Addressing the ALP State Conference in Tasmania, Latham said: "The sheer weight of this campaign broke through in the last week and sent us backwards. I believe with the benefit of hindsight ... that my greatest misjudgement was in believing that the positive party would win the election."
This is the transcript of Mark Latham's Address to the Tasmanian State ALP Conference
Thanks very much for your welcome, to Nick Sherry, Kerry
O'Brien and my other Federal Parliamentary colleagues, to the Premier Paul
Lennon and his State colleagues, delegates to this conference, ladies and
gentlemen.
I want to thank everyone who worked
so hard in the recent Federal Election campaign, especially our candidates in
the House of Representatives and the Senate. It was of course a tough campaign
in all the circumstances, but the movement worked hard and did as much as
possible to try and assist the election of a Federal Labor Government. Of course
it was not to be. We can have an assessment of the areas where we need to
improve. That is important of course to be honest about the reasons why we
didn't win. But it is also important to look forward to the future and do our
best to build Labor policy for the campaign in 2007.
One advantage I have as Federal Leader, it that there is never any
shortage of free advice. There is plenty of it and I have received plenty,
especially after the Federal Election loss. The columnists of course, they try
to fill their space with an original point of view and interpretation. But I've
got to say, some of this commentary leads to some very strange opinions. In the
past couple of weeks, I have heard that I lost the election because I hugged
Gough Whitlam, because I shook John Howard's hand, because I'm not a born again
Christian and because I didn't talk enough about refugees and reconciliation.
Well all of it of course is silly self serving commentary. In truth the politics
of the 2004 Federal Election can be summarised in two basic propositions.
The first is that it is exceptionally hard in Australia to
change the government during a long period of economic growth and. The
advantages in modern politics of incumbency (Federal and State) are quite
substantial.
Our political success earlier in the year came from
shifting the agenda onto the big social issues: early childhood development,
community-building, public health, educational opportunity and family
policy.
These issues remain important to the Australian people and
as a movement, we must continue to advance Labor's alternative
approach.
The second proposition, the election campaign itself was
characterised by cross-currents. Our positive, issue-based campaigning on
health and education was nudging the Labor vote upwards. As was acknowledged at
the time, we did quite well in the free-media part of the campaign.
Where we lost badly, however, was in the paid-advertising
campaign. Our Liberal opponents spent a record amount of money on attack ads —
blitzing the airwaves with a fear campaign on economic management and interest
rates.
This was the ultimate in retail politics — pulling down the
Labor vote through TV advertising. As the Federal Director of the Liberal Party
said earlier this week, their efforts "would make a commercial organisation
envious."
The sheer weight of this campaign broke through in the last
week and sent us backwards. I believe with the benefit of hindsight, which is
always a wonderful thing to have at this point — that my greatest misjudgement
was in believing that the positive party would win the election.
Unashamedly, I wanted Labor to appeal to hope and
opportunity in the electorate. To argue the case for a fairer and more
progressive society. To give people a clear choice in the key areas of
education, health and the environment.
Millions of Australians voted for this approach. But many
more, a clear democratic majority, went the other way.
As a Party and a movement, our task now is to learn from
the judgement of the Australian people.
After
four election losses in a row, we need to be brutally honest about the changing
nature of Australian society and its economy, and the ways in which the Federal
Labor Party must change.
Our choice is simple: we can either move with the times or
be swept away by them.
We need to be frank and honest about economic policy in
particular. Since 1996 we have not handled the economic debate well. This is
one of the sad ironies of Australian politics.
Having secured nation-building reforms through the Hawke
and Keating Governments - the internationalisation of the Australian economy and
all the benefits that have flowed through to states like Tasmania as outlined
by
the Premier - we in fact surrendered our legacy after the 1996 election. We
failed to defend our economic record, precisely at the time when these reforms
established the foundations for a new era of growth and
prosperity.
I think John Howard could hardly believe his luck. Having
squibbed the tough decisions as Malcolm Fraser's Treasurer, he watched Labor
modernise the economy and hand its benefits to him on a platter.
Our Party has not recovered from this error. We haven't
been able to reclaim our legacy of economic modernisation from the 80s and 90s.
Nor have we, in the eyes of the electorate, successfully crafted a new
generation of reforms and credibility.
As a result, our base — political and industrial — has
steadily declined. Labor's federal primary vote has fallen well below 40 per
cent while, in the industrial wing of the movement, trade union membership has
also fallen away.
We urgently need to establish a new basis for the economic
purpose and legitimacy of the Labor movement. We need to be realistic about the
changes happening around us right around the country.
After a decade of economic growth and globalisation, the
two fastest growing classes in Australian society are the middle class and the
underclass.
The conventional working class — in steady, semi-skilled
and low-paid jobs — has declined. Just look at the affluence of the traditional
trades in the mining, construction and service industries. In many cases, they
make enough money to be investors, not just workers — this is the nature of the
new economy.
The new middle class is here to stay, with its army of
contractors, consultants, franchises and small businesspeople. This reflects
the decentralised nature of the modern economy, where flexible niche production
has replaced the organising principles of mass production.
The implications for the Labor movement are quite obvious.
Workers are more independent and self-reliant. Large, centralised institutions
and policies are less relevant. Our economic policies need to be based on the
principles of flexibility, enterprise and upward mobility.
At the other end of the scale, under the Howard Government,
the number of people permanently excluded from the new economy has also grown.
This is reflected in record levels of long term unemployment and poverty, plus
the extraordinary growth in health-related problems, such as disability and
mental illness. The Government has neglected these people, under-investing in
their skills and potential.
This is the stunning inequality of the modern economy and
the society around us. Those with skills and opportunities thrive, while those
without are left at the bottom of society — denied the advantages of a regular
life.
The challenge for Labor, the challenge for our party, is to
develop an economic agenda that assists both groups: policies that reward the
hard work and enterprise of the new aspirational middle class, while also
overcoming the punishing cycle of underclass and inequality.
The common theme is upward mobility:
- Developing new skills and creativity;
- Ending financial disincentives and poverty traps;
- Reforming economic institutions to foster enterprise and
flexibility;
- Always lifting
productivity and competitiveness;
- And in terms of
individual effort: providing opportunity, but also demanding responsibility —
a
society based on self-improvement and social justice.
These are the values that will drive Labor's economic
policies in this term of parliament and beyond.
I want a rising tide of economic growth to lift all boats —
meeting the aspirations of the middle class, while also providing new life
opportunities for the poor. This is how I see social justice: as upward
mobility all-round, that rising tide lifting all the boats providing upward
mobility around — lifting people up — meeting their aspirations in the middle
class but ensuring that we end the terrible poverty and underclass that has been
left to us by the Howard Government in so many parts of the country.
And only Labor can deliver this great national goal —
economic opportunity for all Australians. The Liberals have given up on the
poor. They see no political or economic advantage in helping them.
Labor has a different view — we won't give up on them - it
comes not just from our commitment to a fairer society. As a nation we need to
recognise, we can't afford to waste the potential and skills of any
Australians. To maximise our national economic growth and efficiency, we need
the participation of all Australians. We need an inclusive economy as the basis
of a fair society.
I want Labor to set the agenda for the next generation of
competition and productivity improvements in the Australian economy. We
achieved the first wave of productivity gains under the Hawke and Keating
Governments. Now we must achieve the second.
Productivity is the key. It builds profitability and
higher living standards.
It allows industry and employment to expand. It can
deliver real wage increases in a low inflationary — low interest rate
environment.
Under the Howard Government, productivity has been
disappointing, with marginal gains over the past five years. The Liberals have
no new economic agenda, other than their reckless spending spree that they set
out in the last campaign.
Over the next three years, I expect major differences to
emerge between the parties on economic policy.
Labor will maintain it's commitment to stronger fiscal
responsibility than the Government — making significant budget savings and
putting downward pressure on interest rates.
We will also advance our agenda for education, training and
research as the key drivers of economic growth.
The Howard Government has under-invested in education and
failed to solve critical skill shortages in the economy. We need a skills
revival in Australia, especially through the development of a world-class TAFE
system.
Labor will also persist with its strategy, announced during
the campaign, to end the poverty trap and move people from welfare to work —
expanding prosperity through increased participation and labour market
opportunities.
For eight years the Howard Government has neglected this
issue. Only Labor is committed to tackling the entrenchment of long-term
unemployment and economic exclusion in our society.
And when it comes to competitive private sector markets, we
believe in overhauling the Trade Practices Act and supporting small business —
compared to the Government's preference for centralised markets and the
dominance of a big business.
In this term of parliament, we will also develop a new
agenda for micro-economic reform, especially in infrastructure. This means
ending the National Party's pork-barrelling and increasing the efficiency of our
road, rail, port, energy and communications systems.
Scarce public resources need to be allocated on economic
grounds, not political. This helps to lower business costs and increase
productivity. Australia, right around the country, urgently needs a national
plan for infrastructure efficiency. And that will be developed by the Labor
Party.
This is an important way of improving Australia's export
performance — another neglected area under the Howard Government. For the past
12 quarters, net exports have detracted from Australia's economic growth — a
record period of failure that must be corrected.
In industrial relations, big policy differences will also
emerge. The Government undoubtedly will use its Senate majority to further
deregulate the labour market — its dog-eat-dog system of individual
contracts.
Labor's emphasis will be on enterprise bargaining:
cooperative arrangements in the workplace that build productivity, underpinned
by a safety net for our most vulnerable workers. We want flexibility with
fairness in Australian workplaces.
We also want the industrial relations system to help people
with the right balance between work and family. This is good for staff morale
and productivity.
It's another example of how progressive enterprise
agreements can benefit both employers and employees — in this case, respecting
the rights of working parents.
And the other big economic issue: more needs to be done to
overcome Australia's housing affordability crisis. Under the current
government, we have suffered from negative household savings, record levels of
household debt and a collapse in first home ownership.
People are now asking: if interest rates are so low, how
come so many Australians are struggling to own their own home? Labor will
address this problem with new programs and assistance for housing
affordability.
We advanced part of this economic agenda in the last
campaign. We spoke about the importance of hard work, incentive, participation
and productivity. But now we need to do more. So much more to restore our
economic credentials and reputation in the eyes of the Australian
people.
Well on social policy, particularly health and education,
we are on stronger ground. So much so that even though the election is over, the
Tories are still campaigning against our schools policy and Medicare Gold. They
are trying to use the methodology of the campaign to make us back away from good
Labor policy. Well I can assure you, I can assure this conference, that is the
last thing we are going to do. We are not going to give up on good Labor policy,
especially in the areas of health and education where we had things right and
we
were winning the support and confidence of the Australian people on social
policy.
We ran on a modern, progressive Labor platform, rejecting
the Howard Government's user pays approach to health and education. For instance
our plan to increase the availability of bulk billing would have substantially
lowered out of pocket expenses for patients. The Government responded with a 1.8
billion dollar policy to increase the Medicare rebate to 100 percent. But as
soon as the election was over, within days of the polling being completed, the
Government allowed most of the money to be eaten up by increased doctor fees.
More user pays in health by the Howard Government.
Well delegates, I don't want to see the Americanisation of
our social services, where it becomes so expensive that only the wealthy can
access them. We need opportunity and service access for all Australians.
And this is one of the defining differences in Australian
politics. The Liberals believe in user pays and privatisation, Labor believes
in
public access and opportunity. While we don't require health and education
services to be provided exclusively by the public sector, we want them to be
publicly affordable. That's why we believe in extending the principles of public
education into the childcare and preschool systems, affordable learning programs
for our infant children.
That's why we believe in a national standard for schools
funding. Resourcing Australian all schools, Government and non-Government on the
basis of need. Improving educational access and opportunity for 95 percent
Australian students. Meeting their aspirations and those of their parents and
you hear some methodology and nonsense about our schools policy, I proudly stand
here today and say that it was right. It was right to say that schools that have
not even got libraries and computers need more funding, and those schools that
have got rifle ranges and boat sheds can afford to make some of the share. Some
of the reallocation to bring all the Australian schools up to a decent national
standard, it was the right thing to do.
Delegates, it is why we believe in affordable higher
education and continue to oppose the Howard Government's $100,000 university
degrees. It is why we believe in increasing the bulk billing rate, one of the
foundation stones of Medicare, affordability in health and education. It is why
we believe in decent funding of our public hospitals and the creation of a
national dental program. It is why we believe in Medicare Gold, expanding
Federal responsibility for hospitals for the universal care of our oldest
Australians; honouring our senior citizens by getting them off hospital waiting
lists.
Now the Liberals of course say that this policy is too
ambitious, but we have heard that before, they said that about Medibank and then
Medicare. They say that, they always say that about universal health care in
general. Because they don't believe in it. They criticise it because they don't
believe in it. All of his time in the Australian Parliament, Mr Howard has
opposed Medibank and then Medicare so he is hardly going to be supporting
Medicare Gold. Well Labor believes in these things, we believe in the
universality and affordability of health care and we are going to pursue our
policies into the future.
We want to honour this commitment in our public and private
hospitals in particular for those aged 75 and over. And this is not just about
the fairness and decency of our society, it is also efficient health economics.
Australia's health is hopelessly inefficient with overlapping Federal and State
responsibilities, and its dual system of public and private funding. Medicare
Gold tackles these inefficiencies in four significant ways. First of all, it
places responsibility for hospital care and residential care and the care of
elderly Australians in the hands of one level of Government, not two. It's got
the potential to save the 500 to 600 million dollars wasted each year under the
current system as a result of frail aged patients being stuck in expensive acute
hospital beds because there is no availability of nursing home placements and
beds.
The second saving and inefficiency we address here is the
major savings to fund Medicare Gold come from the better use of the 30% private
health insurance rebate. The cost of which has been blowing out since its
introduction. Also under Medicare Gold, one buyer for aged hospital care, this
is an important reform. It helps to put downward pressure on specialist costs.
Downward pressure on specialist costs, that is one of the reasons why the
medical trade unions have opposed the policy. Also, the final efficiency gain
is
that our policy will reduce private hospital insurance costs by at least 12
percent for other age groups; Medicare Gold dramatically lowers the cost for the
private health insurance funds.
So, we have much to advance in health and education policy,
we'll have a brisk review of policies on all our key areas by the end of this
year. I want a Federal Labor party that starts 2005 out there in the community,
engaging, talking, listening and learning, but also advocating the areas where
they have good things to say, important things to say to the Australian people
about the progress of our country. I want our MP's and activists at the school
gates, talking to parents about how our schools policy would assist their
particular school. Nine and a half thousand schools better off with our needs
based funding system. I want our MP's and activists and branch members, talking
to young families, talking to the elderly about the importance of our
initiatives to increase bulk billing, to establish a national dental program,
to
restore funding to our public hospitals, to introduce Medicare Gold, these are
important thing where we can go forward proudly with our health and education
policies and we'll be doing that in 2005, 2006 and 2007 and making sure the
Australian people understand in full the benefits of these policies and the
reasons to elect a Labor Government in the future.
Let me turn to the other area that we advanced in the
campaign. One of the core values of the modern Party is our commitment to the
environment. This is the ultimate inter-generational issue.
A prosperous nation such as ours has a responsibility to
pass on our environmental assets to the next generation of young Australians.
We are the custodians of their future, their quality of life.
And it would be irresponsible to deny them the benefits of
decent air and water quality, as well as the chance to enjoy our great national
icons, such as the Great Barrier Reef, the Murray/Darling and our magnificent
forests.
Labor is a party of the environment because it is the right
thing to do, it's the right thing to do for our children and our
grandchildren.
Australians of our generation have a choice:
· We can sign up for unsustainable industry practices and deplete our
resources
· Or we can accept our
responsibility to young Australians and give them something to look forward to:
sustainable development and a decent environment in which to live.
This is why, in the last campaign, Labor advanced a new
environmental agenda for Australia's future:
· Ratifying the Kyoto Protocol and establishing a carbon trading
system — ensuring that Australia meets its international responsibilities in the
fight against global warming, that we take action now to stop the coral
bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef and the flooding of Kakadu National Park
with salt water.
It was right in the campaign to say that Australia should
ratify Kyoto and we will be repeating that time after time because it is the
right thing to do for our nation, for our international
responsibilities.
We also released policies to:
- Save the grand old river system, the Murray-Darling
- To
protect our fragile coastline and beaches
- To Upgrade the
Mandatory Renewable Energy Target to 5%
- And to save the
high-conservation value of Tasmanian forests.
We did these things because we thought they were right:
right for the environment, right for the next generation.
But inevitably, in a democracy, the people decide what's right and
they decide what's wrong.
The protest against our forest policy cost us two seats in
this State.
We lost two outstanding local
members who didn't deserve to be defeated: Sid Sidebottom and Michelle
O'Byrne.
I take responsibility for this result and I've conveyed my
apology and regret to both Sid and Michelle and thank them for their outstanding
service as local constituency members in their State and their fantastic
contribution over time to the Federal Parliamentary Labor Party.
My other responsibility is to lead the Labor Party
forward. To be true to our values and beliefs but also, to listen and learn
from the judgement of the Australian people.
I have no doubt, absolutely no doubt that our forestry
policy was well supported in many parts of Australia. But it wasn't supported
in Bass and Braddon.
We didn't have it right. The local community wasn't
confident that our plan to upgrade the skills, technology and sustainability of
the timber industry was in fact itself sustainable.
Now we need to take the time to get it right. Shadow
Cabinet has resolved to review the policy, starting with the development of a
sustainable industry plan.
We still intend to protect the high-conservation value
forests, but with a more detailed and effective policy for the timber
industry.
This is the key to job security, as well as conservation
values.
A key statistic for the industry is that 10 years ago — one
job relied on one hectare harvested forest - that one job today relies on 5
hectares.
We need to ensure that the
industry stops slipping down the value-added chain. That's what the Premier was
talking about earlier on with the pulp mill — value adding downstream processing
right here in Tasmania.
When I visited the Gunn's veneer plant earlier in the year,
I saw the machinery, I saw the skills, I saw the technology and I walked away
knowing that if we did nothing, if we didn't have value adding, new skills, new
technology, then those workers ran the heavy risk of going the way of other old
industries — right out the back door.
I also saw in my visit earlier in the year, the 600 timber
artisans with their relatively modest call on the resource, the way in which
they were engaged in high value added activities for boat building, the
furniture, the arts and the crafts.
We need value-adding and downstream processing, rather than
over-reliance on woodchip exports to Japan and Indonesia, some 5 million tons
per annum.
If we lift up the value added chain, major conservation
initiatives are possible without a net loss of jobs. In fact, real job security
lies in this approach. We know this right around the world and right around the
Australian economy, real job security lies on up-skilling, new technology and
moving up the value added chain. There is no future at the bottom of the food
chain in the modern economy. You've got to up-skill and go upwards in terms of
value adding.
Our election policy would not have denied the industry its
basic resource. Our policy left close to 500,000 hectares available to the
industry, we wanted to make better use of the resource, that was our point in
the investment in the industry plan.
As the Premier has made clear, major value adding projects
like the pulp mill do not rely on access to old wood. Best practice is now to
be
found in plantation wood for that enormous project for the state of
Tasmania.
Our Shadow Ministers, Martin Ferguson and Anthony Albanese,
will now liaise with the workforce, the State Government and industry experts
to develop a detailed sustainability plan.
We believe this is the best way of achieving our policy
goals: a sustainable industry, value-added jobs for the future —the real
security for the workforce - and the protection of Tasmania's high-conservation
value forests.
We want the local community to have the same confidence in
the policy and its outcomes as we hold. There's no point in saying that it was
good policy, that we had it right, until the community shares our confidence
about job security and the future of value adding then of course we will have
difficulties. We will work hard, we will do the consultations, we will liaise
so that the local community has the same confidence about the policy and job
guarantee as we hold as Federal Politicians.
I say that this doesn't have to be a divisive win-lose
debate. Good public policy and good processes can reconcile goals that may have
seemed irreconcilable in the past. It is all about the quality of public policy
and the processes and understanding of it.
That's what I know the Tasmania Together was all about. I
believe in that approach and I want to carry it forward in cooperation with the
Tasmanian Branch of the Party over the next three years.
So now let me conclude, let me give you this final message,
that I believe is so fundamentally important. We can win in the 2007 election.
We can win the next Federal poll for the Labor Party.
We know that the modern electorate is volatile, people are
less rusted on. We saw that here in the Election Campaign. We know that we have
got a Government that has made huge promises, huge spending commitments, that
they are already backing away from. A Government that has lifted enormous
expectations that there will be no interest rate rises in the future, yet they
have got the fiscal policies that make that rise more likely. We will hold this
Government to account for its crazy spending spree, for its promises and huge
expectation on the interest rate front, and the nature of their scare
campaign.
We will hold them to account, but we will also be working
hard to further develop our strengths, particularly in education, health and
family policy. We will be working hard to rebuild our economic credentials, the
program of reform and productivity that I outlined earlier.
So let us not give in to the myth making out of the poll.
Let's not give in to the Tory campaign in the media and among their politicians.
The myth making trying to push us back on the things that we had right. Let's
work hard to win for Labor here in Tasmania and right around the
country.
Many thanks.
