Speech - Chifley Research Centre - Canberra

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.

It's an absolute pleasure to be here for the re-launch of the Chifley Research Centre.

And there is no better or more important time for the labour movement to have its ideas and interests represented in the national conversation.

Because in 2026, as we have seen, the public debate is not shaped by a handful of trusted media outlets alone.

The terms are not set solely by what the papers say in the morning or the TV news says at night.

Our media landscape and our political debate has never been more diverse and more fragmented, more self-selecting and more polarised.

That means there is a greater need and a bigger role for the advocacy of informed, thoughtful progressive organisations like yours.

Above all, it means governments embarking on economic reform cannot sit back and assume people will come to us, to hear our arguments.

I've just been out with the Treasurer and the Housing Minister and the Member for Canberra, Alicia Payne this morning, putting a face to the reform of what we have achieved.

In this case, Matt and Mika and their dog Pikelet, at their flat in Kingston here, who are one of the 250,000 people, families, who have benefited from our five per cent deposit scheme.

Making an enormous difference, putting that human face on what is a really important reform.

It does mean that we have to take our case to Australians, everywhere and every way we can.

And that goes deeper than the platform we use, it's about the policies we deliver.

At a time when people feel like the economy isn't working for them, that their hard work isn't adding up to fair reward, that the great Australian dream is out of their reach.

We cannot wish that sentiment away, by trying to defend a system and a status quo that people know is simply not delivering.

Instead, we have to demonstrate the power of government to change the system, to change the country and to change people's lives for the better.

That sense of purpose and urgency is at the centre of our Government's agenda.

And it was at the heart of the Budget that our Treasurer and - of course a proud former Chifley Director, Dr Jim Chalmers - delivered on Tuesday night.

Of course, the war in the Middle East has created new challenges - and underlined existing ones as well.

The biggest-ever spike in global fuel prices, is pushing up inflation and putting Australians under pressure.

And the strain on international supply chains is exposing structural problems in our economy brought about by decades of sending manufacturing offshore, hollowing-out TAFE, closing-down refineries, because, we were told, there would always be someone else, somewhere else, who could make things cheaper than we could here in Australia.

The stable, predictable world of ever-expanding free trade that enabled such a mindset has gone - and it's not coming back.

Again, this presents Australia with a clear choice.

We can look back - or we can back ourselves.

We choose to back ourselves.

We can cling to the remains of the old model - or we can build a new one.

We can seize this opportunity to build a stronger, fairer, more productive economy.

An Australia that is more resilient, more sovereign and more self-reliant.

Because we make more things here.

Because we make the most of our national advantages - not just our traditional resources or our critical minerals and clean energy, but our skills and services, our ideas and research.

The aspiration and innovation of our small businesses and start-ups.

The investing power of our superannuation funds.

And our international relationships too: our trade ties to the fastest growing region of the world in human history.

Our defence and security partnerships - from AUKUS and our new agreement with the European Union, to our historic treaty with Indonesia and our Alliance with PNG.

Every one of these relationships is reinforced by the family connection that our diaspora communities give us to every country on earth.

Our Budget builds on all of this.

With new investments in our fuel and energy security, to keep Australia moving:

A $7.5 billion fuel and fertiliser facility, helping shield our farmers, miners and truckies from the worst of the global oil shock, and to safeguard our economy against the flow-on effects.

$3.2 billion for a permanent, government-owned fuel reserve.

We are establishing a domestic gas reservation, so Australian industry can access affordable Australian gas.

We're delivering new measures to support small business too:

Making the $20,000 instant asset write off, permanent.

Introducing two-year loss carry-back for all companies up to $1 billion.

And reforming the Research and Development Tax Incentive as well as the Performance Test, so we get more investment flowing into the drivers of productivity.

Building our national resilience is also about empowering more Australians with a share in our national success.

Making sure people have a stake in our economy and a stake in their future.

That's where reforming - and rebalancing - our tax system is absolutely critical.

For too long, governments have taxed wages and work too heavily.

That's why we cut income taxes for every single taxpayer on the 1st July, 2024.

We will cut them again on the 1st July this year - and again next year.

That's why we intervened in 2024 to make sure that we took the tough decision to change our position on Stage Three, and to say, 'well, people on my income didn't need all the support, while people on lower and middle incomes missed out'.

We intervened to make a difference there.

That's why the fourth element of our tax cuts were done in a short period of time.

We'll back that in with our new $1,000 Instant Tax Deduction.

This will benefit around 6 million low and middle income earners.

If you listen to some of the commentators, they would think that those people simply don't exist because they get written out of the equation.

But people who don't have an accountant to help them navigate the system, track their expenses and claim deductions they are entitled to, they deserve this break.

It's also a productivity measure, of course, as well, in simplifying the system.

And on Tuesday night, we continued this work, with our permanent, $250 Working Australians Tax Offset, benefiting over 13 million Australians.

Helping Australians earn more, keep more of what they earn - and get more back at tax time as well.

Five significant reforms, making a difference.

The other area where we need to rebalance the tax system and rebuild resilience is home ownership.

At our campaign launch last year, I quoted from the report that Ben Chifley commissioned during his time as Minister for Reconstruction.

That report said that housing was:

"not only the need but the right of every citizen"

That same belief drives our Government's policies on housing - and home ownership.

Because we know that home of your own is about more than a roof over your head.

It is the secure foundation on which you can build a life and start a family.

We know the best way to help more Australians buy a home, is to boost housing supply.

And we've thrown everything at it.

Over the last four years, we've been working to build more homes.

The new funding in this week's Budget: to speed up approvals and to build connecting infrastructure like roads, power and sewerage, will make a difference.

It takes the total investment in our Homes for Australia plan to $47 billion.

We have thrown everything at supply:

Free TAFE and our $10,000 incentive for construction apprenticeships and electrical apprenticeships to train more tradies to build those homes.

100,000 new homes being set aside for first home buyers.

New social and affordable homes being delivered through Build to Rent and the Housing Australia Future Fund.

Both programs that the Coalition last night said they would get rid of.

The mob that had 370 social housing homes being built during their almost decade in office, now has opposed the HAFF, opposed Build to Rent, wants to wind it back, back again.

We have new incentives for states and territories to unlock land for development.

And we are making progress.

The home this morning in Kingston that we went to, one of 250,000 homes bought with just a 5 per cent deposit.

And that young couple told us - they just got married earlier this year, they would have had to put that off.

But they've been able to get their dog, Pikelet, and plan for the future, that they simply weren't able to do.

Matt grew up in Victoria.

Mika grew up in Sydney.

They met through work.

And are building a life together.

And it was just delightful to be with real people who actually understood the difference that government decisions can make, and to see firsthand what they've been able to do.

Their pride in the bookshelves that they got someone to come in and put into the wall.

Because it's their home, and they want to make it as liveable and as wonderful and as reflective of their character.

Because they know they won't be just there for a week or a year.

They'll be there for as long as they want to be.

And that is what it is about.

Thousands more are taking up Help to Buy.

A shared equity scheme based upon a scheme that's been operating in WA for 50 years now.

But they want to get rid of that as well.

But the truth is that we know there are still too many Australians missing out.

Because the tax system is working against them - and has been for decades.

Aspiring first home buyers are being locked out of the market by tax breaks that favour property investors.

Last Saturday there would have been auctions where first home buyers were there bidding against investors.

And investors have an advantage, because they know that if they have to kick in that extra tens of thousands of dollars in order to win the bidding process, that will be a deduction.

This will level the playing field for existing homes.

The distortions have become entrenched, widening a gap between the generations - and eating-away at aspiration.

Since 1999, when the changes to capital gains were introduced, house prices have risen by more than 400 per cent.

More than two times as fast as average incomes.

So let's be clear, this generation are not imagining things.

They don't say it's harder for you than it was for you, for my generation, because they're imagining it.

It's because it is.

And I wasn't prepared as Prime Minister to say, 'all that's true, if only there was something I could do about it', and just stand still.

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

They're working hard, making sacrifices, doing everything right, and after months, even years, of going around inspections and missing out on auctions, they've gone beyond talking about buying their first home being 'difficult'.

They are this close to giving up, altogether.

That was the choice for our Government.

Would we sit back and watch the Australian dream that we talk about, colloquially, owning your own home.

And would we see that just disappear and become something of history - or would we take action, would we take responsibility?

You can make real change that makes a real difference, even if that carries a political risk.

That is the choice we made in our Budget.

That's what our reforms are all about.

Importantly as well, contrary to the questions asked in Parliament this week and the chaos that was behind the train wreck that was behind last night.

It didn't make it through the first interview and 7.30 without completely collapsing in the public.

No costings, no answers to anything at all.

What we're doing, it's still allowing negative gearing.

People can invest.

But the difference between investing in an existing home and investing in a new home, a new build, is simply this:

If people, investors, want to negatively gear and invest in growing their future assets and wealth, that's fine.

If they're doing that in an existing home, then they're competing against first home owners, in particular.

People who want that roof over their head to live in the home.

And they have an advantage, by definition - the tax system.

But that is simply unfair, and it has entrenched a division which is there.

But from now on their investment will also deliver a return for the country - by boosting housing supply.

The difference is, if they're investing in a new build in order to build their assets and their future wealth, they're also investing in the nation's future assets and future wealth.

Because they're building supply.

And that's why our reform is pro-supply, pro-aspirations of people both investing and owning their own home.

And that's why we will be out there each and every day arguing for what the policy is, and the criticisms are all about what the policy isn't.

Including on the front page of a couple of papers today, talking about things that just aren't there, going forward as well from the usual sources.

So this will be an enormous difference.

Within less than 24 hours of our Budget outlining these generational reforms, the Liberal and National parties declared that not only would they oppose them - they intended to repeal them.

Sound familiar?

The last election campaign, they said they'd repeal our tax cuts as well.

Angus Taylor went to the last election promising higher taxes for all 14 million Australians.

Now, he said he would go to the next election saying he'll repeal our housing reforms.

He has staked his leadership on a plan to bring back a system that Australians know is broken.

And that tells you everything about the cul-de-sac the Liberals have driven themselves into.

On every issue that matters - not only are the Coalition in denial about the challenges facing Australians, they are actively campaigning against the solutions.

And that is a choice that will define the next two years.

The Liberals seeking to entrench unfairness.

The Liberals focusing solely on fighting One Nation.

Labor fighting to build our nation for everyone, for all Australians going forward.

Only the Labor Party are fighting to expand opportunity and to support aspiration.

And in the Budget Reply last night, just one of the little nuances that were there, to show where their focus is, a distinction that I haven't heard any serious political leader in mainstream politics use before - he spoke about Australians and migrants.

I was born here. I'm a proud Australian, but I also know that people who come here and build a life in business, in politics, in civil society, in communities right around this great country are proud Australians as well.

And it's a distinction that frankly diminishes Angus Taylor in this country, and in my view, simply discounts his legitimacy to lead the whole of Australia.

A country that, with the exception of First Nations Australians, are all migrants or descendants of migrants.

In the Government he led, Ben Chifley served as both Prime Minister and Treasurer.

A bit like Scott Morrison…except that people actually knew about it.

In 1949, Chifley concluded his final Budget speech by saying:

"I believe also that our present problems of fuel and power can be solved, opening up immense industrial possibilities.

Housing, difficult though it has been in recent years, will be steadily overcome if we keep up our efforts."

A reminder to us all that in the life of a nation, challenges come and go…and sometimes they come back.

But the resonance of Chifley's words goes beyond coincidence.

Because he backed that note of optimism, with a call to action.

He went on:

"We should accept as a common aim the future greatness and security of Australia, and as a common responsibility that it rests with us in our own generation to do our utmost to achieve these things."

Eight decades of change separates Ben Chifley's Australia from ours.

Yet the Budget we delivered this week holds true to those same values.

The same imperative to build our national resilience, to invest in our energy security and make more things here.

And the same ambition for Australia's future.

The same confidence in our people and their ability to solve the problems confronting us and seize the opportunities ahead of us.

And - every bit as importantly - the same sense of responsibility to the next generation.

The oldest and most Australian aspiration of them all: passing on a better life with greater opportunity to those who come after us.

In a time of global uncertainty, these are the enduring Australian values that shaped our Budget.

They are the values that drive our Government.

And they are the values that will shape and secure our nation's future.

I wish you all the best for your conference.