May Day is an opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to the values of justice and fairness the fundamental values which motivate the labour movement and the Australian Labor Party.
An opportunity to celebrate the achievements of our movement in the past from the eight hour day to the age pension; from fairness in the workplace and decent employment standards to great Labor reforms like Medicare, superannuation and now DisabilityCare.
An opportunity to reflect on the challenges of the future as we face a federal Liberal Government that wants to take our country backwards by ripping up the notion of a fair and progressive Australian society.
And an opportunity for us all to recommit to defending our vision of what this country is and to building what we know it can be.
The Abbott Government has just released its Commission of Audit report and it reveals a bleak and harsh vision of Australias future.
An Australia where ordinary working families will be hit with cuts and tax hikes while the Government pays wealthy families $50,000 for having a baby.
An Australia where families will have to pay a GP Tax every time they go to the doctor.
An Australia where those who have worked hard and paid taxes all their lives get less from the age pension.
And an Australia where minimum wages will be cut across the nation and then cut even further in small States like South Australia.
What Labor stands for
There is a stark contrast between Tony Abbotts plan to take Australia backwards and Labors vision for the future.
We believe in an Australia where the benefits of prosperity are shared fairly not channelled to the select few.
We believe in an Australia where people can get good jobs on decent conditions, where a decent standard of living can be enjoyed by the many not just the few.
We believe in an Australia where your Medicare card not your credit card gives you access to the health services you need.
An Australia where education is a driver of opportunity, not an instrument of privilege.
An Australia that gives all our young people the opportunity to be the best they can be.
And we believe in an Australia where working people have the right to fair wages and conditions, and where there is a social safety net that lends a helping hand to those in need.
What Australia would look like without Labor
Consider what Australia would look like today if there had been no Labor Party and no trade union movement.
It would be an Australia with a dog eats dog approach to the labour market, where wages and conditions are driven downwards, rather than supported by a safety net of minimum standards.
It would be an Australia with no Medicare, where the quality of healthcare you receive would depend on how much you earn, not on your health needs.
It would be an Australia where the quality of the education your children receive at school would depend on your postcode, and your means, not on the needs of your children.
It would be an Australia where access to university education was reserved for the privileged.
And it would be an Australia which sank into recession during the Global Financial Crisis, with 200,000 more Australians unemployed, instead of continuing to grow and create jobs.
This is what Australia would be like without the Labor Party and the labour movement.
Abbott wants to take us backwards
And that is the Australia that Tony Abbott wants to create.
He is breaking the promises he made before the election.
The Abbott Governments first Budget will cut benefits to families, it will hike taxes and it will cut government services.
It will hurt low and middle income families who are struggling to make ends meet.
He claims there is a Budget emergency.
Yet he can still find the money for his paid parental leave scheme for the top end of town, a scheme which will give wealthy people money when they dont need it.
This so-called Budget emergency is nothing more than a cynical political trick a political trick by the Liberals so they can break their promises to pensioners and hardworking Australians.
A political trick to hide Tony Abbotts deceit of the Australian people.
He told us: no cuts to health, no cuts to education, no changes to the age pension.
We know now that was a lie.
Tony Abbott does not have any idea how hard things can be for struggling low and middle income families.
He has no vision for Australian jobs, no vision for opportunity, no vision for fairness.
He takes from the many to give to the few.
He attacks those who can least afford it.
Tony Abbotts plan for Australia is to entrench privilege at the expense of the vulnerable.
In Abbotts Australia, Holden, Ford and Qantas workers are worried for the future of their jobs but the Government has washed its hands of their plight.
In Abbotts Australia, age pensioners will foot the bill for a millionaires paid parental leave scheme.
In Abbotts Australia, 3.6 million low income earners will have less superannuation which means they will have less income to survive on when they retire.
But at the same time he is restoring tax breaks for the privileged.
This is not the Australia we want for our children.
We can win
That is why we must fight the Abbott Government.
The South Australian election shows the importance of campaigning with passion and with purpose and it shows the importance of never giving up.
Tony Abbott leads one of the most unpopular first term governments in modern Australian political history because Australians are on to him.
We are motivated, as our movement has always been, by a vision of a fair and just nation.
It is a vision that has always demanded work.
It has demanded that we campaign, that we govern, and that we build.
But now it demands that we fight.
So lets mark this May Day by recommitting ourselves to the fight over the next two and a half years to return a Labor Government in Canberra.
Tony Abbott can be beaten and for the good of Australia, and the people we represent, we need to beat him.
This is a fight we must win. And a fight we can win.
ENDS