut in the cost of prescription medicines on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme since the Chifley Government created it.

And so is our new National Housing Accord that Jim announced on Budget night.

I am so pleased that the Queensland Government have joined with us and with the construction industry and with big institutional investors like superannuation funds, to commit to building one million new affordable homes.

It will work alongside our new Housing Future Fund, our Help to Buy Plan, and our Regional First Homebuyers Guarantee.

Because we believe every Australian deserves the right to a secure roof over their head.

And we understand that a home is more than just a place to sleep, it’s about connection and community and quality of life.

That’s why we want to put the Great Australian Dream in reach for the next generation, without forcing people to raid their retirement savings.

Of course, whenever we talk about cost-of-living, we recognise that power bills are front-of-mind for families.

A big factor in rising power prices is Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine and the pressure it’s putting on global energy supply. 

But Australians are also paying the price for a decade of denial and delay and dysfunction in energy policy that has left us vulnerable to this international uncertainty.

A wasted decade in which the LNP actively opposed adding cleaner and cheaper power into the national grid, even while traditional energy sources were going offline.

4 gigawatts of energy went out of the system while the Liberals were in power – and only 1 gigawatt came in.

They fought for power among themselves, while the capacity to generate power for Australians drained away.

And now they criticise us for moving too fast to put it back in.

We all know the most affordable and most available form of new energy is renewable energy.

And that energy will power a new generation of Australian manufacturing, so instead of us being left as the last link in the global supply chain, we make things here again.

Friends, your Queensland Labor Government understands this – what’s more, you are acting on it.

Annastacia, the Queensland Energy and Jobs plan you announced last month is an act of leadership that will shape the future of this state – and our nation.

It’s classic Queensland – going for the biggest and the best.

The biggest pumped hydro scheme in the world.

Massive uptake in rooftop solar and battery storage.

A new Super Grid, connecting solar, wind battery and hydrogen generation across the state.

And bringing thousands of new jobs and billions in new investment to regional communities across this great decentralised state.

Putting Gladstone and Townsville and Mackay and Cairns at the forefront of this new wave of economic growth.

You’re doing it the Queensland way – and you’re doing it the Labor way, with a Jobs Security Guarantee, backing the energy workers whose efforts have powered this state’s prosperity for generations.

And – friends – for the first time in a decade, Queenslanders have a Federal Government in their corner on this, a partner in the work ahead.

Annastacia, we want to work with you and your government to bring the new jobs of clean energy to every corner of Queensland.

And we’ll take up this challenge and seize these opportunities by bringing people together.

Working with your government – and every state and territory government – Labor and Liberal.

Because this isn’t State of Origin, it’s not north against south, or east coast against west coast, it’s not the city against the regions.

We are all Australians and we can all seize this opportunity together.

Mind you, there is one exception. There’s always one. 

The Federal Opposition just can’t seem to get it through their heads.

They want to turn their back on cheaper, cleaner energy and more jobs and – instead – invest in the most expensive form of energy, nuclear power.

Only Peter Dutton could look at this beautiful part of the Sunshine Coast and say:

‘What a great spot for a nuclear reactor!’.

We believe in the light on the hill.

The LNP want us to glow in the dark!

Our government has begun the long-term work of bringing new renewable energy online.

And we are looking at everything we can do to get energy prices under control for families and businesses.

That’s how we operate.

Responsible. Fair. And focused on delivering for people.

Friends, we have come to government in challenging times – but the truth is government always brings challenges.

It asks tough questions. It demands hard decisions.

Yet the great reward – the cause and the calling that brought us to the labour movement – is the opportunity to change people’s lives for the better.

To deliver the change Australians voted for.

I reflected earlier on my happy memories of that Brisbane campaign rally.

Back then, in Opposition, you can only talk about things you will do.

Five months later, I am so pleased to stand here as the Leader of a Labor Government and talk about what we have done – and what we are doing.

We are delivering cheaper child care – and cheaper medicine.

We are fixing the crisis in Aged Care – and putting nurses back into nursing homes.

We are creating more Fee-Free TAFE courses – and more uni places for young people in the regions.

We are rebuilding trust in politics – creating a powerful, transparent and independent National Anti-Corruption Commission.

We are investing $1.2 billion to protect the environmental treasure of the Great Barrier Reef.

We are rebuilding Australia’s international reputation as a respected leader in our region and a trusted partner in the world. 

And we are answering the gracious, generous, patient call of the Uluru Statement from the Heart. 

Advancing recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in our nation’s birth certificate, our constitution, giving respect to First Nations people.

Giving all of us a greater sense of who we are and a greater appreciation of the privilege we have, to share the wonders of this ancient continent with the world’s oldest continuous culture.

And sending a message to the world about modern Australia, that we are a mature and confident nation, on the road to reconciliation.

Friends, my team and I are proud of what we’re delivering.

And we are proud of what we have already delivered.

After a wasted decade of trailing the world, we have lifted Australia’s ambitions on climate change.

We have abolished the discrimination of the cashless debit card.

We have restored funding certainty to the ABC.

We have secured a boost in the minimum wage.

We have launched a Royal Commission to make sure the cruelty of RoboDebt never happens again.

We have brought the Nadesalingam family home to the embrace of Bilo, to a Queensland community that opened its heart