Thank you to the Chifley Research Centre for inviting me to speak here today, and for bringing us together for this important and valuable conference.
And thank you to all of you for being here.
Well, we come together in difficult times losing government is deeply disappointing.
But, even worse, is the prospect of the Australia that Tony Abbott seeks to fashion in his own image.
His will be a government for the few.
His will be a secretive government.
They are already keeping secrets and telling lies.
We know that contesting the conservative agenda will be a colossal task.
But, contest it we must.
And, while we must learn the lessons of our loss, we do not have the time nor the space to indulge in blame.
Now, we must both defend our legacy and we must be prepared to renew.
And we must be clear-sighted about meeting the political tests and policy questions of today, and for the future.
Above all, we must work very, very hard.
My past experience of opposition is that it is nine-tenths discipline, one-tenth luck.
And it is our response to adversity that will be our true test of character.
We are here today, not just because we are Labor people.
We are here today because we believe that a strong and vibrant and successful Labor Party is good for the nation.
And conferences such as these provide the springboard for the ideas of Australias future.
The work we do today and in the months ahead is central to the rebuilding of our Party.
Re-defining and re-invigorating Labor is a recurrent theme in our political heritage.
And so it should be.
Because Labor, at its best, is the party of reform.
We are a party that looks ahead.
A party that understands the present and anticipates the future, while being grounded in a shared understanding of our values.
Our movement never has been and never should be defined by static references.
We understand that the world changes; that the times change; that the economic tasks change; and that our community changes.
By its very nature, progressive politics demands continued renewal.
In our national political life, Labors task is the harder.
We are called on to inspire, to deliver change and to speak to peoples hopes and aspirations.
For Labor, unlike the conservatives, it is never enough to simply stoke peoples fears or to oppose change.
It is far easier to say No than to answer the difficult questions.
It is far easier to talk in slogans than to explain complex policy.
Our purpose Labors purpose is always the more demanding.
And when Labor has answered the call, the nation has benefited.
One of Labors great strengths is our willingness, our enthusiasm and our capacity to continually update our vision for the future.
Just as we have contributed to the present problems we face as a Party, so too can we generate the solutions.
And this generation of Labor leaders, of the Labor caucus, of Labor members and of Labor people have a responsibility to do so.
So, today, I want to offer some thoughts on how we go about charting our future path.
One of the first speeches I delivered as the Minister for Finance was the John Button Memorial Lecture in 2010.
And in that I speech I said that, if I was asked whatLabor stood for, it was, in short: And I give the same answer today.
A fair go encompasses Labors tradition of fairness, of equality of opportunity, and the aspiration for equity in outcome and worth.
A just society references our social, legal and institutional frameworks; the principles that govern our community and the relationships within it.
Our rights and our shared responsibilities.
And a strong economy: the foundation for prosperity and fairness. Jobs matter.
Labors renewal now inevitably involves a contest of views as to both the meaning and the content of these principles. These are big questions.
And the best of Labor can be seen when we are bold in both the asking and in the answer.
We saw this in the social transformation under Whitlam; in the economic reforms of Hawke and Keating; in the education and disability reforms and economic stewardship of the Rudd and Gillard Governments.
Indeed, one of modern Labors strengths has been our understanding that fairness demands far more than redistribution.
This is an insight that has driven many of Labors finest reforms, and one we arguably gained earlier and more fully than many other social democratic parties.
And nowhere has it been better represented than the work of the previous Labor Government.
It starts with the recognition that we have to generate economic prosperity in order to share it.
Because an economy is growing that continues to generate jobs and increase income not only provides its citizens with employment and opportunity, but also enables governments to act where needed.
This understanding drove Labors response to the worst global economic downturn since the Great Depression.
Through our actions during the global financial crisis, we averted the destruction of jobs and capital that we saw in so many advanced economies.
We avoided recession, we kept unemployment low and we created almost a million jobs at a time when unemployment levels spiralled into double-digits elsewhere.
These actions were taken in the full knowledge of the consequences of the alternative path.
Because we understand who is hardest hit in a recession.
It is working Australians.
It is our young people.
It is those with the fewest resources and the least capacity to prevail.
One only needs to look at the impact of recession on a generation in some European nations, where morethan one in five young people now cannot find a job. The establishment of DisabilityCare, which ensures that those with disability have the care and support they need to participate in school, work and community life.
You see it also in our investments in the key infrastructure of this century, the National Broadband Network.
High speed broadband is as critical to our future economy as the copper network was to our past.
But this is now at risk under the Coalition, who seeks to impose a digital divide.
Similarly, our changes to the tax system prioritised the key objectives of equity and reward.
Tripling the tax free threshold ensured greater reward for effort and benefited one million Australians.
Labors proud history of building superannuation was enhanced with the increase to the superannuation guarantee, now deferred by the new Government.
And a tax break for 3.6 million Australians, providing the tax relief that high-income Australians have enjoyed.
These reforms and many others reflect that, at our best, Labor governments generate fairness and opportunity by focusing on how to give more Australians the tools to succeed.
So, it is our task now to understand how our Labor values and our policies can continue to be renewed.
Given my emphasis on understanding the times and anticipating the future, I want to turn to Australias place in the global economy.
I do this for two reasons.
First, the dimensions of change and consequent economic and social choices before us will determine the future shape and face of Australia.
Second, because we must be open to not shy away from the opportunities and challenges that this century presents to us in our region.
Put simply, Australias future is in Asia.
The facts are compelling.
We know that global economic power continues to shift east.
Think of it this way: in the 1950s, only 15 per cent of global GDP was within 10,000 kilometres of Australia.
Today, it has grown to a third, and in 2050, two-thirds of global GDP will be within 10,000 kilometres of Australia.
By 2030, Asia will become the largest consumption zone in the world, with 2.5 billion consumers.
Australian businesses will have opportunity to expand as the goods and services we produce and provide increasingly become the purchases of those in Asia.
By the end of this decade, our region will overtake the combined economic output of North America and Europe, and Asia will become the world's largest economic power.
These changes will reshape the global economy and our economy with profound and lasting results.
It is the key public policy transformation of our generation.
This was explored extensively in - Australia in the Asian Century White Paper, prepared in collaboration with key business leaders and community stakeholders.
The fact that the Coalition Government has chosen to archive the website of this White Paper released only late last year demonstrates again their short-sighted obsession with petty partisanship.
Australias policy settings economic, domestic and international will and must reflect this context of change.
And progressives must play a central role in defining the path we take.
The pre-requisite to Australias successful navigation of this change must be open-mindedness.
This is something I have spoken about before.
Because I believe that how we imagine ourselves and how we define who we are sets the parameters of our engagement with the world and, in turn, the opportunities we perceive.
I want to share with you a personal, and a very Labor, story.
I came to Australia in 1976 when I was eight years old.
My parents my Malaysian Chinese father and my mother, the third daughter from a farming family in the Adelaide Hills had courted and married before the White Australia policy was fully dismantled.
And when I migrated, not all of the attitudes that engendered it had dissipated.
Sadly, they still have not in some quarters.
For too much of my early life, I felt like the outsider.
I felt I was seen as less Australian.
This improved over the years as our society changed, and feeling included is of course the sum of many things family, friends, community watching the Test at Adelaide Oval.
But, for me, the most powerful public voice of inclusion was Paul Keating.
When Keating spoke to Australians of our history, of the fall of Singapore, of Kokoda, and of our place in Asia, he spoke of an Australia of which I was a part.
The Prime Minister of Australia our Labor Prime Minister spoke to me.
More importantly, he spoke to Australians in these terms and helped us to imagine ourselves differently.
Through this personal experience, I understood the power of imagination in forming our policies and defining our purpose.
Ultimately, engagement with our region means a willingness and capacity to both see and to take opportunities as they emerge.
It means re-imagining and continuing to re-shape who we are and who we can be in our region.
If we imagine ourselves as Fortress Australia if we fear the consequences of Asias development we limit our own progress.
So the challenge for Australia in the Asian Century is not only around our economic settings, our investment rules, our trade negotiations although it encompasses all these things.
It also lies in how we see ourselves and how we envision our relationship with others.
This is a dialogue the country is currently having, primarily through the prism of trade and foreign investment.
But we need a deeper and fuller dialogue around openness within our community.
In my new areas of responsibility trade and investment we have seen what happens when the current party of government refuses to engage in this deeper dialogue.
They have chosen again to rely on a three-word slogan: Open for business; yet another ridiculous slogan given the largest investment boom in the nations history occurred under our government.
But, despite this slogan, the Coalitions position reflects an awkward clash and a tension between National Party protectionism and Andrew Robb and Joe Hockeys neo-liberal bravado.
Perhaps there is no greater recent example of the Coalitions inconsistency on these matters than the proposed takeover of Graincorp by Archer Daniels Midland.
This is a matter currently before the Foreign Investment Review Board, so the specifics of consideration will become clear in time, but in general terms there are a few points worth making.
First, foreign investment has helped accelerate Australias growth and development.
We are a capital hungry economy which has relied on foreign investment to create jobs, business opportunities and to lift growth.
The scale of external investment in the growth of our resources sector in recent years is the most contemporary example of this.
Second, if we are serious about becoming the food bowl of Asia, we have to front up to the reality and necessity of foreign investment in our agricultural sector.
As a nation that exports two-thirds of its total food production, it is inconceivable that we will be able to develop and scale-up production to enable us to fully tap into the growing consumer markets of Asia without foreign investment.
Labor of course recognises that national interest considerations are key.
But issues that could properly be dealt with through other means - for example through the Australian competition and regulatory framework, FIRB conditions or corporate regulation should not be used as a pretext to oppose foreign investment.
The nation can not afford reflexive antipathy to foreign investment.
Australias engagement with the world is also expressed through trade policy.
This is an area which will be the subject of significant focus over the coming year, as the Coalition seeks to finalise agreements with China, Japan and South Korea within the next 12 months.
Labor has long understood the centrality of our trade performance as a key driver of our economic prosperity.
We have consistently advocated over successive Labor governments for a more open global trading system.
And we have also recognised our responsibility to those workers and industries affected by broader reforms.
Modern Labors motivation on trade policy, from Hawke to Keating and since, is driven by the belief that our nations sustained prosperity lies in tapping into markets beyond our shores.
Our approach to trade is guided by three simple principles: Trade reform is one of the key practical means by which we make real our opportunities in the world, and particularly in our region.
The transaction and detail of any agreement is important, but for Labor, so too is the ongoing dialogue with the community about the rationale and goal of trade policy.
The Labor project means we cannot simply appeal to those who already agree with us, or dismiss those who do not.
Rather, we must always work to bring the weight of the community together behind us and our reform agenda.
Labor never has the luxury of only playing to a narrow audience.
We have to build agreement.
We have to persuade.
We have to have both courage to hold firm, and the capacity to convince.
At times we have been found wanting of either.
Together, we must engender both.
And we start by recalling again our purpose.
We are a party of ideas.
We are a party of government.
We do not simply seek a Senate quota, nor to target a particular seat.
Labor always seeks to govern Australia for all Australians.
In times of cynicism, in the face of the Abbott invective, take a moment to contemplate an Australia without Labor governments.
An Australia without universal healthcare where someones income, not injury, determines the level of care they received.
An Australia not brave enough to recognise those whose land we inhabit; not big-hearted enough to apologise to those we have harmed.
An Australia where workers rights extend no further than the minimum wage and the most basic of conditions.
An Australia where the opportunity embodied in tertiary education remains beyond the reach of those most in need.
An Australia where gender and race can overshadow ability.
An Australia where parochial interests drive economic decision making; where we keep our eyes closed to the region and the world beyond our shores.
It is because of our movement it is because of Labor governments that Australia is the country it is today.
Yes, these are tough times for Labor.
Losing government is never easy.
Watching the growing culture of secrecy and control under this new government is harder yet.
But we continue the fight because we believe in a better Australia.
We areLabor people, and we believe in a fair go, in a just society, in a strong economy.
We believe in delivering change that enables all Australians to be the best of who they can be.
We strive to build a strong, fair and equal Australia, for today and for the generations to come.
Thank you.