I begin by acknowledging that we meet on the land of the Ngunnawal and Ngambri people. I pay my respects to their elders past, present and emerging.

It is a great honour to be here with the branch of the Labor Party that has been in power almost since the dawn of the century.

I am honoured to be here in the company of the architects of your latest well-earned election victory:

I also want to acknowledge my federal colleagues Katy Gallagher, Alicia Payne, Andrew Leigh and David Smith. Unsurprisingly, they have all been preselected for the next election.

An election that, for Australia’s sake, cannot come soon enough.

I am also pleased to announce that, standing alongside them as a candidate for the Senate, is the remarkable Janaline Oh, a 20-year veteran of diplomacy and foreign affairs.

The truest measure of Labor in the ACT is the calibre of its people.

Zed rated

What calibre has the Liberal Party managed here? Zed Seselja.

He is a roadblock to the territory’s right to legislate. On euthanasia, he has let his own beliefs stand in the way of the democratic rights of the many.

It is only too fitting that the Liberal Party’s ACT senator is a microcosm of his entire party – and, indeed, of his entire government.

One man who has shirked his responsibilities as an elected representative.

But as much as it applies to him, it is a sentence that best sums up his leader.

Scott Morrison had two jobs this year: a speedy, effective rollout of the vaccine and quarantine. He has failed both.

Our nation’s two biggest cities are in lockdown. Right now, more than 10 million people – nearly half the population of Australia – are paying the price of this Government’s negligence.

This is a Prime Minister who refuses to take responsibility.

He doesn’t hold a hose. 

He says it’s not a race. But it is a race – and we are losing it.

He said we were at the front of the vaccination queue. We are behind every other developed country.

And when the going gets tough, Scott Morrison goes missing.

He’s a bit like a comet. Turns up once in a while, puts on a show that’s heavy on spectacle but light on substance, then vanishes back into the darkness.

Yet, as we have learned this week, he is willing to turn up for the right people.

Indeed, he picked up the phone 55 times to help a mate get a job.

But when it came to talking with the head of Pfizer and helping Australians get the jab, he didn’t pick up the phone once.

At a time when Australia is going through one of the worst periods in its modern history, we are cursed with our worst ever federal government.

As the world is opening up, Australia keeps locking down.

People who thought the worst of the pandemic was behind us are shocked. And they are weary. Jobs, businesses, livelihoods and mental health are all on the line.

But what else could we expect from this mob? Nothing says “diminishing returns” quite like the phrase “Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison Government”.

Eight long years and no positive legacy. A Government that acts more like an opposition in exile on the Government benches.

When I served as Deputy Prime Minister, I twice had the honour of being Acting PM. Scott Morrison has been Acting PM every day since 2018.

His Government has no sense of purpose other than occupying the space, rolling each other when they’re not rolling out the pork barrel, and feathering their mates’ nests while raiding the nest eggs of hardworking Australians.

Their last budget had no plans for reform, no long-term vision, no legacy beyond a debt that will last generations.

The Liberals and the Nationals do not plan ahead. We’re 18 months into a pandemic. The horse has bolted, and they’re talking about maybe one day putting a gate in.

But if they are frightened of the present, they are terrified of the future. They want to go back to an imaginary past, and they want the rest of us to go keep them company.

The Labor way.

But, as the ACT just keeps showing, Labor offers an alternative.

One hundred and thirty years since the trade union movement took the struggles of working Australians on to the floor of Parliament, Labor’s flame burns brightly, lighting the path ahead.

As the only party that understands and uses the power of government to change people’s lives for the better, Labor remains the most powerful vehicle for progress and reform in this country.

Working with the union movement, we even brought about change from opposition – including wage subsidies and eviction moratoriums – to give Australians a fighting chance during the pandemic.

In contrast, the Government has used the pandemic as a smokescreen to attack workers’ rights and Medicare.

As for the virus itself, Scott Morrison proves that failing to plan is a plan to fail.

Labor has a plan to beat COVID by:

Just as Labor values have been the right ones for the crisis, they will be the right ones for the recovery.

Their values set us up for more failure. Even they admitted that last week in their Intergenerational Report, which predicts a diminished Australia.

We do not have to surrender to this. We can plan for a better, brighter tomorrow because Labor is guided by three principles:

These three principles will drive our plans and policies to secure a better future, improve living standards and promote fairness.

To protect great Labor legacies – like Medicare, universal superannuation and the NDIS – while building new ones.

Every policy and principle I have announced since becoming leader is a way to seize this once-in-a-century opportunity the pandemic has given us to build back stronger.

Last week I announced that as Prime Minister, I will commission a full employment White Paper, like Curtin and Chifley did as they sowed the seeds for the long boom that Australia enjoyed after the crisis of war.

The energy that drove them is the energy that drives me. We can have a better future, but as the past shows us, the future cannot be left to chance.

That is why I and my team have been mapping out that future, and the road on which we will get there. You’ve heard about:

Our Australian Jobs Plan.

Our Cheaper Child Care Plan.

Our National Rail Manufacturing Plan.

Our Defence Industry Development Strategy.

Our Major Project Skills Guarantee.

Our $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund.

Our National Reconstruction Fund.

Our plan to expose and close the gender pay gap.

Our “Start Up Year” program to drive innovation.

Our shot in the arm for 2000 new small business enterprises.

Jobs and Skills Australia to end the shortages holding us back.

Rewiring the Nation to propel us forward.

Our New Energy Apprenticeships Program.

Our plan to seize the opportunities and jobs in renewable energy and in tackling climate change.

Australian expertise, Australian materials, Australian businesses and Australian workers.

An Australia that can stand on its own feet.

An Australia with a National Integrity Commission that puts pork and rorts into the past and ensures public money is treated as just that.

And an Australia that embraces its truest self with a full commitment to the implementation of the Uluru Statement from the Heart.

That is the brighter future that awaits us after the pandemic. And with Labor, we can get there.

On your side

Australia has had experience coming out of crises before.

When we emerged from the Global Financial Crisis relatively unscathed, it wasn’t good luck. It was a Labor government that responded to a moment of crisis and reshaped it into a moment to build opportunity, security, and a better future.

More than a decade on, we are still reaping the benefits.

The Liberal and Nationals have no vision for our nation.

It is a government that is out of time, out of ideas – and at the next election, it should be out of office. For Australia’s sake.

As we relegate them to the dustbin of history, we will create a future of security, dignity and opportunity.

A future in which we grab Australia’s advantages with both hands.

A future in which the ACT has a stronger voice in Federal Parliament.

A future in which two Labor governments work side by side, and on your side.