Happy New Year!

Now is a time for sharing resolutions.

This year, I have three:

To win this election.

To lead a Labor Government that focuses on creating a better future – and brings the country back together.

And to bring respect and integrity and responsibility back to politics.

As we start a new year, we can agree the last two years have challenged us in ways no-one could have imagined.

And yet through all the upheaval, Australians have been - and continue to be - magnificent.

Unselfish and calm, caring and brave.

But if the last two years have shown the strength of our society and our community…

…they have also revealed the vulnerabilities of our economy…

…and the fundamental flaws in the judgment and the character of Scott Morrison.

Governments have a responsibility to learn from this crisis.

To respond to what the pandemic put into the spotlight:

We need a plan to build back stronger.

To build an economy that works for people – not the other way around.

With rising wages, secure jobs, safe workplaces, more apprenticeships – and opportunities for all Australians.

A plan for a better life for working families. One that invests in the services that mark a decent society:

And the right to a roof over your head – because I know affordable housing changes lives.

It changed mine.

Above all, Australia needs a government that believes in people – and invests in their potential.

A government that backs communities like yours – that builds on your strengths, your skills, and that rewards your energy and ideas.

That’s what I’m here to talk about today: my vision for a better future for Australia.

And Labor’s plan for a stronger, fairer, and more diverse economy.

But – of course - the fundamental starting point is this.

If we want to put this crisis behind us…

If we want to address insecure work and wage suppression and cuts to penalty rates…

If we want to do better on child care….

If we want to stop the attacks on TAFE and unions and teachers and universities and the arts…

If we want to make women’s safety a national priority….

If we want to move past cynical culture wars and a leader who pits states against each other…

If we want a government that steps up when times are tough, not one that steps back….

If we want to put years of failures and scandals and rorts and waste and blame-shifting and buck-passing and smirking contempt behind us…

….then Australia needs to put Scott Morrison and his government behind us.

And with your help – we can do just that.

We can bring Australians together again, with a Labor government that knows we are so much more than a collection of states.

We are a dynamic nation that is stronger when we work together - when we pull together. That’s how we will move forward together.

Of course, to move forward we need to get through the current health crisis.

The Omicron outbreak continues to have a devastating impact on your local community.

Following on from the Morrison Government’s failure to secure a supply of vaccines - because they said “it’s not a race” - and their failure to construct purpose-built quarantine, it is beyond comprehension that the same mistakes are being made on the rollout of booster shots.

The same mistakes are being made in aged care.

The same mistakes are being made in disability care.

The same mistakes are being made in testing capacity.

And they are not even pretending to play any role in securing a supply of Rapid Antigen Tests.

Through the response to the pandemic the Hunter and Central Coast were treated with disdain by this arrogant and dismissive Government.

Whether it was the transfer of vaccines meant for this region to Sydney, despite COVID being present in this community…

….or making it impossible for people to access COVID testing, this Government’s contempt for the people of this region has been on full display.

As have the priorities of a Prime Minister who, in a rare act of transparency on funding allocations, made it clear that if you can’t help him, he won’t help you.

Instead of bringing Australians together around our common interest, this Prime Minister seeks to divide and never accepts responsibility.

We have five important tools to manage the pandemic response - vaccination, testing, tracing, isolation, and quarantine.

On every single measure - from the COVIDSafe App debacle to the vaccine rollout, to boosters and Rapid Antigen Tests - Scott Morrison has been defined by a lack of leadership.

It all highlights why only a change of government will prioritise the immediate needs of the region and set about creating a better future.

The support of the diabolical PEP11 project off the coast was only withdrawn after a massive local campaign by the community.

There has been a similar strong community campaign led by local Labor MP’s and candidates against the Morrison Government’s refusal to save your local GP Access After Hours Service that closed on Christmas Eve, and its refusal to stop cuts to hours at other clinics.

These reckless acts will add to health inequality - and they wouldn’t happen if it was on the North Shore of Sydney or in the Sutherland Shire.

Today I announce that a Labor Government will save your local GP Access After Hours Service.

Labor will restore this funding to ensure your community can access the healthcare you deserve. That is central to Labor’s commitment to strengthen Medicare - one of the great divides in values in Australian politics.

 

Labor’s plans for Newcastle and the Hunter will also centre on infrastructure.

Because we know good infrastructure serves communities, it creates secure, well-paid, local jobs and it connects your region to the national economy.

Labor knows it, because we’ve built it.

Whether it was the transformation of the Honeysuckle precinct through Brian Howe’s Better Cities Program, to more recently building the Hunter Expressway and the Minimbah to Maitland Third Rail Line…

Only Labor has provided the investment the region needs.

A new Labor Government will back the Glendale Interchange, helping turn Northwest Lake Macquarie into a new employment superhub.

It will unlock investment and opportunity across the Lower Hunter, creating 3,800 new jobs and spurring the construction of 2,700 new residences.

The Liberals have spent eight years standing in the way of this opportunity. In fact, their first budget cut funding for an earlier stage of this critical project.

Despite the very high benefit to cost analysis, it must have been the wrong colour on the colour coded spreadsheet they use to rort public funding for projects.

And we all know – even if they suddenly pretend to discover this project and support it in the lead-up to the election…they will neverdeliver it.

You can take Labor’s commitment to the bank.

I had the privilege of serving as Australia’s first Minister for Infrastructure.

As Federal Infrastructure Minister, I built and upgraded 7500 kilometres of road, rebuilt a third of the interstate rail freight network and committed more funding to urban rail infrastructure than all our predecessors since Federation combined.

And if I’m elected Prime Minister, I want ours to be the first government that actually gets work underway on High Speed Rail.

My vision is for High Speed Rail that runs from Brisbane to Melbourne.

Creating jobs and connecting communities up and down the east coast of Australia.

We’ve already outlined how our new High Speed Rail Authority will kickstart this nation building project by updating the business case and building on Labor’s work from when we were last in government.

Today, I am proud to announce that – under our Labor Government – the High Speed Rail Authority will make the corridor from Newcastle to Sydney, which includes stops at the Central Coast, its first priority.

The Phase 2 Study, which reported in 2013, identified this corridor as the first component of an eventual line to Brisbane. I appointed a high-level committee to manage the study which included Tim Fischer and Business Council chief, Jennifer Westacott.

We’ll start with a fast rail corridor – but we’ll plan and build for the move to High Speed Rail.

Faster rail would see travel times from Newcastle to Sydney cut to just two hours.

And once High Speed Rail is up and running, this journey would take only 45 minutes.

You’ll be able to jump on the train at 6:30pmand be at Sydney Olympic Park for the start of the Knights game.

It will make the region more connected, giving businesses opportunities for closer collaboration and integration as well as an incentive for people looking to relocate to the region.

It will bring economic benefits to local industries like tourism and hospitality.

And High Speed Rail is a game changer for workers commuting to Sydney.

Of course, investing in rail infrastructure doesn’t stop at the end of the line - the trains that run on the tracks should be made in Australia too.

For decades, the Hunter made trains for Sydney and the NSW network.

Then, the State Liberal Government turned their backs on workers here and decided to buy trains from overseas.

Not because it was cheaper – but because the Liberals don’t believe in local industry and they never support local skills.

The previous Liberal NSW Premier declared that workers in this great State are no good at building trains.

And yet when those overseas built trains and trams keep breaking-down, they can’t be sent back for repairs or replacement.

Instead it’s workers here in the Hunter who have to pick up the pieces.

When Liberal Governments have purchased trains and other transport infrastructure from overseas at the expense of local industry – it has resulted in massive cost blowouts and infrastructure that is not fit for purpose.

But – worse than that – it’s a wasted opportunity.

It’s a waste of people’s potential, it’s a waste of the chance to back the skills and smarts and hard work of Australians.

A Labor Government won’t make that mistake.

Our National Rail Manufacturing Plan will mean that trains should be built here again.

Our Buy Australian plan will mean the same priority will be applied whenever Federal Government is engaged.

That’s because Labor believes in Australian workers, we trust Australian skills.

And in everything from infrastructure and manufacturing to energy and innovation, we will champion a future made in Australia.

 

I’ve chosen to start the year here in the Hunter because I believe this community represents the resilience and resourcefulness of Australia.

There is so much the Hunter can teach us about adaption and change and reconstruction and innovation.

And yet for too long, Liberal politicians in Sydney and Canberra have treated the Hunter as a difficult question to be ignored…

…a challenge to be avoided…

Or a cost to cut.

We see that with the University of Newcastle – smashed by job losses.

Child care fees going up while wages flatline.

Retail and hospitality workers suffering from four and a half years of cuts to penalty rates.

And the ever-growing pressure on doctors and health care workers. Families here feel that – it’s harder and more expensive to see a GP than it was last time Labor was in government.  

Families in the region have been hit with the triple whammy of losing its classification as an area of doctor shortage; having the bulk billing incentive cut and now the outrageous attack on the GP Access After Hours Service.

Labor built Medicare. You can trust us to fix this mess.

Labor believes your region deserves the same investment, the same commitment, the same support for health and education and jobs and skills as every other part of the nation.

We also appreciate that your community is the home of opportunities to be seized - and an example for our country to follow.

Labor’s National Reconstruction Fund is designed to help industries and communities across the country invest in new technologies that will drive our future.

To invest in new jobs, to boost productivity, to back good ideas and to champion emerging industries.

And on so many of those fronts, the Hunter is already leading the way.

When BHP left town, you didn’t drop your bundle. You didn’t give up hope.

You refused to let the skills and smarts and strengths of your workers wither on the vine.

Instead, you diversified, you adapted, you trusted that the very things which had made you leaders in one field, could bring you success in another.

I believe government has a role to play in nurturing great ideas, supporting good jobs and helping our regions and communities respond to economic change – and thrive through it.

There are so many examples of world-class innovation right here that could reach even greater heights with a government that supported science, innovation and advanced manufacturing.

Like MCi, which is trialing a new technology - developed at the University of Newcastle - that transforms captured carbon dioxide emissions into carbonate rock that can be used in building materials.

Or 3ME Technology, which is working to electrify heavy vehicles used in mining, replacing diesel engines with its cutting-edge battery electric systems.

A Labor Government will value great ideas and good jobs. We’ll help our communities through economic change.

No-one held back. No-one left behind.

It’s the Labor way.

 

We are now in the third year of the third decade of the 21st Century.

And – to tell it straight – no honest leader can promise to turn back the clock: on economic change, on energy, on anything.

No true leader can come here and pretend that a few empty words will ‘shake and bake’ things back to how they used to be.

The real test of leadership is twofold.

One - to tell the truth about change.

And two - help people and communities make change that benefits them.

That’s the foundation of Powering Australia, Labor’s plan to meet the challenge of climate change – and seize the opportunity to become a renewable energy superpower.

Our plan is comprehensive – and fully costed. It will save families an average $275 a year on power bills. It will create over 600,000 jobs.

And communities like the Hunter are at the heart of it.

We respect the contribution the coalminers of the Hunter make to Australia’s national success.

We know it is always hard work.

We know that too often it is dangerous work.

And – for as long as there is a Labor Party – we will fight to ensure that it is fairly-paid work, with decent conditions.

Including cutting through the complicated mess of labour hire agreements with a straightforward rule: same job, same pay.

Our Powering Australia plan recognises that, for decades, the workers and businesses of the Hunter have been central to the prosperity of the country’s entire energy sector.

Coal and coal workers continue to be an important part of your economy and community.

But there are opportunities to diversify the products that you export and sell. The energy mix of this region – of our whole country - will change.

That’s the simple, inescapable reality of trading on a global market. Decisions get made in board rooms in Beijing, New York and Tokyo that directly affect us here.

But it’s also the opportunity in front of us now. If you have a government with a plan, and with the foresight to help you seize it.

Just look at the way Liddell is being transformed into a solar and hydro power hub: taking-up a new lease on economic and environmental life.

That shouldn’t be an exception, or a lucky product of a good business doing the right thing – it is a core responsibility for any government.

Ninety per cent of the world’s solar cells are based on technology developed in Australia, but the Liberals’ opposition to renewables meant Australia failed to commercialise that scientific innovation.

A Labor government will partner with you to grab the opportunities in front of us. We’ll back you, and shape a prosperous future together.

The Hunter will continue to be a centre for innovation, ideas and entrepreneurship.

But the Liberals and Nationals have no plan for this region, no faith in its people, no sense of the potential and possibility of this community.

They can’t shape the future – because they’re scared of the present and can’t see beyond the next photo opportunity.

 

In 2022, the choice facing Australians is more clear and more important than ever before.

Do you believe this tired, divided, say-anything, do-nothing government deserves a second decade in power?

Does anyone think they’ll get better with another 3 years in office?

Or do you believe the country needs and deserves a change?

My team and I are seeking renewal, not revolution.

Because our plans for change are not about tearing-down everything that has gone before but rather building up the enduring values which make this a great country.

Our policies are based on the best qualities of the Australian people: compassion, decency, hard work and a fair go.

No one held back, and no one left behind.

And our approach will restore respect and humility and decency and accountability to political life – underwritten by a National Anti-Corruption Commission.

For too long, the Liberals have treated politics as a chance to rort public money and make their mates rich.

For too long, our country has suffered a Prime Minister who thinks his most important job is finding someone else to blame for his failures.

For too long, the Australian people have been let down by a government that repays their courage with cowardice…

…that meets their generosity with cold-heartedness..

..that attacks their aspirations for the future with cynical scare campaigns.

For too long, this government has held our country back.

In 2022, we have a chance to change all that.

It is a mighty task – and a great responsibility.

It is the opportunity of a generation.

It is a chance to make history.

But above all the chance to build a better future.