October 9, 2020 
119 Comments 
Opposition leader Anthony Albanese laid out a desire to get Australia back to being a country that made things in his Budget reply on Thursday night.
The Labor leader’s visionary speech also said that his party’s plan for a recovery from the pandemic-induced recession would deliver “a stronger, fairer and more secure future for all Australians”
Mr Albanese said there was an opportunity to “make this once-in-a-century crisis the beginning of a new era of Australian prosperity and Australian fairness”.
“We can beat this recession, we can launch a recovery and we can build a future where no one is held back and no one is left behind,” he said.
Mr Albanese attacked Tuesday’s Federal Budget for failing to take advantage of the opportunity to strengthen the country.
His budget reply also condemned how the government had treated older Australians in the wake of the deaths that had taken place in aged care facilities as a result of COVID-19.
“Too many older Australians who built this country are being treated without the respect and dignity they deserve,” Mr Albanese said.
“Too many older Australians are lonely prisoners of a broken aged care system. Facilities run for the highest profits at the lowest standards.”
Should Labor be voted into government at the next election, Mr Albanese would focus on local manufacturing by developing a national rail manufacturing plan and establishing a $20 billion “rewiring the nation” corporation to rebuild electricity transmission infrastructure to prepare Australia’s power grid for renewables.
Labor also promised a massive $6 billion childcare funding boost.
Plans announced ahead of Thursday night’s speech included funding an Australian Centre for Disease Control and a funding boost for the construction or repair of public housing.
Perhaps one of the more important announcements was a commitment to establishing a national anti-corruption commission, with Mr Albanese highlighting that the Australian National Audit Office was cut in Tuesday night’s Budget as “payback” for exposing the Sports Rorts scandal and the $30 million paid to Liberal Party donors for airport land that was worth just $3 million.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison framed Labor’s political strategy as divisive.
“There will be voices that will try and set young people against older people, women against men, jobs in one sector versus jobs in another sector,” the prime minister told reporters.
“They are the voices of division that will undermine the future economic prosperity of all Australians.”
Parliament will debate the government’s Budget bills on Friday, with Labor expected to support the plans to accelerate income tax cuts and most of the other measures that were proposed on Saturday night.
Did you watch Labor’s Budget reply on Thursday night? What do you think of Labor’s plan? Who would you prefer was governing Australia through this pandemic?
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Ben Hocking
Lisa Salmon
YourLifeChoices Writers
The Conversation
Will Brodie
We seem to be addicted to welfare. Only Anthony Albanese wants to rebrand it and call it reform. Why do families earning $300,000 plus under the current government and up to $500,000 under his proposal need child care assistance. It’s total rubbish. We simply cannot continue in this vain. Sooner or later someone is going to have to pay for this credit card bill.
On the whole it sounded great BUT just where is the money coming from to build these factories, and how many jobs will be created when the sophisticated EXPENSIVE plant of today, requires less human workers than ever before.
Are Australians all and always going to be prepared to pay more for goods made in this country.
All this talk of jobs and more jobs and yet more…. is a pipedream. The world is already overpopulated, resources are finite.
What is needed is proper taxation of the multinationals and the individual rich, and probably a universal living allowance so people have some quality of life.
WA. The welfare basket is not only well established. By virtue of a massive deficit, it is full, indeed over flowing.
As you rightly say, the gravy train must stop. 300k, they don’t need any help.
Currently the top 10% of wage earners pay 70% of the income tax, and top 50% pay 97%. If you tax the top earners too much they’ll go elsewhere like my son who is on double the salary in the US and pays half the tax. The smart people will leave in droves and the country will be far worse off!!. 10M Australians are now on some form of welfare. Unsustainable. Taxing the multinationals sounds great but what if Google/Facebook withdrew their web services.
All child welfare needs to stop. Children are choices that should no longer be funded with taxpayer money.
Use contraception if you can’t fund your own children or flush them down the toilet.
The Thinker – a bit rough mate, specially the last part. I do however agree with the first paragraph. A lot of folks who cannot really afford them have most of the kids.
Mariner, the day after pill is not offensive and is effective. Free contraception to all would save a fortune.
It’s not just the poor but those that can afford children go after the handouts too. These days there is more middle-class welfare than ever.
Thinker you are correct and have certainly given me a laugh what a classic.
Robo.
But today’s children are tomorrow’s taxpayers. If we cut birth rates, our society becomes extinct. We are already below the required level to sustain our culture.
That said, I think it ridiculous to be funding childcare at the levels the ALP is proposing. Firstly, those families on $200,000+ incomes don’t need the help (and certainly no family on over $400,000 needs it). And secondly, there are not enough jobs to go around, so pushing more mothers to dump their kids in childcare five days per week (which is bad for families) and go out to work is only going to mean fewer jobs for people who may need them much more.
Yes whether you want to call it reform or welfare someone has to pay for it…like most things that are in a budget by either the LNP or Labor.
Yes whether you want to call it reform or welfare someone has to pay for it…like most things that are in a budget by either the LNP or Labor.
I don’t see anything for age pension recipients in his reply to the budget! Both sides of politic are playing us!
You seriously think any politician cares about old people who didn’t put away enough to fund their retirement, Aussiefrog? Dream on!
Morrison and his LNP govt will only further widen the gap between rich and poor with this shameful ideological budget.
Big tax cuts for the rich but nothing for those on the basic wage. And to top it off, nothing for social housing or the unemployed, who will go back to $ 40 a day Newstart. And these people were put there by Morrison and his govt. these people won’t tolerate this treatment so just wait till the next election when Morrison and his govt will be voted out of office. And good riddance.
If you aren’t paying tax or paying minimal tax, how can you expect a tax cut? It’s time the unemployed made themselves employable, go get some qualifications, be prepared to make changes in their life, relocate if they have to. Yes, there are some with disabilities which make it difficult for them to get into the workforce but using obesity and being illiterate as an excuse to not work are just cop outs.
Well Gra, we know what side of the fence you’re on, and I can’t see you on my side. But if you want a fairer society, come over. Cheers.
Agree with you thommo.
Totally disagree with you thommo…. just think how much worse things would be under the ALP… they always are
Have you been asleep under a rock Lysistrata $I Trillion dollar dept 1 million unemployed and going up and the ALP is not running the country nothing in the budget to create jobs hello is anyone home
And as usual ollie the Labor response was totally unfunded! And there is a big difference between the typical profligate spending when Labor has the keys to the safe, and the current situation and budget.
KSS I take it you did not listen to his speech he said he would announce the funding before the next election its interesting that some economists have given it the thumbs up
Just like Mr Shorten said last time round eh?
KSS. Are you serious? Do you really believe the LNP bunch of muppets funded theirs – borrowed money? Trillion $+ in debt and what do they do, help out the people with money. They are dishonest, incompetent and downright smug and stupid. They also showed during the reply speech that they have NO MANNERS particularly our so called PRIME MINISTER. What a disgrace. A head of Government deliberately turning his back on Anthony Albanese, playing on his phone like a sulking teenager, even closing his eyes and faking sleep. Real nice man, not. Real example of a religious upright citizen. One who’s been booted from two jobs under ‘a big black cloud’ for suspected dishonest dealings and stabbed another man in the back to get his job.
So true Old Chick
Total Australian debt (Government plus household/private) close to $7.5 trillion and climbing. Politicians handing out money like confetti to buy votes. We now have an out of control debt spiral run by corrupted politicians and political systems. Doesn’t matter if you vote Labor or Liberal – its all the same nonsense. Nothing in the budgets to develop the country. Greedy Australian are robbing from future generations. Shameful!!
Good to see someone with the brains to understand there is no difference between the two parties, BigAl.
There will be no children living in poverty by the year 2000.
Making promises doesn’t mean it will happen.
That was a funny one, wasn’t it?
I bet good old Hawke left a few of his own poor children behind during his drunken days.
Well at least he left enough behind for his relatives to be fighting over. He should have given it to the beloved Labor Party instead. Worst thing is having offspring fighting over the stuff you left behind.
Mariner, it’s a pity he didn’t leave money for his Labor Party.
Hawke was always a scumbag great day when he died.
Aussiefrog Just goes to show how dumb Australian voters are they believe anything they are told at the moment they are voting for a Government who is sending them further and further into poverty I wonder I wonder when they will wake up
Oh, ollie, they should wake up and vote for the idiots on the other side who will sell us all into poverty instead of handing crumbs to the poorest and grinding anyone who worked and saved into equal hardship? If Labor had won last election, hundreds of thousands of SFRs would be poor pensioners now, with their income gone and their savings rapidly disappearing. Millions of workers would have been getting lower returns on their super. And the rich would still be partying claiming franking credits to wipe out their tax bills. No doubt you think that would be an improvement? Just like giving families earning $500,000 a year more to pay for childcare will help the nation.
Really Youngagain the fact is the gap between rich and poor in this country is growing at an alarming rate and the ALP is not in government
True, ollie, but nothing is going to change by electing the ALP. They have already declared their policies – and they are clearly to increase the gap between rich and poor and give the rich more. If you can’t see that, you are not understanding the policies correctly.
I wonder where Albanese plans on getting the money to fund his grandiose ideas. It seems he has the same old Labor ideas of hitting workers and businesses in the pocket to look after the layabouts. Labor needs to be looking at reducing immigration – especially reducing refugee intake which should be NIL in the present circumstances.
Getting money from the same place as the LNP.
“Getting money from the same place as the LNP”
Spot on ozrog
The same money that’s siphoned off by this Government for its friends and party.
https://www.abc.
et.au/news/2020-09-21/federal-government-western-sydney-airport-audit-office/12686208
Where do they usually get it, Gra, playing around and lowering pensions, disability and unemployment benefits, cutting essential services, in fact anything that doesn’t lower the the pay and perks of pollies and their wealthy donors.
Agan nothing for pensioners.
Pensioners are a dying race who cares.
Yep thanks to COVID -19 we are….. once it gets going the average living age for men and women will be 55 to 60 years and guess what no pension for anyone…..cause you wont make it to 67….
LOL
When is someone going to wake Up & do something about the Murray,darling scheme giving corps the taxpayers money to irragate their land & our farmers fight to get water ! we could grow the economy by kick starting the food bowl & grow & export produce the world wants before more overseas corps buy up our land to grow their control & profits
Supporting foreign extractors seems the biggest game in town for both LNP and ALP.
Who owns the transmission lines Albo wants to spend $20 billion on anyway? Who gets all the profit and why can’t they build up their business using those profits?
You can bag the labor party as much as you like the fact is we currently have a corrupt incompetent government we have had 7 years of waste 3 Prime Ministers all of whom are out of touch with the working class and pensioners and people who need help no plan for the future $20 dollar tax cuts to stimulate the economy and create jobs wasted 1 billion dollars the country is desperate for social housing and whats in the budget nothing we are in deep shit the country was struggling before the pandemic and this budget will do nothing
Please name your sources for the corruption you claim. These are serious charges and we deserve to know how you have arrived at your conclusions.
Paying $33 million dollars for a 3 million dollar block of land using tax payers money that to me is corruption and buying from a liberal party donor their should be a full investigation and i think when they lose government there will be
Agree with you 100% OLLIE.
I agree with you 100% too Ollie. Also what about Sportrorts and dodgy Angus Taylor, Stuart Robert et al.
KSS, here is the source.
https://www.abc.
et.au/news/2020-09-21/federal-government-western-sydney-airport-audit-office/12686208
Lets not forget the Prime Minister when he was minister for tourism did he not misplace $30 million dollars and could not explain where it went and then asked to resign. If a union had a $3 million dollar block of land and the Labor party was in government and paid $33 million for it there would a Federal police investigation and ministers would face criminal charges. I am starting to think there are Liberal Party Trolls on this web site specifically placed to write rubbish
To use your phrase ollie “the fact is” we have corrupt governments when the we have ALP governments (just look at the corrupt mess Andrews has created , at least his own are turning on him now, always happens), the major function of the LNP in my view is to keep the ALP out of government and the union movement subdued. And for that I am always grateful for a LNP government.
Like I said Iysistrata more rubbish
ollie/Thinker: Oh right a single source – the ABC. Ok then it must be true!
It is true because your hero Scott Morrison did not deny it
Spot on Ollie. Not only did our great leader lose his job over ‘suspected’ misappropriation of funds but twice, once in Australia and once in NZ. Each time his contract was terminated well before its end date with a ‘no comment’ yet everyone knew.
More platitudinous claptrap from someone suffering irrelevance.
So what exactly is he doing for older Australians exept insincere flattery. I didnt hear anything about increased pensions, increased rent allowance, help for SFRs? But hey he is going to rewire Australia. He could have at least promised to bury the wires but no.
I am sick of hearing about his upbringing he is not the only child from a one parent family remember Mr Turnbull? He was brought up by his Father. And why the discriminatory focus on jobs for women? And young women at that with the promise of free child care (which by the way only falls out at half a million dollars family income!) And again no real costings.
As for the criticism of the national debt, I dont know how he and his noddies kept a straight face. Doesnt he know the debt was caused by trying to support people and businesses through a pandemic all tge while Labor calling for even more spending
Pot-kettle-black.
Well said KSS.
The current mob has given us 7 years of nothing promises promises promises and delivered nothing except a 1 trillion dept its time for change
Yeah and the other mob has given us two more bloody years before pension age. Never forget that – the whole world still has a pension age of 65 but our workers party makes us slog even longer.
Dont forget Mariner the current mob wanted to put it up to 70 but the workers party stopped it for now
KSS —- help for SFRs? there it is again you don’s need any help your an SFR spend your capital
ollie – absolutely right. But will they change their mind once they’re in and it will be 70, sudden change like Mr Rudd – just added after the Budget speech. I never forget that. In my country of birth retirement for women is still 64, the Govt wanted to change that to equal 65 with men but it can only be changed thru a referendum and people so far (15 Years) have rejected it.
Not an SFR panos. Don’t assume you know anything about me.
Spend yours, Panos. Don’t have any? Then starve. Should’ve saved earlier in life and then you wouldn’t have to be envious, nasty and insulting to people who took responsibility for themselves and aren’t stealing $1 million from the taxpayer to compensate for their irresponsible lifestyle earlier.
It’s time EVERYONE lived under the same rules, instead of bashing people who saved to hand out to people who didn’t. Really, Panos, you do your fellow Australians a massive disservice, turning people against pensioners with your nastiness and selfish remarks. It’s hard to have empathy for pensioners and support their requests for more when we see this kind of disgusting carry on.
KSS, I see you have forgotten that the Current Govt is the leader for getting into debt, having kick started it with Joe Hockey asking for legislation to double Australia’s borrowing limit, they haven’t looked back, yet even after all that money, the economy has declined, – now they blame it all on covid, the which they handled OK initially by following the Labor party stimulus idea, now they are losing it, – holes in outer space tax cuts for the rich, – the trickle down the leg thing, got rid of the car industry and many other industries as well, so now we have to pay to import almost everything from overseas, that worsens our Balance of Payments.
Every grain of iron ore mined in Australia should leave our shores as at the very least finished steel balks, preferably finished product, so everyone would have a job.
No mention of the High voltage grid around Australia to connect all the renewable energy producing cheap electricity being underground, some options are underground, some above, whatever works the best as breakthroughs in that technology are happening all the time.
So how clever is the Govt? there is a gas powered electricity plant near Newcastle, – closed down because gas too expensive, so now they want to build more?? – Problem with gas is the wells keep running ‘dry’ so let’s help the foreign owned gas industry find more watertables to destroy, with taxpayer money, – bugger Oz farmers they are all gonna burn anyway, Streuth this govt is a shambles.
No vision, corruption at every level, no idea what they are doing and just don’t care.
Lookfar, you are right of course, but I hope you are intelligent enough to know that the other side would do no better?