At this election, Labor is advancing our plan for a better future of an Australia with more jobs, greater job security and stronger economic growth.

The Morrison government has no record of past achievement, struggles with the present and has no plan for the future.

Labor will make it easier to see a doctor and make childcare more affordable, so parents can work the hours they need to get ahead.

We want Australia to be a nation that makes things again, and we have a real plan to make that happen.

We’ll harness the rise of cheap, clean renewable energy to drive the revival of manufacturing in this nation, particularly in critical areas like medicines, vaccines and PPE as well as advanced manufacturing and value-adding.

We’ll invest in our nation’s greatest resource – the skills of our people – to prepare them for the jobs that will be created in a low-emissions economy.

We’ll end the climate wars and work with industry, unions and other levels of government to create jobs and new industries that will drive decades of prosperity.

We’ll end Scott Morrison’s waste and create a national anti-corruption commission to clean up politics. Scott Morrison promised such a body during the last election campaign but simply failed to deliver.

This government is out of touch with the lived experience of Australians who are under intense cost of living pressure. Everything is going up except wages, and that is a direct result of Mr Morrison’s deliberate policy of suppressing wages growth.

The government has a record of delivering flat wages, the decline of manufacturing, the scandalous crisis in aged care, the nationwide labour shortage and has failed to assert Australia’s political interests in the Pacific region.

Australia needs a government that will accept responsibility and not seek to blame others for its errors.

The government’s response is always too little, too late. We saw this during the black summer fires, the failure to order vaccines and rapid antigen tests and with the recent floods.

So far in this campaign, the government has had nothing to say about the future. It is out of touch, out of puff and out of time.

By contrast, Labor has listened to Australians about the kind of future they want. We’ve got concrete policies and a team with the experience to deliver a better future for Australians, wherever they live and however they vote.
 
This opinion piece was first published in The Sydney Morning Herald on Sunday, 24 April 2022.