Indus Age Exclusive: ‘I will build Australia for the long term, and for all Australians, regardless of where they were born’: Bill Shorten, Leader of the Opposition

By BILL SHORTEN

LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION

I welcome this wonderful opportunity to speak with the Indus Age and Australia’s Indian and South Asian communities.

The subcontinent is one of the most important regions in the world for Australia, economically and strategically, and for tourism, migration and trade.

If I am privileged enough to be elected our nation’s next prime minister, I will build Australia for the long term, and for all Australians, regardless of where they were born.

My united team will be ambitious and bold, and we will strive to do our best for you and your family.

Labor is offering the Australian people a fully-funded Fair Go Action Plan:

• Building an economy that works for everyone.
• Investing in an education system that creates opportunity for everyone.
• Fixing the wages system so it delivers for everyone.
• Reforming the tax system so it is fair for everyone.
• Funding a health system that it is there for everyone.

The Australian Labor Party not only supports multiculturalism, we embrace it and value it.

This is why a government I lead will deliver a Fairer Long Stay Parent visa so that Australian families from migrant and multicultural backgrounds can reunite with their loved ones.

The Liberals broke their promise to migrant communities when they forced them to choose between which parents or in-laws they could reunite with. It is heartless, callous and cruel to force families to choose between which parents or in-laws they reunite with by limiting the visa to one set of parents per household.

Under the Liberals’ parent visa program: visas are capped 15,000 places; visas are limited to one set of parents; the cost is $10,000 for a 5-year visa and $5,000 for a 3-year visa; and visas can’t be renewed in Australia.

Under Labor’s Fairer Long Stay Parent Visa: visas will be uncapped; families will be able to reunite with both sets of parents; the cost will be only $2,500 for a 5-year visa or $1,250 for a 3-year visa; and visas will be able to be renewed here in Australia.

Labor understands educational opportunities are an important part of coming to a new country, and Labor will put back every single dollar the Liberals have cut from our public schools.

Our vision for education and training is all about putting Australia on the high road to the future. Labor wants high-skill workers and high-quality products, high-value services and higher-wage jobs. We want to back local businesses and industries. And we support a tax cut for small and medium businesses.

If you vote Labor, we will guarantee universal access to pre-school or kinder for every three year old and every four year old in Australia – 15 hours a week, 40 weeks a year.

We’ll uncap university places, opening the doors of higher education to an additional 200,000 Australians.

Labor will provide more than $1 billion in additional investment in TAFE, including:

• $50 million for 10,000 Pre-apprenticeship Programs.
• $83 million to support 20,000 Adult Apprentices.
• $200 million for the Building TAFE for the Future Fund.
• $380 million for 100,000 fee-free TAFE Places.
• $334 million for 150,000 Additional Apprentice Incentives.

Labor will also properly fund the health system and our hospitals.

We will spend $2.3 billion on our Medicare Cancer Plan, investing $600 million towards eliminating all the out-of-pocket costs for diagnostic imaging. Over four years, this will mean six million free cancer scans, funded by Medicare.

On tax, the Liberals’ plan does not do enough for 2.9 million Australians who earn less than $40,000. About 57 per cent of these are women, childcare workers and classroom assistants, hairdressers and parents returning to work, often part-time.

Labor will provide 3.6 million working Australians with a bigger tax refund than the Liberals.

We will make our tax system fairer for everyone, not just the big end of town. If you earn between $48,000 and $126,000, Labor will ensure you get the same tax refund that the Liberals have promised.

Labor will also make it easier for young people to buy a home of their own. We will reform unfair negative gearing and capital gains tax concessions that benefit property investors over first homebuyers.

People who are currently negative gearing will not be affected. However, if you want to access it in the future, you will need to build a new house.

If these things matter to you, if you believe that the most important things are family and health, then I urge you to vote Labor.

If you believe that’s what sort of vision we should have for Australia – then choose a Shorten Labor Government, for all Australians.

(The views expressed are personal).