Address to the National Press Club

Thank you, Laura, and can I join in paying my respects to the memory of Ken Randall and offer my condolences to his family and friends.

I begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet and I pay my respects to their elders past, present and emerging.

I acknowledge all my colleagues joining me here today.

Everywhere we've been this summer, the work of building Australia's future is underway.

A $7.2 billion investment to boost productivity and make the Bruce Highway safer.

Upgrading key roads in Western Sydney and vital ports in Western Australia, connecting communities with economic opportunity.

Building new homes for Australians in our cities and regions - from Cairns and Karratha to Heidelberg and Hobart.

Finishing the NBN with fibre, not copper, delivering high speed access and keeping it in public hands.

Now it's no secret I've always loved infrastructure.

Infrastructure matters to me because I've seen the difference it can make to people: to communities, to our regions, to our economy, to our national quality of life.

However, I know that building Australia's future is about more than homes and roads and ports and broadband.

More than bricks and mortar.

Building Australia's future is about all of us.

Every one of us, in every part of our country.

Tradies and farmers, small business owners, teachers and nurses.

Building Australia's future is about your future.

Because it's your effort and sacrifice and aspiration that powers our economy and nourishes our society.

And that effort should bring you fair reward.

The hard work you do enhances and shapes our country - and it should add up to a better life, for you and your family.

That's why building Australia's future means building better Medicare.

Like the 87 new Urgent Care Clinics we've opened right around the nation.

Clinics that have already helped more than a million Australians see a doctor for free.

And in order to keep growing our economy and creating prosperity, building Australia's future is about what we sell to our region and the world.

Manufacturing workers turning resources the world needs into products the world wants, through our plan for a Future Made in Australia.

Aluminium workers in Tomago, Gladstone, Portland and Bell Bay gaining new security because we're connecting them to cleaner and cheaper energy.

Farmers and fishers and producers exporting world class beef and barley and wine and seafood to China again, because we have stabilised our relationship.

And building Australia's future is about training Australians for that future.

Free TAFE has given 600,000 Australians the chance to learn new skills for new jobs.

Free TAFE has changed lives - and we want to expand on this success.

Because we recognise the next generation of tradies, the people we're counting on to build the new homes we need, are under significant financial pressure.

Right now, a first-year carpentry apprentice earns about two-thirds of the minimum wage.

Some apprentices earn even less.

That's before you buy things like tools, safety gear, clothing and boots.

Many apprentices have said they could earn more stacking shelves at the supermarket.

And too many leave training, because they can't afford to stay.

Our Government wants to encourage more Australians to learn a trade and stay in construction.

That's why we are going to provide more support for tradies while they're training.

Today, I announce we will be raising the allowance paid to apprentices who are living away from home.

The first time this payment has been increased in over two decades.

And, in occupations essential for residential construction, jobs like bricklayers, electricians, plumbers and carpenters, we will be providing eligible apprentices up to $10,000 through our new Housing Construction Apprenticeship Program.

Five payments of $2000 each, on top of their wages.

This means that apprentices in residential construction will now get the same training incentives as those in the energy sector.

More new homes, more new energy - and more support for the tradies who will build both.

My colleagues and I know there's more we have to do.

To keep building an economy that works for people, not the other way around.

To bring more good jobs and stronger Medicare and new housing and better education to suburbs and communities that have been overlooked for too long.

To help more Australians make up the ground they've lost over years of global uncertainty and a wasted decade of Liberal neglect.

Cleaning up the mess the Liberals and Nationals left behind would be more than three years' work in ordinary times - let alone during the global storm we've faced.

Like every other advanced economy, Australia has had to deal with global inflation and its consequences.

Here in Australia, inflation peaked lower and later than most.

The United States, the United Kingdom and Canada all endured higher rates of inflation, higher interest rates, rising unemployment and slower job creation.

When we came to government inflation was rising and wages were falling - we've turned both around.

Inflation had a 6 in front of it and was rising - now it has a 2 in front of it.

Back in the Reserve Bank target band for the first time since 2021.

Inflation is down.

Wages are up.

And 1.1 million new jobs have been created.

Under our Government, Australia has maintained a faster rate of employment growth than any G7 nation, bar none.

Faster than Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the USA.

And stronger economic growth than any G7 country bar the United States.

This is because, from the outset, we made a choice to get inflation down, without treating people as expendable.

And it was a choice.

Our Opponents made it clear, they would have made a very different one.

They said - loudly and often - we should have cut everything, frozen investment, turned our backs on people and turned the whole place off at the wall.

But that's not the Australian way - and it's certainly not the Labor way.

When Australians are making sacrifices, we refused to sacrifice their jobs and wages, their Medicare and child care.

And we refused to give up on shaping the future.

Because even when you're navigating rough seas - you have to keep your eyes on the horizon.

And while my colleagues and I are encouraged by the progress Australia has made and confident that the worst is behind us, we recognise things are still hard for people.

I can promise every Australian this.

We will keep working, every day, to get your costs down.

To get your wages up.

And to keep inflation where it should be.

Delivering two consecutive budget surpluses for the first time in nearly two decades has helped put that downward pressure on inflation.

These back to back budget surpluses are a credit to the hard work of Jim Chalmers and Katy Gallagher.

They are a measure of our responsible economic management.

And so is the fact that annual real wages growth is back, four quarters in a row.

So is the fact that the gender pay gap is at an all-time low.

So is the fact that bulk-billing is on the way back up.

Because when it comes to the economy and the budget, a Government's responsibility goes beyond making savings and cutting waste.

Responsible economic management is about boosting wages and job security, funding the services families count on.

And responsible economic management is about meeting your responsibility to the future.

Investing in the energy and industry and infrastructure and trade and technology that will power our growth in the years ahead.

And investing in Australians - people's skills and education, housing and health care, the next generation of secure, well-paid jobs in every part of our country.

In all this, the contrast between us and our opponents is night and day.

We're strengthening Medicare, the Liberals want to cut it.

We're growing wages, they want to cut them back and keep them low.

We're looking after people's jobs, the Liberals say we should sacrifice them.

We're building new energy to bring bills down now, their nuclear fantasy means pressing the pause button for 20 years and then funding the most expensive form of new energy on the planet.

We're backing a Future Made in Australia, the Liberals are happy to send jobs offshore.

They dismissed our plan to put nurses back into aged care and lift the pay of those who deliver and dignity to our older Australians.

And while we are investing in education - they oppose it at every turn.

The Liberals say reducing student debt by 20 per cent is 'unfair'.

Their Deputy Leader says that 600,000 Australians who have been given a chance to learn new skills through Free TAFE, don't value that opportunity because they didn't pay for it.

They mock the 15 per cent pay rise we are delivering for early educators and they stand against our plans to build new child care centres - and make child care more affordable for families.

Two weeks ago, the Leader of the Opposition published a list of his 12 priorities for government.

Education and skills didn't even rate a mention.

For Labor, nothing is more important to building Australia's future than education.

Early education.

TAFE and apprenticeships.

University.

And, of course, schools.

Fourteen years ago in his landmark report, David Gonski outlined a national Schooling Resource Standard.

A level of funding, calculated per student, designed to ensure no Australian child would be left behind.

As a nation, we've never reached that level for public schools.

We've never met that standard.

Today we take a big step forward, to making it happen.

Today I announce we have secured new schools funding agreements with South Australia and Victoria.

They join the ACT, Northern Territory, Tasmania and Western Australia.

Meaning six of the states and territories are now signed up to Better and Fairer Schools, to meet the standards in education Australian children deserve.

I want to take this opportunity to thank Premier Malinauskas and Premier Allan for their co-operation.

And I also want to thank Premier Crisafulli and Premier Minns for their constructive engagement.

Today is about a principle that has driven me my whole life: no-one held back and no-one left behind.

Making sure that every child in government schools gets the support they need to thrive.

Because this agreement is not about dividing-up the same amount of dollars in a different way.

Instead, both levels of government, are stepping up our commitment to schools over the decade.

Importantly this new agreement means accounting practices like capital depreciation can no longer be counted as education investment.

Instead, every dollar of funding will go into helping children learn.

This will mean more money than ever for public schools - but it's not a blank cheque.

Our new funding is for real reform and it will deliver real results.

Because what we are offering every state and territory is new Commonwealth investment in the fundamentals.

The methods and resources that work, that make the biggest difference.

Evidence-based instruction.

Phonics and numeracy testing in Year 1: identifying students who need extra help early on, not waiting until they've fallen behind.

Classroom assistants and catch-up tutoring for small groups and one-on-one.

More opportunities for students who need an extra challenge.

More support for every teacher and more individual attention for every child.

This is about every parent knowing that their child can get the best start in life at their local school.

Education opens the doors of opportunity and widens them.

It changes lives.

A great education is what every parent wants for their child, it's what every Australian student deserves.

And it's what our Government is determined to deliver.

Building Australia's future through every stage of education, will be a defining priority of a re-elected Labor Government.

And it is a defining point of difference between us and our opponents.

As is helping with the cost of living.

Over the past three years, the Liberals and Nationals have opposed every single measure we have delivered to help people under pressure.

Peter Dutton sneers at them as 'sugar hits'.

The Liberals talk about waste.

This is the party that gave billions of dollars in JobKeeper payments to companies making record profits.

They wasted hundreds of millions of dollars on commuter carparks that weren't even anywhere near train stations, something to keep in mind next time you hear them talk about 'getting back on track'.

The Liberals voted to make medicine more expensive and harder to get.

They opposed two years of energy bill relief for families and small business.

And they promised to fight our tax cuts for every Australian before they even saw them.

Now after all this, the Liberals want every taxpayer to pick up the bill for long business lunches, trips to the movies, golf days and karaoke nights.

And they don't even have the decency to tell taxpayers how much this will cost them.

All through the past three years, the Liberals have openly sought to make Australians worse off, here and now.

And they have publicly and repeatedly committed to sweeping cuts that will leave Australians worse off in the future.

When Peter Dutton talks about 'economic surgery', he means cutting wages off at the knees - and putting Medicare on life support.

The Liberals are prescribing a lethal dose of cuts to all the help we have provided families with their cost of living, and to all the investments we are making in jobs and communities through a Future Made in Australia.

Dutton's 'economic surgery' won't be done with a scalpel, it will be carried out with an axe.

Hacking away at jobs and wages and Medicare, child care and housing.

And let's be clear: when it comes to paying for their nuclear reactors, all these Liberal cuts won't even touch the sides.

All that money they want ripped out of Medicare and child care and TAFE.

All those new jobs and opportunities in manufacturing and technology forsaken.

All those homes and child care places and doctors' appointments taken away every year, for seven nuclear reactors that won't be ready until sometime in the 2040s.

A scheme that costs way too much, takes way too long and will push up power bills while dragging down economic growth.

That's based on the Liberals' own numbers.

The modelling they commissioned forecasts the Australian economy using 40 per cent less energy in the future.

They are banking on the closure of heavy industry and manufacturing.

They are counting on mass job losses.

Just like when they drove car industry out of Australia.

Nuclear power means lower wages, in a smaller economy, with less energy, that costs more.

That's the choice the Liberals have made.

And it means the choice facing Australians is crystal clear.

There is Labor, strengthening Medicare, investing in education, building Australia's future.

Or there is Peter Dutton, his nuclear reactors and cuts to everything else.

This is the 10th time I've spoken at the National Press Club as Labor Leader.

I've focused today on the choice Australia is facing this year.

The challenges we've overcome, the opportunities ahead - and the risks.

Because I've always seen this as the place where you come to make your case.

To explain what your plan means for people - and to have it tested by the national media.

That's what I did this time last year, when I stood here to announce we were changing the tax plan we inherited from the Morrison Government to make it better and fairer.

To deliver a tax cut for all 13.6 million taxpayers, not just some.

To make sure that part time workers, young people, women and low and middle income earners didn't miss out.

To help Australians earn more - and keep more of what they earn.

It wasn't an easy decision. But it was the right decision, made for the right reasons.

Tomorrow marks the one year anniversary of that announcement, and the anniversary of the Opposition Leader demanding an election to stop our tax cuts going ahead.

When you think about that moment, our Government acting to help Australians under pressure, and the Liberals and Nationals trying to stop it at all costs.

That sums up so much of the last three years - and it speaks volumes for the choice Australians have to make about the next three years.

Because this year's election is not a matter of competing plans striving for the same outcome.

It's not two roads that ultimately lead to the same destination.

This election is a choice between two fundamentally different approaches and vastly different agendas.

Two completely different visions for our nation, for our economy, for our people and our place in the world.

It's a choice between Labor's plan to help Australians under pressure and reward their hard work, against the Liberals' promise to cut what is helping and abandon people who are hurting.

It's a choice between our determination and optimism or their fear and negativity.

It's Labor's belief in the opportunities this decade holds and our plan for Australians to seize them, against the Liberals' view that Australia can't compete and shouldn't try.

It's Labor's focus on helping people earn more and keep more of what they earn, against the Liberals' plan to make Australians work longer for less.

This difference, this contrast means that when the time comes for Australians to cast their vote, people can know with absolute certainty that there are things only Labor can offer, things only a Labor Government will do.

Because only Labor has a plan to keep the economy growing, in the face of global uncertainty.

Only Labor will keep wages up and inflation down.

Only Labor will not just defend Medicare - but grow it and strengthen it for all.

Only Labor will invest in your child's education, from their first day at child care, right through to their last day of school and beyond.

Only Labor will help you with your apprenticeship, cut your student debt by 20 per cent and lock-in free TAFE nationwide.

Only Labor will build the new homes we need - and build the clean energy to cut our emissions, bring down power bills and make things here in Australia

Meanwhile, the Liberals are upfront - it's spelled out behind them nearly every time they stand up - they want to take Australia back.

Back to aged care in crisis, back to bulk-billing in free-fall, back to child care being out of reach.

Back to an economic plan that boasted about shutting manufacturing down.

Back to keeping wages low.

Back to Australia being isolated on the world stage - and adrift in the Pacific.

Back to women's economic equality being treated as a curiosity not a priority.

Back to chaos and conflict.

That's why at this year's election, your choice has never been more clear.

And the consequences of your choice - for your job, your wage, your child's education, your health care and our environment - have never been more immediate.

There's a reason my opponent hasn't fronted up here, his whole time as Opposition Leader.

He doesn't like questions, because he doesn't have any real answers.

He's obsessed with talking Australia down, to try and build himself up.

But this is not a time for wrecking, for cutting, for thinking small, aiming low and looking back.

This is a time for building, for looking after people and looking to the future, for a Labor Government investing in the hard work and aspiration of all Australians.

Thank you very much.

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