Outlook conference: Shorten stands by resentful workers

Bill Shorten last night strenuously defended his focus on Australia’s low-income earners.

Labor Leader Bill Shorten arrives at the Economic & Social Future Outlook Conference in Melbourne last night. Picture: Stuart McEvoy

Bill Shorten last night strenuously defended his focus on Australia’s low-income earners, denying he was trying to win office on the back of the politics of envy but expressing unity with those resentful of economic inequality.

The Opposition Leader warned about what he claimed was rising resentment towards inequality, stating that the ranks of the unhappy would grow unless there was government intervention.

Speaking at a Melbourne Institute/The Australian Economic and Social Outlook function, he said his own view was that there was evidence of an ­increasing level of unfairness in Australia.

The Labor leader said it was “brutally unfair” to prioritise tax concessions and tax subsidies for people who were already well off, arguing it was neither fair nor sustainable for shareholders to receive tax breaks if they had not paid tax that year.

Mr Shorten also said the ­government of the day should be investigating tax subsidies and tax loopholes with the same care as ­it investigated the merit of other government spending, adding he was opposed to income-splitting, preferring to spend the cash on education.

“This isn’t about increasing taxes on middle-class and working-class people and that’s not what our plan does,” he said in a prepared speech.

“It’s about closing the loop­holes so multinationals and the top end of town pay their fair share. And government expenditure goes where it will do the most good, for the future of this nation.

“Because that is what drives me, this is why I want to be prime minister, to hand on a better deal to the next generation.’’

The comments were prepared for a panel discussion at the conference, featuring The Australian’seditor-at-large, Paul Kelly.

They came as Scott Morrison sharply differed with Mr Shorten on tax, outlining his plans for a second round of tax cuts for more than three million small and medium-sized businesses.

The Prime Minister and Mr Shorten presented as opposites, with the Opposition Leader using the conference forum to further his class-warfare agenda.

While Labor is attempting to play down the class-warfare tag, Mr Shorten was again clear in his rhetoric, aiming at appealing to voters in the cities’ outer suburbs and regional Australia.

Labor is increasingly confident that it understands where its future is. With rising wealth in the inner cities and the collapse of old-economy jobs, it believes its political future is entrenched in middle and lower-income Australia.

Mr Shorten claimed his agenda was not about envy.

“My opponent, even today at this conference, says this is somehow about envy,” the Opposition Leader said.

“Quite frankly, I don’t mind how rich anyone is. I don’t begrudge anyone their financial ­success.

“But for this country to work, for our shared national enterprise to thrive, it can’t just be those who are already very well off who keep doing very well.

“Everyone needs to feel like they are getting a fair go, if you are actually getting a fair go. I don’t believe Australia is a resentful society. But at the moment I think the number of people resentful about what they regard as unfairness in this country is a continuously growing number.

“And a lot of the things I’ve seen in this job convince me ­people have every right to feel that way.”