Extract from The Guardian website:
‘I
don’t want the papers to be writing about our differences – I want them
to be writing about our ideas,’ says opposition leader
- Daniel Hurst, political correspondent
Bill Shorten has warned that Labor will not win the next election
with the same policies it presented to voters last year or by merely
campaigning against budget cuts.
The opposition leader issued a call for party unity as he launched a national policy development forum in Melbourne on Friday.
Shorten, who helped roll Kevin Rudd as prime minister in 2010 and ultimately supported the replacement of Julia Gillard last year, said the party must agree that the days of disunity were over.
“All of us have a voice in this forum – a voice that will be heard,” Shorten told party members at the closed-doors event, according to speaking notes provided by his office.
“But when we arrive at a consensus, when we reach a policy position, we have an obligation to speak with one voice – shadow ministers, caucus members, rank and file members, trade unions and party organisations alike.
“When our policy is agreed, all of us must lock in behind it. I don’t want the papers to be writing about our differences – I want them to be writing about our ideas and our policies.
“I want them to be writing about the differences between us and the conservatives; about how we’re looking out for working people and they’re looking after vested interests.”
Shorten said Labor would not win the election due in 2016 with the policies of 2013 and could “not sit back and hope that the cruel cuts of Liberal governments will deliver us an electoral dividend”.
Underlining the need for an alternative policy vision, Shorten said he wanted Labor to be “the party of small business and entrepreneurs” and of farmers “who know the danger of climate change better than anyone”.
He wanted science to be a first-order political issue and for the party to think about helping people deal with loneliness, a loss of community and rising levels of mental illness and exclusion.
“The only time our opponents talk about family is when someone like Kevin Andrews or Cory Bernardi sets off on a new social engineering frolic,” he said.
“Only Labor knows that it doesn’t matter if you’re a nuclear family, or a blended family – what matters is giving children the love and support and security they need.”
Last week, Labor’s spokeswoman on families and payments, Jenny Macklin, announced separate plans to review the party’s social policy. Elements of the former Gillard government’s approach to welfare have previously attracted criticism, including the 2012 budget decision to move tens of thousands of single parents from the parenting payment to the lower Newstart allowance if their youngest child was aged over eight years.
Labor’s national policy forum convened on Friday and will meet again on Saturday as part of broad discussions about the party’s direction in the lead-up to the next national conference. It involved about 60 MPs, shadow ministers, rank-and-file members and union representatives.
Shorten posed a series of questions to the policy forum, including whether this would be the last generation to deny marriage equality, doubt the threat of climate change, have a free and universal Medicare, and know an Australian manufacturing industry.
The forum follows a parliamentary sitting week dominated by debate over the future of Qantas, during which Abbott accused the Labor leadership of playing “short term populist politics” and being quick to complain rather than to lead.
Shorten has previously spoken of the need to “be a positive opposition, not relentlessly negative like the [Coalition] was when they were in opposition”.
The opposition leader issued a call for party unity as he launched a national policy development forum in Melbourne on Friday.
Shorten, who helped roll Kevin Rudd as prime minister in 2010 and ultimately supported the replacement of Julia Gillard last year, said the party must agree that the days of disunity were over.
“All of us have a voice in this forum – a voice that will be heard,” Shorten told party members at the closed-doors event, according to speaking notes provided by his office.
“But when we arrive at a consensus, when we reach a policy position, we have an obligation to speak with one voice – shadow ministers, caucus members, rank and file members, trade unions and party organisations alike.
“When our policy is agreed, all of us must lock in behind it. I don’t want the papers to be writing about our differences – I want them to be writing about our ideas and our policies.
“I want them to be writing about the differences between us and the conservatives; about how we’re looking out for working people and they’re looking after vested interests.”
Shorten said Labor would not win the election due in 2016 with the policies of 2013 and could “not sit back and hope that the cruel cuts of Liberal governments will deliver us an electoral dividend”.
Underlining the need for an alternative policy vision, Shorten said he wanted Labor to be “the party of small business and entrepreneurs” and of farmers “who know the danger of climate change better than anyone”.
He wanted science to be a first-order political issue and for the party to think about helping people deal with loneliness, a loss of community and rising levels of mental illness and exclusion.
“The only time our opponents talk about family is when someone like Kevin Andrews or Cory Bernardi sets off on a new social engineering frolic,” he said.
“Only Labor knows that it doesn’t matter if you’re a nuclear family, or a blended family – what matters is giving children the love and support and security they need.”
Last week, Labor’s spokeswoman on families and payments, Jenny Macklin, announced separate plans to review the party’s social policy. Elements of the former Gillard government’s approach to welfare have previously attracted criticism, including the 2012 budget decision to move tens of thousands of single parents from the parenting payment to the lower Newstart allowance if their youngest child was aged over eight years.
Labor’s national policy forum convened on Friday and will meet again on Saturday as part of broad discussions about the party’s direction in the lead-up to the next national conference. It involved about 60 MPs, shadow ministers, rank-and-file members and union representatives.
Shorten posed a series of questions to the policy forum, including whether this would be the last generation to deny marriage equality, doubt the threat of climate change, have a free and universal Medicare, and know an Australian manufacturing industry.
The forum follows a parliamentary sitting week dominated by debate over the future of Qantas, during which Abbott accused the Labor leadership of playing “short term populist politics” and being quick to complain rather than to lead.
Shorten has previously spoken of the need to “be a positive opposition, not relentlessly negative like the [Coalition] was when they were in opposition”.
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