Victorian Labor Party conference

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.

And I want to say that last night I did one of the best things you can do in Melbourne, The Long Walk to the MCG.

Delegates, it is an absolute pleasure to be here in Victoria, among so many true believers.

I acknowledge the Premier of Victoria, my friend Jacinta Allan who will address you this morning. I acknowledge her family, who I got to meet earlier.

Jacinta is defined by her enthusiasm and by her determination to make Victoria stronger and fairer - stronger because it is fairer.

JA loves this state: from the growing regions she calls home, to the great global city her infrastructure has transformed.

That pride in Victoria, that belief in Victorians and their capacity and that investment in Victoria's future success is the story of her Labor Government.

And that's why, with your help and hard work and dedication and passion, Labor will win again in November.

I acknowledge all my parliamentary colleagues, led by the best Deputy Prime Minister anyone could ask for, Richard Marles.

I also want to acknowledge the Victorian members of the Class of 2025, who joined the Labor Caucus on 3rd of May last year.

It is a privilege to see all of you here together, one year after Australians put their trust in Labor.

After 2022, many commentators said we'd reached our high-water mark in Victoria.

But then Mary Doyle won in Aston.

And Jodie Belyea won in Dunkley. My second favourite Jodie on earth.

And then in 2025, we didn't just hold every seat.

Matt Gregg won Deakin.

Gabriel Ng won Menzies.

Sarah Witty won Melbourne.

And Michelle Ananda-Rajah won a third spot on the Senate ticket - the first time at a half Senate election since 2007.

None of that happened by accident.

It happened because we had outstanding candidates, terrific volunteers and dedicated supporters who worked tirelessly, passionately advocating for our plan to build Victoria's future.

To build Australia's future.

Delegates,

Today marks exactly four years since I had the extraordinary honour of being sworn in as Australia's 31st Prime Minister.

Four years ago, the Australian people rejected the politics of division and denial that defined a wasted decade of Coalition government.

And backed our plan for a better future, a stronger economy and a fairer society.

Where hard work is rewarded and opportunity is expanded.

With no one held back, and no one left behind.

In those four years, the world has thrown a lot at Australia - and we know that uncertainty in the world is still putting people under pressure here at home.

But in the face of global challenges, we've held true to Australian values.

And we've kept our focus on delivering for the Australian people, each and every one.

Demonstrating the power of Labor governments to change things for the better.

That's why we're strengthening Medicare: with record funding for our public hospitals.

And delivering a network of 137 Medicare Urgent Care Clinics - right across the country.

Including 29 we promised in Victoria - every one of which is open, right now, including every weekend.

Those Urgent Care Clinics have been visited more than 620,000 times by Victorians accessing the free healthcare they need, closer to home.

411 Victorian GP clinics have now switched over to bulk-billing every patient, every time.

This takes the total number of fully bulk billing GP clinics in Victoria to over 1,030.

And we've opened new Endo and Pelvic Pain Clinics - from Werribee to Dandenong - because our Labor Government takes women's health seriously.

Now something that in the lead up to 2022, we didn't promise, but we've done it anyway.

For the first time ever, in the Education State, we are putting every student in every government school on the path to full and fair funding.

Investing an additional $2.5 billion in Victorian schools.

Together, our governments are planning and building the suburbs and cities of the future.

Transforming Melbourne's transport infrastructure with projects like the North East Link and the Western Freeway Corridor.

And as part of our generational investment in Airport Rail - as part of SRL - together we are expanding Sunshine Station, and electrifying trains out to Melton.

So we can connect the Airport to the CBD - but also, so we can better connect the CBD to the West.

And of course, I am proud of the Commonwealth's commitment to the transformational Suburban Rail Loop, including an additional $3.8 billion in last week's Budget.

Just a few weeks ago, I was out at the site where tunnel boring machines are being assembled and will be in the ground by the year's end.

The SRL will join up railway lines in four different directions.

Including V/Line services.

Charting a course for Victoria's future.

Slashing travel times and taking cars off the road.

Delivering thousands of jobs.

Fostering the development of new homes close to the schools and jobs in the urban centres that people want to live in.

Reshaping the flow of Melbourne's public transport network so commuters who want to get between suburbs don't have to travel into the city - and then back out again.

This is the sort of project that defines the public transport infrastructure of global cities.

London, Paris, New York.

And through the Suburban Rail Loop, Melbourne will join those peer cities as a modern, future-looking global centre.

Because Labor will deliver it.

Together, federal and Victorian Labor are building more homes.

And together, we are helping more Australians to buy them.

Faster approvals, better planning and more new homes closer to the city - so young Victorians can buy a home in the same neighbourhood where they grew up, close to family and friends.

And greater investment in social and affordable homes, so essential workers can live closer to their vital jobs, school and public transport.

Victoria is also the first home buyer capital of the nation.

Since coming to government, our 5 per cent deposit plan has helped over 80,000 Victorians buy a home of their own.

And through our $47 billion Homes for Australia Plan, we are throwing everything at housing supply.

That includes Help to Buy and Build to Rent.

The National Housing Accord.

And the Housing Australia Future Fund.

Last weekend, I visited a HAFF site in Rosanna with Kate Thwaites and Clare O'Neil.

When I first visited during the election campaign, it was a construction site.

Now, there are 45 new social and affordable homes - right there, where they're needed - next to the train station, right near the shops.

That's what we're building on, all over the country.

And the Liberals want to stop in its tracks.

They have spent four years trying to block every single housing policy we have brought to Parliament.

At the last election, they promised to abolish the HAFF, Build to Rent and Help to Buy.

And last week, they committed to do it all again.

Because they have learned nothing.

Their plan on housing is tools down.

They want to stop construction of tens of thousands of homes across Victoria and the nation.

To remove the Commonwealth's leadership in unlocking new housing supply.

And to make it harder for Australians to get into a home of their own.

Remember this - for most of their time in government, they didn't even bother to have a housing minister.

They are the blockers and the wreckers - we are the builders and we're getting on with it.

Together, we have thrown everything at housing supply.

But it is clear we need to make a bigger difference.

Because it has never been harder for young people to buy a home of their own.

Even though so many of them are doing everything right:

Working hard.

Saving hard for a deposit.

Going to dozens of inspections and auctions.

For so many, it feels like they are paddling furiously, but going nowhere.

And they are right to feel that.

Because the truth is, the system isn't working.

Since 1999, house prices have risen by more than 400 per cent - more than twice as fast as incomes.

And every Saturday, just like every Saturday, young people are out there. They've been missing out. They go to an auction and they're there bidding away for the home that they want to live in. The security that comes from that roof over your head, but the person next to them has got someone else on their side - the Australian taxpayer. And because of the tax breaks that are there, it's not an equal process. Because if it's a matter of an extra $20,000 to bid or $30,000 to bid, they know that they can do that in the comfort that that will be an increase in their tax deduction, that all of you and every Australian taxpayer is their partner here. But if you're trying to buy your own home, you don't have that.

That's why, put simply, we are reforming negative gearing and capital gains.

As a Labor Prime Minister, I refuse to stand back and say, 'We know it's a broken system. We know it's locking the entire generation of the Australians out of the housing market, but if there's only something we could do."

We're doing something. Not the easy thing, but it's the right thing.

Because I want to make this very simple point to the people in this room, but most important, to the people out there: Labor is the party of aspiration and we will not allow Australia to become a country where aspiration is only for some.

Our reforms are about backing aspiration for all.

Bringing the great Australian dream of home ownership back in reach for a new generation.

Our changes are pro-aspiration, and pro-supply, so we can help people get into a home of their own.

We also back aspiration for people to invest in increasing their wealth and their assets. That's a good thing. If people want to invest in property, use negative gearing and build their wealth, good on them.

But from now on there'll be a distinction. They will also be investing in new housing supply.

And that changes the dynamic because when they invest in the property market, they will be investing in their future assets and their future wealth, but they're also investing in the future assets and wealth for our nation.

Friends, we want Australians to earn more and keep more of what they earn.

That's why we have backed 5 consecutive increases to the minimum wage.

There's a really easy figure when you're in your workplace to remember when you're discussing these issues of how many times the Liberals have ever made a submission to the Fair Work Commission supporting the maintenance of real wages or a real increase.

A big duck egg, zero. Has never happened. Really easy to remember. One of the great distinctions in Australian politics.

As a result of the measures we've taken already, the lowest-paid workers are more than $175 a week better off compared to when we took office in 2022.

A few years ago I came to one of these conferences in another state for the north, and then I went to National Conference, and I spoke about junior pay rates, spoke about the need to lift them up. Why was it that you were discriminated against if you were an 18- to 20-year-old and paid less, as I was at that time, working at all sorts of jobs, at Maccas or Grace Brothers or Pancakes on the Rocks or various jobs.

Now, we have done something that you have all helped with through the mighty trade union movement. We have abolished junior pay rates. This is the result of a long, hard-fought campaign. Fought for by the people of this room, I'm sure, not just for years, but over decades. Although, it wasn't that long ago that I was in Year 11.

Finally, 18- to 20-year-olds get paid like the adults that they are.

It's also why in our first term we cut income taxes not just for some, but for every single taxpayer.

And why we will cut them again on the 1st July this year - and we'll cut them again on the 1st July next year.

Our $1000 instant tax deduction will put more money in the pockets of over 6 million taxpayers - especially those on low and middle incomes.

Now, in the Budget we announced our new fifth instalment of our income tax cuts, the Working Australians Tax Offset. Delivering a permanent tax cut of $250 for every Australian wage earner.

Now, all up, these changes mean the average worker will be $2,800 a year better off under Labor.

Now, that's about delivering real, lasting cost-of-living relief into the future.

Taking pressure off households who are doing it tough right now.

But it's also about rebalancing and reforming the tax system so that it better rewards hard work and aspiration, making it fairer into the future.

Because for too long, income from wages - from your labour - has been taxed too heavily compared to income derived from assets.

And that's why the changes we are making to negative gearing and capital gains, to trusts, and to income taxes add up to a better tax system.

Because the fact is that most people are working their guts out for a wage so they can provide for their family and build a better life.

These Australians, millions of hardworking people, will never be able to access a trust. Never sat around a kitchen table and thought, have we thought of setting up a trust? I mean, seriously.

The biggest investment the majority of Australians ever make - and the biggest hope they have - is to work hard and buy a home of their own.

That's what generations of Australians have aspired to. That sense of security. That stake in our economy and our nation's future.

But they want something else as well. They want their kids to have more opportunity than they had. And that's why, when you know that the next generation are doing it tougher than my generation, that you've got to do something about it.

And that's why we're rebalancing the way working Australians pay tax by better aligning income from work with income from assets.

We can open up that aspiration, giving more people a chance to get ahead.

Friends, this is the positive agenda we are arguing for, it's the case we are making all over the country.

The big reforms that only Labor Governments ever deliver. Because we are not in Government to occupy space, to count the years and pass the time.

We are here to change the country for the better. I see the responsibility I have as leader of the Federal Parliamentary Labor Party to the people here, not only the delegates, people here who are the observers, the people who ask for absolutely nothing, except they know in their guts that it's only Labor that does the big things that make a difference to the people who really need a government to make a difference to their lives.

My mum was a life member of the Labor Party. She never held a position as a delegate to the FEC or the SEC or let alone the State Conference. She handed out how to votes, sold raffle tickets, did what she could. She's the sort of person who built our movement, and she's the sort of person as well who lived in one house, public housing. Her whole life. Born and died 65 years later. And she drummed into me, as working class people do, when you get a chance to buy a home, get a roof over your head.

And the message that we're sending through our Budget of just a week ago is a message that's consistent with that which working class people has said to their sons and daughters through generations in this great country. Aspire to a better life than we had. And that's what my Government is doing.

Deepening aspiration. Broadening opportunity. Building our collective economic and social resilience.

We seek to do that for all Australians, not just some - no matter their background, or where they live.

That has always been a fundamental difference between us and our opponents in the three right wing parties and their allies.

And never more so than right now. The Liberals talk Australia down, we're here to build Australia up.

The Liberals want to undercut opportunity, our plan creates opportunity.

The Liberals want to compete One Nation.

We're focused on building up our Australian nation.

One of my opponents is going around talking about the difference between 'migrants' and 'Australians' as if someone cannot be both.

As if somehow, people who work hard and choose this as the place to raise their children and build a better life aren't quite Australian enough.

They have never heard a serious mainstream political leader use that sort of language.

Talking down the contribution of generations of migrant communities.

Parents, grandparents.

Generations of Australians.

That tells you how low the modern Liberal Party have sunk. How far they have drifted from the political centre - and from reality - in their pursuit of the far right.

Delegates, this makes our task all the more important.

It's up to all of us to make the case for positive change.

To deliver the progress that people deserve.

To bring Australians together.

By rewarding aspiration.

Making sure people get a fair crack.

Creating the conditions where people can work towards something that is better because it is shared.

That is what Labor stands for.

That is what Victorian Labor stands for.

It is the future that the people of Victoria deserve.

And it is worth fighting for, together.