Brisbane
E & OE - PROOF ONLY
[ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS OMITTED]
I've come here today to say one thing to you, and that is that I stand for Queensland.
I stand with you for Queensland.
And standing for Queensland, standing for the working people of Queensland means you stand against Campbell Newman's cutbacks to the services if this great state.
You've seen 14,000 public servants lose their jobs and you know how hurtful that has been.
Nurses, midwives, thrown out of hospitals onto the streets.
You've seen firefighters sent in to fight fires without foam.
You've seen Breast Screen Queensland smashed up by the Campbell Newman Government.
Working people in Queensland should not have to put up with these cutbacks.
We are going to oppose them, we are going to fight them, and that is why we're here today.
And friends, you were told, you were told that all of these cutbacks were about starting private sector growth, but here in Queensland we haven't seen any employment growth, no new employment growth over the last 12 months.
Queenslanders who want jobs not able to get jobs despite the false promises of Campbell Newman.
Well friends, you know that there is a better way to govern Queensland, a better way to create a future for the working people in this state and their families.
That's the Labor way; it's what we demonstrate at the federal government level every day.
I'm proud that we're the government that got rid of the hated Work Choices.
We campaigned together then and we won.
I'm proud we're the government that is building the big things that matter for the nation's future, doing it in a Labor way.
Just like governments in the past have built Medicare, we're building the National Disability Insurance Scheme, DisabilityCare.
Just like Labor governments in the past have ensured that children can get a great education and access to a great life, we are improving school funding and life's chances all around the nation.
Just like Labor governments in the past we are building for the future.
Clean energy, the National Broadband Network, the infrastructure we need for the future; because it is only Labor governments that get the big things done that matter for the nation and matter for working families.
And we have kept at the forefront jobs.
During the worst of economic times since the Great Depression, we've grown almost 900,000 jobs in this country whilst around the world millions of people have joined the unemployment queue.
We know jobs matter.
They matter to you, they matter to working people and we will always, as a Labor government, focus on jobs and growth because working people need that opportunity.
And having a job is so important but fairness and decency at work matters too.
Which is why I am offended by what you're having to put up with in this state.
By redefining who a worker is for workers' compensation.
By the lazy threats we're seeing from the Coalition, from Tony Abbott, to strip away your penalty rates, a precursor to bringing Work Choices back.
Fairness and decency at work is the Labor way, and we are prepared to fight for it.
Our nation has got a big decision coming in September.
It's a big decision between two visions of the future.
And I tell you what, in Queensland of all places in our nation, you cannot afford Tony Abbott's plans to cut to the bone, to join with Peter Costello's privatisation plans, to join with Campbell Newman's cutbacks and no growth in jobs.
You can't afford that combination here in Queensland.
Abbott and Costello, back to doing what they do best, hurting working people.
That's not a future for Queensland, that's not a future for our nation.
The Leader of the Opposition has already said through his shadow treasurer they stand for cutbacks of $70 billion, and then this very weekend he said he wants to reduce tax, the tax to GDP ratio.
If he did that by 1 per cent that's a plan for another $15 billion of cutbacks.
Now this is of the scale of getting rid of Medicare, of ending payments to old-age pensioners, of taking an axe to childcare, to carers, to students, to the payments that people rely on, to the health and education services that our nation most values.
We cannot allow Tony Abbott's vision of the future to come true.
Instead friends, I'm asking you to get out and fight.
To fight for a better vision of the future, a vision of jobs and opportunity shared by all.
A vision of great services relied upon by all; a vision of world class schools so that we build our future; a vision of a National Disability Insurance Scheme that makes a difference right around the nation.
This is our Labor vision, this is our Labor way.
I'm asking you to get out and fight for it and I'll be proud to be with you leading that fight every day between now and September.
Friends, thank you very much.
[ENDS]