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What a great day for a campaign. 

 

What a great crowd to help support the next member for Perth, Patrick Gorman. 

Patrick Gorman helped elect a Labor Government in Western Australia - and now we can help elect Patrick Gorman and in the process start electing a Labor Government in Canberra. 

 

It's great to be here with so many candidates who are flying the Labor flag for us at the next federal election but today is a very important day for Pat. 

 

This is the launch of his campaign, although he has been working very hard for the last number of weeks. 

 

It's great to have him here with Jess, and of course Leo - the first of many campaign launches for his father, Patrick. 

Pat, as you know is West Australian born and bred.

He's Labor through and through.

 

And this by-election is a very important by-election for Western Australia - not just for Labor.

 

Because what we doing in this by-election is we are showing respect for the people of Western Australia. 

 

I think it says a lot about the respect which we hold the people of Western Australia that we are running such quality candidates both here and in Fremantle - and indeed right across the state of Western Australia. 

 

But it also shows what a lack of respect that the Liberal Party have for Western Australia that they're not running any candidates in any of these by-elections. 

 

Shame on them.

 

We don't take by-elections or any states or any contest for granted. 

We work our very hardest and that's what people have been doing for the last number of weeks here in the seat of Perth. 

But what we also understand in Labor is that we can't do the very good things that we want to do nationally unless we do well in Western Australia. 

 

I have no doubt that in the big general election, all eyes will be on Western Australia.

 

I think it will be a case for the first time in many years that at the general election, where goes Western Australia will go the nation.

And that means that Labor has to have the best possible policy offerings for the people of Western Australia. 

 

Patrick and the other candidates who are running both now and the general election, have been developing an outstanding set of policies for Canberra, for Labor nationally, to help work with the McGowan Government in Western Australia. 

 

We do have a plan for higher living standards. 

 

We do have a plan for local jobs. 

 

We do have a plan to restore our health care system and reverse the cuts to hospitals.

 

And we do have a plan for the education of our young ones. 

 

We have a plan for better infrastructure. 

 

We have a plan to ensure that we have greater equality and that we close the gap between those who are doing without and those already doing very well. 

 

But what we also have is that we have a plan for the GST. 

 

We have a plan which Labor has led, working with the McGowan Government and Labor nationally, to establish a floor. 

 

And what we say today is that not only do we support there being a 75 cent floor, we want to turn the floor into law. 

 

We want to legislate for that promise.

And Patrick, when he's out on the doors can establish why we can make this promise -

 

We can pay for our promises for a fair go for Western Australia because we are not giving $17 billion away to the big banks. 

 

We choose Western Australians, we don't choose the top end of town. 

 

And although the Liberal Government in Canberra believes that by not running candidates in these by-elections, they can ignore the views of Western Australians - we're not going to let them ignore Western Australia. 

 

The current Federal Government only has one plan: they plan to give away $80 billion in corporate tax relief to the top end of town.

 

That is a foreign aid plan for foreign multinationals. 

 

Instead, we want to put the resources back into Western Australia.

 

But there is a deeper issue, and you know this by-election is such an important part of this deeper issue -there is a choice in front of the Australian people about what sort of country that we're going to become.

Do we go down the path of Trump-style corporate tax cuts for the big end of town or do we actually fight for essential services, for jobs, for health and for schools?

 

These are the choices which Australians are faced with very starkly.

 

There's a lot to admire about the United States but one thing we don't want is we don't want an American-style wages system where adults work for $8 an hour. 

 

What we don't want is an American-style health care system where if you get sick, it means you go broke. 

 

And what we don't want to be is an American-style education system where the cost of going to university is so high that too many working class kids are simply excluded from the possibility and the opportunity of higher education. 

 

These are the choices.

 

We are going to make a choice in this by-election - and in fact, a choice at the next general election - about what sort of country we become.

 

Are we going to become a country who says that the only plan for Australians is that if you look after the top 2 or 3 per cent of earners, if you look after the biggest companies in Australia, that we can just simply cross our fingers and hope that if you look after those already very well off, those already very powerful, that the crumbs from the table of these people, from these corporations will fall off and look after everyday working class and middle class households in this country?

 

That is the choice and the debate. 

 

And that is why it's so very important that Patrick gets elected in Perth because the more Labor MPs we send to Canberra, the more we can fight for our more positive vision of Australia. 

 

Mr Turnbull knows that his tax policies are not popular - that's why he hasn't even bothered to present his candidates for choice in these by-elections because he doesn't want to hear the message.

 

But what we have to do though is send a resounding message that even for those Liberals that who haven't turned up to this election, we give them something to remember after July 28.

 

And we can do it by putting forward our positive alternatives.

And you know the story, and it is a story worth repeating every day between now and the upcoming by-election. 

 

You know that when you vote for Labor you vote for stronger Medicare. 

You know that when you vote Labor you vote for the chance for your kids to get an apprenticeship - that we will put an extra 100,000 apprenticeship upfront fees, Labor governments will pay for them.

You know that when you vote Labor, we will be able to put in 200,000 university places. 

 

You know that when you vote Labor, you'll see real action on climate change and put renewable energy at the centre of our energy policy to push lower prices.

You know that when you vote Labor, what you'll get is you'll get a better quality NBN.

 

You know that when you vote Labor, what we will see is genuine wages movement in this country again rather than the stagnation that we are currently presented and living with under this Government.

 

You know that when you vote Labor, we will see penalty rates restored for over 700,000 working Australians.

You know that when you vote Labor, you get fair dinkum tax relief. For 10 million working Australians, we offer a better income tax refund than the current Government are doing. We won't just be fobbing people off with $10 a week whilst the top end gets $7,000 a year because we are the party who look after middle and working class families in this country. 

 

Now, my opposite number says that when we talk about doing these things, it is class war, it is envy on aspiration - it's not

 

What we understand in this hall, what Patrick Gorman understands in every part of his DNA -

 

What our movement understands right across this country is we believe in aspiration.

We don't believe that aspiration is defined by the size of the negative gearing portfolio or the amount of money you invest in the Cayman Islands or the size of your mansion where you live. 

 

We actually think that aspiration is a more fundamental proposition.

 

We believe in the oldest and most sustainable Australian aspiration: the aspiration of the fair go.

We believe, Patrick Gorman believes - all of us here believe - we believe in the aspiration that if you work hard, you should get paid fairly. 

 

We believe in the aspiration that men and women should be treated equally in this country.

We believe the aspiration of making sure that our cities have proper public transport.

We believe in the aspiration of apprenticeships, of making sure that pensioners have got enough to live on. 

We believe in the aspiration of not handing on to our kids a worse environment and a worse climate than the one we have inherited.

We believe that the aspiration of the fair go all around. 

But to do all of these things, all of these very good things at this very important point in this nation's history then we need to win in Perth on July 28.

 

We've got the best policies, we've got the best values, we've got the best candidate and we're going to do it on July 28.