It is such an honour to be with you all today – actually here with you. If there’s something the pandemic has taught us, it is how to find a new appreciation of things we used to take for granted. 

And one of those things is being in a room full of good people.

On which note, I want to acknowledge my federal colleagues here today. 

Every one of them represents your state in Federal Parliament with pride, talent and dedication.

I would also like to acknowledge South Australia’s great Labor leadership team.

The state that gave us the gift of Don Dunstan lifted the bar of expectation forever. It is an expectation well and truly met by Peter Malinauskas and Susan Close.

Consider all these names. If I were to do a rollcall of the Liberal Party’s contributions from this great state, it would be a cruel contrast. 

On our side, an embarrassment of riches.

On their side, an embarrassment.

It is 130 years since the Australian Labor Party was formed; 130 years since the trade union movement took the struggles of working Australians from the shearing shed and the factory floor onto the floor of Parliament.

After 130 years, the flame burns brightly lighting the path ahead as we travel side by side on our journey to the polls, state and federal – except that at the state level, you at least know the date.

And speaking of dates, if we needed any reminder of the importance of the mission ahead of us, it is the anniversary that falls today.

Fifteen years ago – on 27 March 2006 – WorkChoices came into effect. It was the cruel fulfilment of one of the Howard Government’s ideological obsessions.

As we mark this anniversary, I recall the comments of that great son of South Australia, Bob Hawke in 2005:

John Howard's industrial relations proposals are simply conservative ideology gone mad. He is seeking to emasculate and ultimately destroy the two institutions – the independent conciliation and arbitration tribunal and the organised trade union movement – which for a hundred years have done more than any other to embed the concept of the "fair go" into the law, the practices and the very fabric of Australian life.

If anything, it was WorkChoices that finally made it clear to Australians that the Howard Government was not on their side.

The following year, the majority of Australian voters returned the favour and made it clear they weren’t on the side of the Howard Government.

After it was so emphatically elected in 2007, the Rudd Labor Government – in which I was very proud to serve – made good on its promise to repeal WorkChoices.

It was so fitting that the job of demolishing it fell to another great South Australian – Julia Gillard. 

The Howard government may be long gone, but its ideology lingers.

It lives on in the hearts of Liberal regimes, whether it’s the Marshall Government or the Morrison Government.

Indeed, we learned this week that the Morrison Government has appointed a Howard era WorkChoices standard bearer to the Fair Work Commission.

At the time, Sophie Mirabella called WorkChoices “big but fair”, “significant and necessary”. 

Now, thanks to Christian Porter of all people, she will be getting close to half a million taxpayer dollars a year to work for an institution she has no belief in, and no qualifications for.

Meanwhile, Scott Morrison has been creating a WorkChoices’ sequel.

In the fog of a pandemic, he tried to ram through an Omnibus Bill that struck at the rights and conditions of working Australians.

Had he succeeded in getting all that he wanted, it would have made jobs less secure and cut pay.

It would have hit the economy by weakening consumer confidence.

It would have made it easier for employers to make you a casual, and harder for you to become permanent. And they kept that bit in the Bill, the only real part that they were able to get through.

It would have cut overtime for permanent part-time workers and made it easier to make employees do work they were never hired for.

All in all, this Bill was an act of vandalism and a betrayal of the values keeping us afloat as a nation during an extremely challenging time.

And just as it is Labor values getting us through COVID and the recession, they can take us into the recovery.

Values of collectivism. Of looking after each other. Support for the trade union movement. Support for businesses.

Values that underpin a progressive agenda that doesn't try to get back to where things were, but works out how we can build back stronger.

We can’t delude ourselves that we could – or should – turn back the clock. The pandemic may have reminded us of the strength of Australia's values, but it also showed up real weaknesses in the economy, particularly when it came to insecure work. 

It was casuals and people who weren't in unionised industries who were the first to be laid off. 

We saw cleaners and workers in aged care, child care, supermarkets and transport continually let down.

They are the heroes who kept the country going during 2020. Yet we have them locked into a system designed to remind them – every single shift, every slender paypack – that their work isn’t highly valued. 

I have spoken about the first eight elements of Labor’s Secure Australian Jobs Plan:

1. ‘Job security’ explicitly inserted into the Fair Work Act.
2. Rights for gig economy workers through the Fair Work Commission.
3. Consulting on portable entitlements for workers in insecure industries.
4. Casual work properly defined in law.
5. A crack down on cowboy labour hire firms to guarantee same job, same pay.
6. A cap on back-to-back short-term contracts for the same role.
7. More secure public sector jobs by ending inappropriate temporary contracts.
8. And Government contracts to companies and organisations that offer secure work for their employees

I have also spoken of the need to tackle and end the shameful, unjustifiable gender pay gap that means women get paid more than 13 per cent less than men. A Government I lead will:

1. Legislate so companies with more than 250 employees will have to report their gender pay gap publicly.
2. Prohibit pay secrecy clauses and give employees the right to disclose their pay, if they want to.
3. Take action to address the gender pay gap in the Australian Public Service.
4. Strengthen the ability and capacity of the Fair Work Commission to order pay increases for workers in low paid, female dominated industries.

All of these things have to happen. But they can’t. Not while Scott Morrison – and his Adelaide disciple, Steven Marshall – are in charge.

Scott Morrison has an ear of tin, a heart of stone, and a wall of concrete to shield him from the concerns of his fellow Australians. 

And as we were reminded during his extraordinary press conference on Tuesday, he is an angry man who has mastered the rare art of clenching a glass jaw. And they said it couldn’t be done.

He is an empathy vacuum and an accountability black hole. He has no vision for his nation. No ambition. 

When Scott Morrison leaves office, Australians will ask: what was the point of his Government? Was there nothing more than smirk and mirrors? 

How did we end up with a Prime Minister who was so strong against the weak, but so weak against the strong? 

He used to like asking, “Whose side are you on?”

Scott Morrison is on the side of Scott Morrison.

But we can say loudly and clearly to Australians that the answer from Labor is: We’re on your side. 

If you want a government that will use its time in power to make your life better and make Australia better, Labor is on your side.

If you see this pandemic as a once-in-a-lifetime chance to build back stronger, Labor is on your side.

If you want secure, well-paid jobs and a system that encourages co-operation between employers and workers in their common interests, Labor is on your side.

If you want child care fixed because it would be good for families, good for children and good for the economy, Labor is on your side.

If you want to embrace Australia’s future as a renewable energy superpower – just as Peter Malinauskas and Susan Close want to – Labor is on your side.

If you understand that one of the keys to that future is Rewiring the Nation with a power grid fit for the 21st century, Labor is on your side.

If you want Australians trained for the jobs of the future; if you want a solution to the skills shortages holding back business, Labor is on your side.

If you want a guarantee that one in ten jobs on government-funded projects be apprenticeships, Labor is on your side.

If you understand that aspiration means wanting your children to have a better life than you had, Labor is on your side.

If you want the security of a superannuation system that has been proved over decades, Labor is on your side.

If you want the gender pay gap exposed and closed, Labor is on your side.

If you believe that Australians doing the same work deserve the same pay, Labor is on your side.

If you want a Future Made in Australia ...

A government that uses its power of purchasing to revive industry and create good, secure jobs …

A government that uses that procurement power in defence projects – like the submarine program here – to prioritise Australian business and jobs, Labor is on your side.

If you want the interests of Australians to be the driving priority of government, Labor is on your side. 

If you believe that older Australians deserve dignity and our gratitude, Labor is on your side.

If you think a Government should have something to show for its time in power — whether it’s Medicare; universal superannuation; the National Broadband Network; the NDIS; paid parental leave or even the Northern Expressway— Labor is on your side. 

If you believe integrity should be a core value of government and that there should be a National Integrity Commission to enforce it, Labor is on your side.

If you want a government that is serious about both the challenges and the opportunities of climate change, Labor is on your side.

If you want a government that is accountable to the Australian people, Labor is on your side.

If you want better for your family, your community and your nation, Labor is on your side.

If you want an Australia where no-one is held back and no-one is left behind, Labor is on your side.

The Liberals and Nationals are on their own side, helping out their mates, and treating taxpayers' money as if it was Liberal Party money through Sports Rorts, Community Safety Rorts, Airport Rorts, and all the rest. 

Together, we can end this.

This is a government that is out time, out ideas – and at the next election it should be out of office.

In power for eight long years, it has lost its way and is unravelling before our eyes.

But there’s no room for complacency.

It won’t be as easy as that time Don Dunstan went to Glenelg to hold back a tsunami.

We have a fight on our hands, both at a state and federal level.

But these are fights we must have – for South Australia’s sake, for Australia’s sake. 

It falls to us to put these governments in the dustbin of history. 

And it falls to all of us. Our parliamentary members. Our officials. Our rank and file members. The members of the great union movement. Our volunteers.

We can do it – together.