I begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet and I pay my respects to their elders past, present and emerging.
Thank you Jacinta, for that very warm welcome on what is a big weekend for you.
It’s a special moment to stand in front of your friends and colleagues as leader of the party and Premier of the State you love.
Because – as Jacinta and all her Victorian Government colleagues appreciate – the true honour and the real purpose of public life is the chance to serve.
To aim high, build big – and build to last.
JA, everyone in this room knows how hard you work and how much you care.
And every day, more and more Victorians are seeing that as well.
I acknowledge all my Federal colleagues here today.
A great friend and an even better Deputy Prime Minister, Richard Marles.
The local member and an outstanding Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme, Bill Shorten.
And so many other Members and Senators.
25 Victorian Labor MPs out of 39 seats.
A reflection of the fact this great branch keeps supplying quality candidates and the dedicated true believers and volunteers in this room keep driving winning campaigns.
We saw that in Aston last year – and we saw it in Dunkley this year.
And on that note, can you please join me in welcoming our new Member for Dunkley, Jodie Belyea.
And soon to be our newest Senator for Victoria, Lisa Darmanin.
As we welcome these two new members of our Federal team, we remember two dear friends we have lost: Peta Murphy and Linda White.
Both had contributed so much to our party and our nation – both had so much more to give.
And while they followed two very different paths to Parliament, both Linda and Peta were bound by the same belief in the power of our movement to make a positive difference to people’s lives and the responsibility of Labor Governments to change the country for the better.
We saw that with all the work Linda did to help deliver 10 Days Paid Family and Domestic Violence Leave.
And everything Peta did to drive new action on the gender pay gap.
We miss them today – we will remember them always.
Delegates
The Budget we delivered on Tuesday was about the two things that have driven our Government for two years:
Helping people with their cost of living.
And making our future here in Australia.
It’s a true Labor Budget, through and through -because it’s a Budget for all Australians.
Every taxpayer gets a tax cut.
Every household gets $300 off their power bill.
Every state and territory gets more help to build more homes and build more social housing sooner.
Everyone on the top rate of Rent Assistance gets extra help every fortnight.
Everyone who wants to go to TAFE or university gets a crack at that opportunity.
Everyone with a student debt gets a fairer deal.
And every working parent gets superannuation added to their government paid parental leave.
Our Budget builds on everything we’ve done over the past two years to make medicine cheaper, for everyone.
And it makes Medicare stronger, for everyone.
Over the last two years we’ve opened 58 Medicare Urgent Care Clinics.
In Ballarat, Frankston, Geelong, Heidelberg, Carlton, Prahran, Shepparton, Sunbury, Werribee and Narre Warren.
Already, over 105,000 Victorians have visited one of these clinics.
Bigger than a Grand Final crowd!
Able to get the treatment they need – for free.
Our Budget keeps writing that success story.
By investing in an additional 29 Medicare Urgent Care Clinics – including more for Victoria.
Taking pressure off public hospitals.
And making it easier for people to see a doctor, with just their Medicare card.
Here in Victoria - the Education State - you are led by a Government that understands the transformative power and lifelong value of a good education.
Education is the single most powerful weapon we have against disadvantage.
And it’s the single best investment we can make in our nation’s future.
That’s why we’ve already delivered 350,000 fee-free TAFE places.
And we are rolling out another 300,000 from this year.
Plus 20,000 spots reserved for tradies to build more homes.
And we are going to ensure that more Victorians in the regions and in Melbourne’s growing suburbs can choose TAFE or university.
By investing in more uni places.
And paying students doing their pracs – so our next generation of nurses, carers, teachers and social workers get decent support while they’re gaining vital experience.
In our party, we know that education opens the doors of opportunity.
That’s why we’re backing the aspiration of Australian students and graduates by wiping $3 billion off HECS and HELP debts.
And fixing the student loan system, so that it is simpler and fairer into the future.
Because under Labor Governments, higher education is about changing lives, not a lifetime of debt.
Victoria is home to some of the best universities in the world.
And students come from all over the world to study here.
That’s good for the state and the national economy but we recognise it also puts pressure on housing, especially for renters.
That’s why we’re going to make the system more sustainable for everyone.
So that if Monash or Melbourne, or Deakin or RMIT want to bring in more international students – they have to build more student accommodation.
Universities will continue to benefit from student demand – provided they contribute to housing supply.
One of the things Jacinta Allan and I have in common is that we could talk about infrastructure, forever.
And the one thing we enjoy more than talking about it – is getting it built.
So I’m very proud our Government is working with Victoria to build the roads and rail this growing state needs.
$5 billion for the North East Link, the missing link in Melbourne’s freeway network.
$2 billion to back the Suburban Rail Loop.
$450 million to upgrade regional roads and suburban streets.
And upgrading the Camerons Lane Interchange – connecting the Hume Freeway to the new Intermodal Freight Terminal we are building near Beveridge.
I love this project. It will create 20,000 jobs.
It will mean trucks can put freight onto double-stacked trains, up to 1.8 km long.
It will cut transport costs for Victorian businesses – and it will cut emissions.
We’re building new infrastructure and we’re building more homes.
Making a $32 billion investment in social housing, public housing and more affordable housing across Australia – and in every part of Victoria.
Training more tradies, freeing up more land and cutting red tape to speed construction.
And investing $1 billion in more crisis accommodation for women and children fleeing family violence.
We are doing all this in spite of the opposition we’ve faced – from the Liberals and the Greens.
The Liberals have a pathological problem with affordable housing, always have.
And while the Greens Political Party may talk a lot about housing – the only thing they want to build is their profile.
They vote against building more homes in the Parliament.
And then they protest against housing in their electorates.
They treat housing as a platform to campaign on - we know it's the foundation people build a life on.
They want to campaign on the problem - we want to deliver the solution.
They want more names on their petitions - we’re focused on building more homes for Australians.
That’s why we’ll keep working with the states and territories, with the construction industry and local councils.
Our opponents are the blockers – but we are the builders.
And we will keep building the homes Australians need.
Delegates
Two years ago, I was at a press conference out at Box Hill, in the final two weeks of the Federal election campaign, I was asked if I would support an increase in the minimum wage of one dollar an hour.
I gave a one word answer.
Absolutely!
And that one word, the very idea that the lowest-paid workers in Australia should not go backwards, that was enough to send the Liberal Party off the deep end.
They said it was ‘loose’, they said it was ‘irresponsible’, they said the sky would fall in and the economy would shut down.
In other words, they said exactly what the Liberal Party always say when there’s a chance to improve people’s wages and conditions, or workplace safety, or job security.
The Noalition say no every time - and they are wrong every time.
Think about this.
820,000 jobs have been created in our first two years in Government.
A record for any first term Government in Australian history.
Unemployment is at a near 50-year low.
Participation is up.
Inflation is down.
Productivity is up.
Business investment is up.
We are forecasting back-to-back Budget surpluses - the first time in two decades.
And at the same time, we’ve supported back-to-back real increases in the minimum wage for the lowest paid.
We’ve delivered annual growth in real wages, for all workers.
We’ve passed an important law, to deliver a simple principle: Same Job, Same Pay.
We’ve revitalised enterprise bargaining, to drive improvements in productivity and security.
We’ve made industrial manslaughter a national crime.
We’ve abolished the ROC and the ABCC.
And we’ve legislated the Right to Disconnect.
Because if you’re not being paid 24 hours a day, you shouldn’t have to be on call 24 hours a day.
We’ve taken the gender pay gap to a record low – and we are not done yet.
In last week’s Budget we once again backed better wages for working people.
Funding a further pay rise for aged care workers.
And making provision for a long overdue pay increase for early educators and carers.
Because whether you’re helping young Australians get a great start in life or older Australians enjoy dignity and security in retirement, you deserve more than thanks and praise – you deserve fair pay.
And delegates, because Victoria led the nation on labour hire reform.
We are going to make Victoria the host jurisdiction for a national labour hire licensing scheme.
No more second-class status for labour hire workers.
Delegates
This is what Labor Governments do.
We deliver growth and fairness; more jobs and better wages.
Because we know that an essential part of building a stronger economy – is making sure that the people who build it share in the reward.
And everyone here knows that this doesn’t just happen on its own.
Fairness isn’t automatic, it’s not a natural force or a law of gravity.
It’s not the default setting of a society or an economy.
Fairness is hard work - and it’s hard won.
It takes the dedication and advocacy of trade unions.
It takes the organising and energy of true believers.
And it takes Labor Governments to deliver - to get things done.
That requires a lot more than the stroke of pen.
Making meaningful change can be patient and painstaking work.
And making change last takes time.
We know there is more to do on cost of living, on Medicare, on housing, on education, on climate change.
And more to do to seize the generational opportunities of this moment.
To invest in new energy and skills and science.
To take advantage of our resources and our proximity to the fastest growing region of the world in human history.
To bring new jobs in manufacturing and technology to our regions and suburbs.
Because the story of Holden at Fisherman’s Bend or Ford at Geelong, wasn’t just about one company in one factory.
It was a huge ecosystem of flow-on jobs and skills and services for those communities.
That’s the transformative economic opportunity we can create with cheaper, cleaner energy and new technology.
The chance to make things here again.
To create a new generation of secure, high-wage jobs.
A future made in Australia - that will be a defining feature of our Government.
Reform that holds no-one back, progress that leaves no-one behind.
And we were reminded again this week that our opponents only ever define themselves by what they are against.
They make it their mission to oppose progress in Opposition – and undo it in Government.
Ten years ago they drove the car industry out of Australia.
And five minutes after the Budget was handed down, they said no to making things here in Australia.
The Liberal Party are scared of the present but terrified of the future.
They are stuck in the past – and set on dragging the rest of Australia back there to keep them company.
Dragging the country back to denial and delay on climate change.
Back to an economy where low wages were a deliberate design feature.
Back to wage theft, insecure work and the law of the jungle in industrial relations.
Back to a Liberal Government in Canberra that treated Victorians like second-class citizens.
And back to cutting and freezing and taxing Medicare.
This week marked the 10 year anniversary of that notorious 2014 Budget.
When a certain Health Minister by the name of Peter Dutton.
Cut $50 billion from public hospitals.
And tried to whack a new tax on medicines for sick people.
A new tax on every patient going to hospital.
And a new tax on every Australian who needed to see a doctor.
A GP tax designed to destroy Medicare once and for all.
It’s no wonder the doctors of Australia voted Peter Dutton the worst Health Minister our nation has ever had.
And on Thursday night, in his third Budget Reply speech, two years into the job the only thing Peter Dutton proved is he has nothing positive to offer our country.
No costed policies, no plans to help with cost of living.
His one initiative was lifted from Tony Abbott’s crime policy from 2010.
No new agenda – just the same old vendetta.
The first thing he said No to, was making things here. No to Australian jobs.
He declared he would rip up the rights of casual workers.
He tried to pretend that his nine years in Government – when he broke the migration system and smashed Medicare – never happened.
He refused to tell Australians about where he is going to put his nuclear reactors, how many there will be, how much they will cost and who will pay for them.
All he offers is a return to the denial, delay and division of the wasted decade he inflicted on Australia last time.
Australians can’t afford that, our country can’t risk it.
Delegates
This decade is not even four years old - but it has already visited all manner of challenges on Australia and indeed Victoria.
Black Summer in Gippsland.
Floods at Rochester and the Maribyrnong River.
The impact of the global pandemic and the aftershock of economic uncertainty.
In all this, you looked after each other. You helped each other through.
And you’ve worked to preserve and nourish the great national asset of our social cohesion and our respect for one another - even when it’s been tested by conflict and tension overseas.
The worst of times, always reveal the best of our people – their compassion and their courage.
And those same qualities will be at the heart of the future we make for ourselves.
The compassion to help each other through uncertainty, to deal with the pressures of the here and now.
And the courage to seize new opportunities, to invest in new ideas, to harness new energy and embrace new technology.
The courage to build a stronger economy, where no-one is held back.
And the compassion to build a better society, where no-one is left behind.
A mission worthy of our movement.
An aspiration worthy of our people.
A decade we can make our own.
A future we can make, right here in Australia.