When we want to think of a leader who stood tall when we most needed it, our eyes turn to a great Western Australian Prime Minister.
 
John Curtin faced circumstances that might have overwhelmed a lesser person.
 
Yet even as the war drew closer, Curtin was able to think ahead to a better future.
 
Curtin summed up his Labor Government’s policy with the phrase: “Victory in war, victory for the peace.”
 
He saw a victory for the peace not just as the war’s end, but as another challenge our nation could rise to and create a new era of prosperity.
 
Thanks to Curtin and to Labor, that peace-time victory was resounding.
 
Today, having just experienced a global calamity of a very different nature, we again stand at a crucial point in our history.
 
As we begin to emerge from the COVID pandemic, we reflect on what we’ve been through — and who rose to meet the challenge.
 
We can look to another Western Australian leader who stood up for the safety and security of his people.
 
I can tell you that one of the most straightforward choices I’ve ever made was when I had to pick between Premier Mark McGowan and Clive Palmer.
 
What we saw from Premier McGowan was true character and true leadership.
 
A responsible Government that balanced social good and economic need.
 
A clear demonstration of how investing in the health, safety and wellbeing of people underwrites a robust and growing economy.
 
Those same twin goals – social good and economic growth – underpin my approach to building a better future.
 
The challenge is considerable, but I believe with a better government in Canberra, we can have a better future.
 
It all begins with our economy.
 
Our economy is crying out for leadership and reform — but getting neither.
 
Australia needs a plan to create an economy where we have high wage jobs and we have economic growth without increasing inflation.
 
We need to help families with rising costs, and make sure their incomes are going up.
 
That’s exactly what Labor will do, because our economic plans focus on increasing productivity.
 
And we know it’s possible because Labor governments have delivered on it before —pursuing an agenda for growth with increased productivity at its heart.
 
Labor’s reforms, starting with Hawke and Keating, led to 30 years of uninterrupted economic growth.
 
Right now, Australia once again needs a reform agenda and a forward-looking economic vision so we can shape the future.
 

TURNING SOUTH BEFORE THE PANDEMIC

When I gave the first of my Vision Statements as Labor Leader back in October 2019, it was on Jobs and the Future of Work – and I delivered it right here in Perth.
 
COVID wasn’t even on the horizon, yet we knew that for all the Government’s upbeat pronouncements, the economic reality begged to differ.
 
Before the pandemic, they already had doubled debt.

Productivity was going backwards.

Wages were stagnant.

There was no hint of an appetite for starting the reforms so clearly needed.
 
Since the Coalition came to office, business investment has dropped 20 per cent.
 
In terms of manufacturing output, Australia now ranks last in the OECD.

In the Harvard Index of Global Economic Complexity, Australia ranks 86th, sandwiched between Paraguay and Uzbekistan.
 
And all of this before the recent news of the highest inflation rates in two decades, and an interest rate hike that sent jitters though Australia.
 
All of this before the Morrison Government made clear that they would rather see Australia’s lowest paid workers go backwards than see their pay increase by just $1 an hour.

All this adds up to an economy where it is simply too hard for too many Australians to get ahead.

If Labor is elected, this is the economy we will inherit, along with a trillion dollars of debt and not enough to show for it.
 
If we are going to tackle these challenges, we must lift Australia’s productivity.
 
In the famous words of economist Paul Krugman, “Productivity isn’t everything, but in the long run, it is almost everything.”  
 
To turn things around, we’ll heed the economic lessons of the COVID pandemic, which has exposed economic vulnerabilities – like how precarious it is to be at the end of a global supply chain.
 
Like the short-term thinking that resulted in a deep over-reliance on temporary labour rather than skilling Australian workers or more permanent migration.

Like our Government’s refusal to engage with the global transformation happening in energy.
 
Renewables are on the rise and entire industries are having to readjust.

At this moment in history, Australia needs a government ready to implement policies to boost productivity and grow the economy.
 

A NEW WAGE-PRODUCTIVITY DEAL 

A Labor Government will lift productivity and close the gap on wages and productivity.
 
We must return wages to the gain-sharing model - when a growing economy underpinned a first-world wages model.
 
When the larger national income pie grew for the benefit of both workers and business.
 
It was Labor that brought business and unions together to pursue their common interests and grow national income.
 
It was Labor that broke inflation and guaranteed improvements in the social wage, thereby securing social inclusion as a necessary component of an economic growth agenda.
 
A Labor Government I lead will reinvigorate Australia’s enterprise bargaining system to promote productivity.
 
We must rediscover the spirit of consensus that Bob Hawke used to bring together governments, trade unions, businesses and civil society around their shared aims of growth and job creation.
 
Bringing business and unions together, with productivity gains as a focal point, is the only way we can increase both profits and wages without inflationary pressure.
 
Our ambition of a new consensus will extend to small businesses and the people who work in them too.
 
Labor is uniquely placed to back in the work already underway between the ACTU and COSBOA which will make workplace relations for small businesses simpler and more accessible, while also ensuring fairness.
 
If I am successful at this election, one of my first acts will be to convene an Employment Summit to bring employers and unions together to collaborate on secure work and to ensure enterprise bargaining works effectively.
 
We will commission a White Paper on the labour market to set out a plan for how we will promote secure work and higher wages.
 
This contrasts with the announcement that a re-elected Morrison Government will return to its discredited workplace legislation which had at its core the suspension of the Better Off Overall Test.

REVITALISING INDUSTRY 

When the Liberals goaded the car industry offshore, Australia lost our most high-tech complex manufacturing industry.
 
Since then, this Government has overseen a continued loss of industrial and manufacturing capability.
 
A key part of our national productivity challenge is the need for Australian industry to climb the technological ladder.
 
We need to make things here again, and we need to make high-value, high-tech products.
 
Australia produces science at a level commensurate with the size of our economy.
 
But under Scott Morrison’s Government, we commercialise that science as poorly as any country in the OECD.
 
One of the great microeconomic opportunities ahead of us is turning Australian-led science into Australian jobs.
 
A Government I lead will do exactly this.
 
Our National Reconstruction Fund is a transformative commitment that will ensure finance is available for investments in new high-tech industries.
 
Today I announce that Labor will dedicate $1.5 billion of this fund to medical manufacturing.
 
Australians should be able to access medicines, vaccines and medical supplies when we need them.
 
We cannot afford our health and wellbeing to be hostage to global supply chains.
 
But more than that, we have medical innovation and world-class science happening right here.
 
Our Government should be doing more to back that talent, so our innovators and entrepreneurs stay here instead of looking for backers overseas.
 
Labor’s Medical Manufacturing Fund will be an investment in their success.
 
We will also back the tech sector and have already announced our goal of 1.2 million tech-related jobs by 2030.
 
Labor recognises that skills and workforce shortages are currently plaguing businesses across the country, putting a handbrake on some companies’ ambitions for growth, and contributing to rising prices for others.
 
This skills crisis has been brewing for years, and is felt acutely here in the West.
 
We will ensure Australians are trained for the jobs of today and of tomorrow through our investment in 465,000 fee-free TAFE places and 20,000 additional university places in areas of skill shortage.
 
And the creation of Jobs and Skills Australia – modelled on Infrastructure Australia - will ensure that government policy across skills, training and education is directed to developing the workforce we need for the modern country we seek to be.
 
A Government I lead will also proudly Buy Australian.
 
We’ll make sure the projects we commission bring benefits to Australian companies, and we’ll help small and medium businesses compete for contracts.
 
Because we should be using the power of government to back our own people and our own businesses.
 
These actions will revitalise Australian industry in a way which generates productive, secure and well-paid jobs.
 

WOMEN’S PARTICIPATION AND CHILD CARE 

One of our greatest untapped resources to build a vibrant and better future is the full and respectful economic participation of women.

Under the Liberals, Australia has fallen to 70th in the world for women’s economic participation and opportunity.

Women are under-utilised, undervalued, underpaid and too often disrespected.

Enhancing economic opportunity for women is the right thing to do. And it is in our national interest.
 
Finding avenues to get more of Australia’s women in to more work is another way we can alleviate our skilled worker shortage.

Labor has already committed to using all the tools in our power to close the gender pay gap.

At my campaign launch here in Perth, I announced that Labor will make gender pay equity an objective of the Fair Work Act.

We will set up Expert Panels on pay equity and the care and community sector to help improve pay and conditions for women in those sectors.

We need to fix the persistent, structural barriers that prevent so many women securing decent jobs and careers, and financial security over the course of their lives.
 
One of most effective ways we can boost workforce participation and productivity is by making it easier for parents to return to work when they have children.
 
That’s what Labor’s plan for cheaper child care will do – while providing immediate and lasting cost of living relief for families.
 
We will increase the maximum child care subsidy and make it cheaper for 96 per cent of families.
 
And we will ask the Productivity Commission to report on moving to a universal 90 per cent subsidy.
 
Cheaper child care is a critical reform for any modern economy, getting rid of the outdated, bizarre economic distortion that punishes mothers in particular for working more than three or four days a week.
 
Together with the implementation of the 55 recommendations of the Respect@Work Report, Labor will improve productivity through women’s workforce participation.
 

CLIMATE CHANGE ACTION

A fundamental chasm in the policy offering this election centres around climate change.
 
Only Labor recognises that the challenge of climate change represents a game-changing opportunity for the Australian economy.
 
We know that policies to deal with climate change represent an overdue economic reform.
 
The bushfires and floods have reminded us of the human, environmental and economic costs of this Government refusing to act.
 
We listened to the science on the pandemic. We must listen to the science on climate change.
 
Upgrading our energy grid to be fit-for-purpose and providing investment certainty has been the catch cry of the energy sector and business, frustrated at the hopeless mess of energy policies offered up by this Government.
 
Companies like BHP, Rio Tinto, Wesfarmers, Woodside, Fortescue, Santos, Northern Star and Gold Fields have had serious commitments on climate action for some time.
 
Yet this Government has announced 22 energy policies and not delivered a single one.
 
Labor’s Powering Australia plan is a comprehensive response to climate change with economic growth and jobs at its heart.
 
Under Powering Australia, our National Reconstruction Fund will ensure finance is available for sustainable, renewable investments and new industries.
 
We will rewire our energy grid so we can integrate more renewables into our power system.
 
Our Powering Australia plan was costed by leading energy economics firm, RepuTex - the most extensive modelling of a policy by any opposition.
 
It will create 604,000 jobs by 2030, with five out of every six in the regions.
 
It will generate $52 billion of private sector investment.
 
It will reduce emissions by 43 per cent by 2030.
 
We will end the climate wars.
 

INFRASTRUCTURE 

Our plans for infrastructure are also aimed at turbocharging productivity – making our economy more efficient, more connected, more competitive.
 
I was privileged to be the nation’s first Infrastructure Minister.
 
We doubled the roads budget.
 
We built or rebuilt 4,000km of freight rail lines.

As Infrastructure Minister in the last Federal Labor Government, I lifted investment in the West.
 
And we got a lot done.
 
If I have the honour of serving as Prime Minister, I will continue my proud record of delivering for WA.
 
Labor backs the METRONET project.
 
On our watch, construction began on Gateway WA.
 
The widening of the Great Eastern Highway was funded, constructed and opened.
 
We got the ball rolling on upgrades to the Great Northern Highway and North West Coastal Highway.
 
There’s the transformative Perth City Link, which sunk the railway between Northbridge and the City - a major engineering feat that was a massive improvement to live-ability in Perth.
 
We fixed rail and road access to Esperance Port, the transcontinental railway between Koolyanobbing and Kalgoorlie, the Grain Rail Network and much more.
 
And that’s not counting the projects Labor initiated and the Liberals renamed in order to claim credit, such as the Swan Valley Bypass.
 
These are real projects that made a real difference – improving quality of life, creating jobs and laying the foundations for a better future here in WA.
 
This Government has never fully understood the critical link between infrastructure investment and productivity growth.

They don’t even see infrastructure as an economic portfolio.
 
But infrastructure is what makes our economy tick.
 
It is where you build the economy, from the bottom up.

WESTERN AUSTRALIA 

I made a very deliberate decision to give my first Vision Statement here in Perth in 2019.
 
When I delivered that speech, I could see the future right here.
 
In addition to traditional mining strengths of iron ore, gold and natural gas, I could see that with your abundant natural resources – including lithium and nickel, alumina and rare earths - WA will help to fuel the new energy economies of the 21st century, creating regional and metropolitan jobs in the process..

As electric vehicles, energy storage systems and smart devices become more mainstream, the global demand for lithium batteries will skyrocket.
 
WA is ready to rise to that challenge.
 
WA has the opportunity to become a Lithium Valley, and my Labor team stands ready to back you.
 
On Sunday I announced our $1 billion Advanced Manufacturing Fund, which is aimed at making more here and ensuring we are more self-reliant.
 
This is on top of the $1 billion Value Adding in Resources Fund, which will mean that Western Australia and Australia as a whole does more processing, refining and value adding to our natural resources.

The emerging lithium industry is a living example of how real-world economic progress happens – business, unions, researchers and government coming together to deliver on an aspiration of adding more value to our resources here before we sell them to the world.
 
WA has contributed so much to the nation. You deserve respect when it comes to shaping your future.

Federal Labor remains committed to giving WA your share of the GST.
 
As I said when I opened my remarks today, Labor is committed to the Uluru Statement from the Heart in full.
 
And in line with commitment to truth telling contained within that statement, today I announce that a Labor Government will join the McGowan Government in making a $50 million commitment to an Aboriginal Cultural Centre in the heart of Perth.
 
This has the potential to be an important place to celebrate First Nations cultures.
 
To recognise that our continent is home to the oldest continuous culture on earth.
 
A place for learning and for sharing.
 
Not just for Australians – but for people from all over the world.
 
We will approach this as a partnership with First Nations people – and acknowledge it will be on the lands of the Whadjuk people of the Noongar Nation.
 
I encourage business leaders here today to lend your support to this important project, right here in Perth.

CONCLUSION 

I started my speech today with a great Western Australian Prime Minister.
 
Let me turn to another one — and a formative, near fatal moment just near here in Kings Park.
 
That’s where a 17-year-old Bob Hawke crashed his motorbike after blacking out.
 
As he lay slowly recovering in Royal Perth Hospital, he reflected on what he saw as his second chance at life.
 
He vowed his life wasn’t going to be wasted: he was going to use his talents to the full and never stop.
 
His legacy bears lasting witness to that promise.
 
Hawke and Keating invented the Labor model for inclusive economic growth.
 
A uniquely Australian model of economic reform that made sure social dividends for the public good were at the heart of growth.

They created Medicare and universal superannuation.
 
Because Labor governments have always changed Australia for the better.

When I refer Hawke and Curtin, it’s not an act of nostalgia — but a reminder of what can be done when you come to the table with courage, vision and ambition.
 
A reminder that good government can create profound and lasting change that improves lives.

A reminder that with a better government, we can build a better future.
 
Thank you.