Shorten reveals the fix for an unfair Australia

Bill Shorten’s keynote speech to the ALP national conference reveals a politically formidable agenda years in the making from a superior Labor electoral machine.

Shorten’s message to the party and public is that Labor is united, stable, determined and ready to govern. As leader he has tapped into the changing mood of Australia, its economic fears, its social hopes and its environmental concerns, all presented under the over-arching banner of fairness and attacking inequality.

Anything Shorten loses in popularity he wins back in political craft.

His speech to the conference was too long, but only because Shorten systematically outlined the litany of interest groups, causes, special deals and policy agendas that Labor under his leadership has put in place to deliver majority support at the 2019 election. It is a ruthless electoral pitch.

On display is a Labor vision for a new social, economic and environmental order for Australia. If Shorten wins, he arrives with a big mandate. Party president Wayne Swan captured the visceral decision Labor has taken.

Surveying a chaotic world Swan told delegates that social democratic parties faced an existential dilemma: “You are bold or you are dead.”

Australian Labor has gone bold; many other social democratic parties are dying. Shorten has fashioned a mix of populism, idealism and blatant special interests.

His messages are that “inequality is eating away at prosperity”, that only Labor gives women a voice and power, that Labor puts health and education before tax breaks for the big end of town and that the Liberals “are mired in the past”.

The platform for Shorten’s success lies in the tactical troika: higher taxes based on a hefty redistribution; big-spending investment programs in education and health; and revenue to underpin a respectable bottom-line surplus. The entire Shorten project hinges on the public accepting that Australia has become an unfair society.

Shorten’s political feat needs to be appreciated — he has invoked inequality and public dissatisfaction to win support for a bold and risky agenda.

The contrast with the government is sharp because Labor has flown its banners on a consistent basis over years. Shorten has read the times and backed his judgment. At each point the Liberals felt he would falter and at each point they were wrong.

Shorten is no orator. It doesn’t matter. He channels a disciplined momentum within Labor and its eye on the ultimate prize. Shorten, a lucky leader gifted by chronic Coalition instability, has made the most of his luck. The factional and policy trade-offs are done; the economic platform sailed through the conference yesterday, no dramas, no revolts. A sub-theme tells the story: constant recognition of volunteers, unionists and campaign workers.

Shorten has the busiest agenda for an ALP opposition leader since Gough Whitlam. Indeed, his pledge that his No 1 challenge as PM if he wins will be “to restore trust in the system” is pure Whitlamism — it creates expectations unlikely to be realised.

Pivotal to holding Labor together before and after the election is Shorten’s fidelity to the great Labor projects. He said in his first week as PM he will meet indigenous leaders to discuss “closing the gap”, treaties and the “voice to parliament” constitutional change. He backs the republic and promises to get the National Disability Insurance Scheme on track.

Consider the vast constituencies Shorten has mobilised — in the first 100 days he will restore Sunday and holiday penalty rates for 700,000 workers, stop workers having their superannuation ripped off, crack down on labour hire companies, work to achieve pay equity for feminised industries including aged care, early education and paid carers, build 250,000 homes over the decade to help renters, protect Medicare, tackle climate change and better fund all levels of education. Unlike Whitlam, he announces he can pay for the lot courtesy of the long list of tax increases.