Kevin Rudd’s opening statement

October 15, 2007, 11:31am,  225 views

Here is Kevin Rudd’s opening statement of the election campaign:

This election is about Australia’s future and it’s an election about a choice about who offers new leadership for Australia’s future. New leadership to help working families, new leadership with fresh ideas to deal with Australia’s future challenges. And what I’m offering the Australian is new leadership, both to help working families under financial pressure and new leadership for a plan for our country’s future.

This is a great country and there’s no better place on earth to live or to raise a family, but now today our country is facing new challenges, great challenges, and we must meet those challenges if we are going to secure our country’s long term future.

Our country has a future too full of promise to allow a Government that’s been in office for eleven years, a Government that’s lost touch and a Government that’s gone stale just to continue on. You see, when it comes to our future we need better than that. The greatest risk for Australia’s future is for the Coalition to return and nothing changes. Nothing changes on climate change and water, nothing changes for our hospitals, nothing changes for our schools, our technical colleges, our universities, nothing changes when it comes to our workplaces, except of course Workchoices which would be made even worse. That’s why during this campaign I intend to make the case why Australia needs new leadership now.

When I became Leader of the Australian Labor Party, I began outlining our plan for the future and during the course of this campaign I’ll be outlining further fresh ideas, new policies and adding to the plan that we’ve already put out there for our country’s future, not just for the next three years, but for the next five, the next ten years and beyond.

Australia needs new leadership. New leadership for our education revolution so that our kids have the best jobs, the best paid jobs and the highest skilled jobs of the future. New leadership when it comes to our need for new infrastructure. New leadership to fix our hospitals, to have someone prepared to put their hand up and say the buck stops with me. New leadership which understands the needs of rural and regional Australia. New leadership which gets the balance right between fairness and flexibility in our workplaces. New leadership which keeps the economy strong but ensures the economy delivers for working families. New leadership which embraces the enduring value of our alliance with the United States but leadership which has an exit strategy for our combat forces in Iraq.

On these Mr Howard, over eleven years, has failed to act and what I offer the Australian people now is a plan of action. I’m offering new leadership, a plan for Australia’s future, a clear-cut commitment to work for that future and an equally clear cut commitment that if I’m elected to become the next Prime Minister of Australia, I will serve a full three year term. If elected again I would serve beyond that as well.

Mr Howard by contrast says that if he wins the next election he will retire and hand over the Prime Ministership to Mr Costello, without Mr Costello ever having to face the Australian people. Mr Howard has said that working families have never been better off. Mr Howard’s lost touch with working families but Mr Costello has never been in touch with working families.

As I travel around Australia people have asked me, legitimately, why do you want to become the Prime Minister of this country. I am putting myself forward to become Australia’s next Prime Minister because I understand the challenges which our country faces in the future and I want to be a leader of the Government of this country as we tackle those challenges of the future head on.

First to build long term economic prosperity beyond the mining boom through investing in an education revolution, 21st century economic infrastructure like broadband, fixing the federation as well as preparing the nation for the rise of China and the rise of India.

Second, offering help and support for working families on the way through by getting the balance right in our workplaces and by fixing our hospitals so that working families when they need hospital and medical care can get the best we can absolutely provide.

And third, acting nationally and internationally decisively on climate change so that we do not destroy the economic and environmental future of the next generation of Australians.

Whenever I go out across this great country of ours and I speak to working families I talk all the time about the need for an education revolution. For me, this is core business. I have a passionate belief in education. I have a passionate belief in the importance of education providing opportunity for all Australians.

Now, I consider myself to have had a fortunate life. Like many kids in this country, my family went through some rough times but mum and dad always ensured I had a good education at the local country state school at Eumundi. More than anything else a good education provides the opportunity and ensures our young people that they will be rewarded for hard work, achievement and success. More than anything else, an education, a good education offers a new course in life. It enables you to unleash your potential as a human being and it also provides a great opportunity, greater opportunities than people had before.

But more than anything else a good education also is a building block for the nation’s future economy. That’s why I believe in an education revolution. That’s why I believe that a trade certificate is just as good as a university degree because both are critical to our nation’s economic future.

I believe this with every fibre of my being and when I look to this generation of Australians, the challenges that they will face in the future are even greater than those faced by my generation. That’s why we need a vision for Australia to have the best education and training system in the world. We as a country need to widen our vision.

I’m really looking forward to this campaign and during this campaign I’ll be announcing policies, I’ll be announcing fresh ideas which build on our plan for the nation’s future which I’ve been outlining during the course of this year. What puzzles me is that on the day this election is called Mr Howard, with all the resources of government has not put forward any plan for the nation’s future after eleven years. Let me give you this clear-cut commitment, if I’m elected to become the next Prime Minister of Australia I will ratify Kyoto, I will prohibit the construction of nuclear reactors in this country. I will abolish Workchoices. I will end the blame game between Canberra and the States. I will invest in an education revolution and I will build a world class broadband network for this nation, city and country.

None of this is possible without a strong economy. That’s why I’ve always said and why I will always say, with pride, I’m an economic conservative. I believe in budget surpluses. I believe in the independence of the Reserve Bank. I believe in its inflation targeting regime. That’s why we are also putting forward carefully costed promises for this election campaign all designed to put downward pressure on interest rates.

To win this election we are going to have to make history. We’ve only won twice from Opposition since World War II and we have to win sixteen seats and on top of that we’re up against one of the most clever and cunning politicians this nation has ever produced. But let me make one prediction and that is in the days and weeks ahead the good people of Australia are going to be bombarded with the mother of all negative fear campaigns.

Mr Howard and Mr Costello will say that if I am elected as the next Prime Minister of Australia the skies will fall in. Mr Howard has spoken today a lot about experience. Let me say this, Mr Howard has bucketloads of experience when it comes to negative fear campaigns. He’s done this every election campaign so far and gotten away with it. The reason Mr Howard does this and why he’ll do it again is because he has no positive plan for our nation’s future.

Australia cannot afford another three years of a Government which has already had eleven years. A Government which has lost touch with working families, a Government that’s gone stale and a Government without fresh ideas for our nation’s future. I refuse to stand idly by and allow this to happen. That’s why I put myself forward for new leadership for our nation Australia’s future