I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we meet and I pay my respects to their elders past, present and emerging.
To the magnificent duo of Michele O’Neil and Sally McManus, thank you for your leadership, your friendship and all you do for working people.
It is a great honour to address this Congress for the first time as Prime Minister of Australia.
I have to say, over the years, some of us from New South Wales and Queensland always had a suspicion that the Victorians and South Australians were running this show.
And now we have the proof: the outrageous decision to hold Congress in Adelaide on State of Origin Night.
I acknowledge the Premier of South Australia, Peter Malinauskas and members of his Government.
And my federal colleagues here this evening:
Our outstanding Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, Tony Burke.
Tony has delivered more in two years – for workers, for employers, for Australia – than his sorry string of Liberal predecessors delivered this century.
Murray Watt, who is doing a great job as Minister for Agriculture.
And the former President of the ACTU and now our wonderful Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care, Ged Kearney.
It has been just over two years since my colleagues and I asked the Australian people to trust us with the responsibility of serving as their Government and to join us in the work of building a better future.
Every day since then, we have sought to repay that trust and bring that future within reach.
Because we know government is not about occupying the space, it’s about changing Australia for the better.
It’s about investing in aspiration and opportunity, so no-one is held back.
And it’s about strengthening the safety net and social wage, so no-one is left behind.
In so much of that work, the mighty trade union movement has given us strength and inspiration.
Indeed, in the very first week that Parliament sat, the first piece of industrial relations legislation our Government introduced was about making 10 Days Paid Family and Domestic Violence Leave, part of the National Employment Standards.
Because it should never be the case that a woman in Australia has to choose between her safety and her job.
The labour movement campaigned on that principle – and under our Labor Government it is now the law of the land.
That’s the thread that runs through so much of what we have achieved together, over the past two years.
Workers calling out the abuse of labour hire to undercut their pay and security and our Government closing that loophole to deliver Same Job, Same Pay.
Workers and business seeking a clear and fair definition of casual employment leading to our reforms which have preserved flexibility while providing new security for workers who want to become permanent.
Unions standing up for gig workers and owner-drivers – and working with us to establish a new jurisdiction that will deliver world-leading minimum standards.
Because 21st century technology shouldn’t mean 19th century conditions for delivery workers.
The union movement came to the table at our Jobs and Skills Summit with a plan to revitalise the broken bargaining system.
And our Government’s supported bargaining reforms have created the framework for some of the lowest-paid workers in Australia to negotiate a better deal.
Australian seafarers have led a long campaign for sovereign capacity in shipping and we backed that in this year’s Budget, with a pilot program for an Australian-flagged strategic fleet.
The union movement gave a strong and clear endorsement to the Respect@Work report – and our Government turned those ideas into action, implementing all 55 recommendations.
Workers put the deadly scourge of silicosis on the national radar and we worked with the states and territories to put a national ban on the manufacture, use and importation of engineered stone.
The union movement put the spotlight on companies that were avoiding paying redundancies by restructuring their operations and our Government closed that loophole, so workers can be confident that their entitlements are secure.
In all this, in your capacity to take issues direct from the frontline of the workplace and put them on the national agenda.
In your ability to ignore phoney outrage and focus on real outcomes.
And in your enduring commitment to the patient work of meaningful change, we see the trade union movement at its very best.
Strengthening the foundations of the fair go.
Standing up for fair pay, for decent conditions, for the right to be treated with respect in the workplace – and for the right to come home safe at the end of the day.
And never solely for your members, not just for the workers in your industries.
Always in the service of the best interests of every worker in Australia – and the best interests of our economy as a whole.
Because solidarity has always been about more than standing together against unfairness.
It’s about working together to achieve progress.
That’s what the Liberals and Nationals have never been able to comprehend.
For them, everything is always about conflict.
It’s always a fight, always a false choice between growth and fairness, between employers and unions.
And every step forward is always the end of the world as we know it.
We saw it during the last election campaign, when I was asked if I would back a $1 an hour increase in the minimum wage.
Would I support a $1 an hour increase to ensure some of the lowest paid workers in Australia, wouldn’t go backwards.
I gave a one word answer: “Absolutely”.
The Liberals spent a thousand words saying no.
They said it would wreck the economy, they said it was dangerous, they said it was irresponsible, they said it was loose, they said the sky would fall in.
Well, guess what.
We backed that real increase in the minimum wage in 2022.
We backed it again in 2023.
And we backed it again this year – and on Monday the Fair Work Commission ruled to increase award rates by 3.75 per cent.
Back to back to back wins for 2.6 million of the lowest paid workers in Australia.
And – importantly – through this same period, 820,000 jobs have been created.
A record for the first two years of any Government in history.
The majority of these jobs are full time – just like we said they would be.
Wages are growing at their fastest rate in a decade.
Inflation is down.
Business investment is up.
The gender pay gap is at a record low.
Real annual wages growth is back – and the Budget is back in surplus.
And every single Australian taxpayer – not just some – will get a tax cut on the first of July.
Including 2.9 million Australians earning under $45,000 who would have got nothing, under the Liberals.
The Liberals used to brag that low wages were a deliberate design feature of their economic architecture.
Our Government has made strong wages the foundation of a stronger economy.
That’s why our last two Budgets have funded an historic pay rise for aged care workers.
And now that the Fair Work Commission has outlined a clear way forward on gender-based wage increases our Government will move quickly to deliver on the commitment we made in last month’s Budget: an overdue pay rise for workers in early childhood education.
Because we know that the people who look after our older Australians and teach our youngest Australians, do their all-important work with such dedication and humanity.
And you deserve more than thanks for what you do – you deserve fair pay.
In the trade union movement you stand up for working people, each and every day – and you never stand still.
You are always looking to the future, to the next challenge – and the next opportunity.
That’s what our Government’s vision for a Future made in Australia is all about.
Seizing the opportunities of the global shift to clean energy, to power a new generation of advanced manufacturing jobs.
To make Australia a renewable energy superpower.
To make the most of our natural resources and our national advantages.
To make things here again, in Australia.
And to unlock all the flow-on economic benefits for our communities.
Creating new, secure, well-paid jobs in our suburbs and our regions.
And making sure this transformative economic opportunity is shared with every Australian – town by town, worker by worker.
Our Government is investing in new skills and technology and infrastructure and energy because we are determined for Australia to compete and succeed in the global economy, on our terms.
Not by entering a race to the bottom on pay and conditions – but by playing to our strengths.
We think more of our country than those who say that all Australia can hope to do is extract and export our resources while we wait for someone else, somewhere else, to add the value and create the jobs and make the product before we buy it back.
We want greater sovereignty for our nation than that.
We want more economic security for our people than that.
We want a future made in Australia – by Australian workers.
Of course, as soon as we announced our plan for new investments in Australian jobs and Australian manufacturing, the Liberals came out against it.
Ten years ago, they drove the car industry out of our country.
They stood in the Parliament – as the Government of Australia – and dared Holden to leave this state.
No thought about what it meant for all those workers and their families.
No understanding of all the connected jobs and businesses and skills that would be damaged by this act of economic vandalism.
And now, ten years later, they are at it again.
Saying no to Australian jobs, talking down Australian workers, telling Australians we can’t compete and shouldn’t bother to try.
The Liberals haven’t learned – and they will never change.
There is only one political party that believes in Australian manufacturing – and I am proud to lead it.
Every member of our Labor Government takes pride in the positive change we have delivered for working people.
And every member of the trade union movement understands that this progress has been years, sometimes decades, in the making.
That’s the enduring story of Australian fairness – the hard work of generations.
Building on the struggle and sacrifice and solidarity of those who have gone before us.
And safeguarding the progress we have made, against those whose only purpose in political life is to take it away.
Two years into the job, the current leader of the Liberal Party has offered Australia nothing in the way of positive policy.
No ideas to help with cost of living.
No plans to build a single home or create a single job.
No information about where his nuclear reactors are going to go.
He never talks about what he’s for – he only defines himself by what he is against.
And on that he has been crystal clear.
He voted against secure jobs and better pay.
He voted against closing loopholes in labour hire.
He’s promised to rip up the better deal for casuals.
And he’s even committed to abolishing the Right to Disconnect.
There is a lot that gets the Opposition angry in Parliament.
But nothing sets them off quite like the fear they might have to sit on a Friday, or even a Saturday.
These are people who rage against penalty rates and overtime, they think workers should have to be on call 24-7.
But, if you even suggest they might have sit an extra hour on an extra day, suddenly they are all for collective action.
The Liberals want Australians to work longer for less – we are helping Australians earn more and keep more of what they earn.
And just last week we saw new media reports of what the Liberals are planning next.
Secret documents revealing the Liberals want to:
Scrap the Better Off Overall Test.
Water down protections against unfair dismissal and bring back Workchoices-style individual contracts.
And strip away award protections for every worker earning over $100,000 a year.
Their gut instinct is always to gut workers’ rights.
That’s the one-way, dead-end road of their negativity.
A nastiness and a laziness born of the fact that wrecking is always easier than building and entrenching privilege is easier than expanding opportunity.
But none of us joined the labour movement because we thought it would be the easy thing.
We are not here in search of the smooth ride or the quiet life.
We do what’s right, we do what matters.
Just like at the beginning of this year when we reformed the tax cuts to make them better and fairer.
That wasn’t the easy decision – but it was the right decision, taken for the right reasons.
And in less than a month, every working Australian will see the benefit.
That’s what drives us: reform that holds no-one back, progress that leaves no-one behind.
In all this, we are a better party because of the energy and intellect of the members of the trade union movement.
We are a better Government because of your ideas and your advocacy.
And Australia is a better country because of your commitment to a fair go for working people.
Thank you for everything you do.
