Good morning, everybody.
I too acknowledge the traditional owners of the land, the Yuin people, and pay my respects to elders past and present.
Thank you, friends, for that warm welcome.
And thank you, Liza, for those incredibly kind words.
When I first heard about Liza Butler, I thought – this amazing person needs to run for parliament.
Not just because she’s a successful business owner.
Not just because she’s raised five kids in the local area.
But more than anything else – because of the way she fights for this community.
When the bushfires hit the south coast four years ago, one of Liza’s first reactions was to bake a cake for the local firefighters.
Which speaks, I think, in a small way that speaks to the impressive level of calm under pressure that you always see from Liza – not to mention the baking skipps.
When she arrived at the Bawley Point Fire Station, cake in hand, she realised the kitchen was empty.
So in typical Liza style, she got stuck in, and barely left for a week.
She cooked for the volunteers, she organised deliveries, even as the power was flickering on and off and people were evacuated, she jumped in.
As she said afterwards:
‘I can’t jump in a truck and fight fires – but I can cook’.
Friends, that’s what it means to be there for your community.
That’s what it takes to be a regional MP, on the ground, standing shoulder to shoulder, sharing people’s struggles.
Understanding what your community needs, and never giving up until you succeed.
And that’s the kind of team Labor has built in the regions.
With Janelle Saffin, swimming through floodwater –
Helping her neighbours rebuild their lives.
And putting all her parliamentary colleagues in a headlock until she gets what she wants.
With Michael Holland, delivering babies at Moruya Hospital.
Going back abit, Clayton Barr in Cessnock, being a teacher for kids up there.
And Steve Whan, down the front here, has Monaro in his blood.
Or with every sitting member in the Hunter –
Who held their seats with impressive margins.
Or every Member from the Central Coast –
Who got within 1,000 votes of making a clean sweep of the region.
And with all our successful Members from the Illawarra.
We needed every one of those MPs to get across the line last year and form the first Labor government in twelve years.
So that’s the MPs, but I want to talk bout how we need you, the members of country Labor.
To all our members, all our supporters, all the trade unionists, all our true believers.
Everyone who knocked on doors, who talked to their neighbours.
Who got out there and spread the Labor message.
It’s not always easy, putting yourself out there like that.
Labor is a party that runs everywhere, from the deepest blue seats, to the deepest National Party territory, to the easiest Labor electorates.
We never give up. And we run everywhere.
Even when the odds are long as the going is tough.
I was in Tamworth a few years ago before the election, admittedly when the Libs and Nats were riding very high.
And I remember speaking to branch members at the local branch meeting and one of them was telling me about a Labor Party stall they held at the ‘AgQuip’ festival.
Now – for those of you who don’t know AgQuip is a regional festival, and it’s an expo in farming gear.
So not what you would call traditional Labor territory.
100,000 people turn up every year to AgQuip.
And on that day Labor attracted a total of eight people who went to the stall.
One person was asking for the time, another was there to borrow a pen.
So it can be uphill work.
Sometimes we’re tilling the soil in stubborn ground.
But every conversation counts, every person matters.
And bit by bit, we make the case for the Labor Party everywhere, right across the board in every region. And it matters.
So many of you go above and beyond for this party.
Marcus Rowland took leave from his job as a teacher to have a crack in Albury.
Heather Dunn in Orange was one of our top candidates statewide for speaking directly with voters.
Leon Ankersmit wore through three different pairs of shoes all while doorknocking in Clarence.
Not every campaign won their seat.
But every single solitary campaign is the reason that we won and you contributed, all of you contributed to that victory.
And that is why we are here today.
Just like the Labor Party has gathered with regional members and trade unionists for over 130 years.
And this is the first official conference of the new Labor Government.
A New South Wales Labor Government, working side by side with a federal Labor.
We can measure the size of our victory by the distance we’ve come since March last year.
A year ago, we still had the public sector wage cap in this state.
A year ago, privatisation was still the central economic theory of the government of the day.
Back then, we had more teachers resigning than retiring – for the first time ever.
We had some of the lowest paid paramedics in the country.
Our hospitals were regularly going backwards in the number of beds per capita.
Losing capacity at a faster rate than any other state or territory – apart from South Australia.
Those failures touched everyone in this state.
But for regional communities, they hit particularly hard.
55% of our teacher shortages were in regional and rural schools.
And housing shortages meant that regional towns were struggling to attract and retain essential workers.
Now, you would think these kinds of issues are core business for the National Party.
People worrying about having enough teachers at the local school, or if there’s a bed waiting for them at the hospital, or if their kids will ever afford to buy a house in their hometown.
But instead of fighting for the bush, instead of getting serious, the National Party has been getting weird.
Leading a bizarre crusade against solar panels and wind turbines.
Burrowing headfirst down a series of very strange rabbit holes.
I will say this – there are still honourable people in the National Party and many of them do care about the bush, and got involved in politics for the right reasons.
But that doesn’t describe the leadership of the National Party anymore.
Which might be why the official Liberal Party election review suggested a ‘managed separation’ between the parties.
Which is very modern for their kind of politics.
I think the official term is ‘conscious uncoupling’.
But it’s not just renewable energy, it’s not just their failure to deliver on the basics.
It’s also the shameless pork barrelling.
It reached the lowest point after the bushfires –
When the previous government set up a recovery program in such a way that John Barilaro could invent the rules on the run.
Which meant that 21 of the 22 grants that were awarded went to Coalition held seats.
Now – don’t take my word for it, this is what the Auditor General said:
‘[this] resulted in a number of shortlisted projects in areas highly impacted by the bushfires being excluded, including all shortlisted projects in Labor Party-held electorates.’
That was their message to people – we will help you, but only if you vote for us.
Friends, that can’t be our approach.
And that will never, ever be a Labor Government’s approach.
We govern for every community, blue or red, green or teal.
We support critical workers.
No matter where they live.
No matter who their local MP is.
We deliver essential services in every part of this state, politics be damned.
The public interest is just too important.
We will also manage the economy with a steady hand, in the interests of working people.
And it’s for those same reasons Labor is finally tackling the housing crisis with the gravity and attention that it deserves.
So far, a lot of the media focus has been on our changes in Sydney.
But as you all know well – this is not a Sydney problem.
In Bathurst, rents have risen 37% in the past five years.
In Albury, they’ve risen 40%.
In Orange – a monster 43%.
Here in Nowra, almost half of the households are under rental stress.
Those kinds of price rises can crush people.
If you don’t have stable housing, if your budget is being pushed to the limit every month, it’s hard to build a life, let alone make plans for the future.
I think the bottom line here is, the housing crisis is hurting everybody.
And it’s also holding regional towns back.
If a regional area can’t keep critical workers because the rent is too high, then it becomes very difficult to staff your hospitals, your cafes, your supermarkets, your police stations or your local schools.
The bottom line is:
We need to get more supply into the market, both for buying and renting, in both the cities and the regions.
Which is why Paul Scully and Liza Butler will be out in Bomaderry later today, looking at the first South Coast site of our Build to Rent Scheme.
This scheme will support new developments where all the apartments are leased out, not sold or rented as an investment property.
Adding more supply, offering more options, and hopefully putting a downward pressure on costs, for young people in particular.
We’re also working with councils and communities to ensure they have the infrastructure to support this growth.
When I talk to councils in Sydney, they’re not always as keen on new housing in their suburbs.
Sometimes they go straight to the media to talk about it. Although I’m very pleased to say this week we had some wonderful talks and negotiations with some of our big cities in Sydney.
But I have to say my experience in Regional New South Wales has been different.
Most regional councils welcome new housing, and they welcome new residents into their community, they just want to know that utilities are connected, that roads can handle more traffic.
Which is why we are helping them do that –
With more support for local planning.
And with $400 million in our budget for the Housing Infrastructure Fund, we will guarantee at least $100 million dedicated to regional NSW.
When we talk about the cost of living, housing is the biggest component.
The other side of the ledger, quite understandably for the family budget, is wages.
Friends, this is one of the reasons we ended the public sector wage cap that was eating away at people’s living standards.
It’s one of the reason’s why our Minister for Education and Deputy Premier of New South Wales, took our teachers from being some of the lowest paid in Australia – to the highest paid.
Prue knows, and we all know, if you want to attract quality professionals and lift school outcomes, you’ve got to recruit the best.
Labor is not a party that suppresses wages.
We don’t wear down our essential workers.
The New South Wales Government is the biggest employer in Australia, and we need to set a higher standard than that.
Friend’s and delegates, your party has done just that in this first twelve months in office.
Helping people with wages.
Pushing prices down,
Helping with the cost of living.
Facing up to the housing crisis in a serious way.
And ending the reign of privatisation in this New South Wales.
Under a Labor Government – public services will stay in public hands.
And today, I’m very happy to announce some important news on that front.
The latest step in our plan to deliver universal preschool access in this state.
At the election, Labor made a promise to build 100 new public preschools in New South Wales.
Including a promise to establish a preschool within every new public primary school built in this state.
Now – you would have seen the previous government spoke big on this issue – but I can tell you, in the twelve years they were in power in New South Wales, the build just one preschool.
The difference is – when we said it, we meant it. We’ll do it.
Today, we are releasing the regional component of our program.
And I can report to you delegates, that of the 100 preschools, I can announce that almost half will be in regional cities, remote areas or very remote areas.
Prue Car will lead the program to build 49 new preschools outside of Sydney.
49 new preschools – in places that desperately need more early learning support.
These places were selected by a departmental panel – this is important to say because of the record of pork-barrelling and political oversight by the previous government.
So I’ll say it again – selected by a department panel, overseen by an independent chair and double checked by a probity advisor.
It seems insane that I have to say this – but the public must have confidence that when we spend the public money, the is no political overlay on top, we are doing it for the benefit of this state.
We know how important this learning is for young brains.
When you see your kids interacting at that age, playing with different kids, from different backyards, you realise how important it is for socialisation too.
And it’s also a huge help for families.
It means they won’t have to fork out so much for that last year of childcare, particularly when both mum and dad work.
It’s why we also introduced a $500 rebate for parents with three year old kids in long day care.
Delegates, that is the difference a Labor government makes.
The difference between privatisation and public investment.
Between old ideas and a fresh start.
We can’t change it all in a year, but we’ve begun the essential work to turn around New South Wales –
We’ve saved Sydney Water from privatisation.
We’re moving towards safe staffing levels for nurses and midwives in public hospitals.
We have converted thousands of teachers and support staff to permanent positions in out New South Wales Public Schools –
The reason for that is so they can finally get a home loan or a start a real life in regional communities.
We’ve cut the number of overdue surgeries in half.
We’ve begun the process of creating the Great Koala National Park.
We’ve established the Energy Security Corporation –
To invest in community batteries and other renewable storage.
While starting our work to build the next fleet of trains not overseas, but right here in New South Wales –
Proudly manufactured by union workers in this New South Wales.
There is a long way to go, but friends I think by any objective measure you would acknowledge it’s an impressive list.
And I have to say delegates, it is genuinely, all down to you.
Your hard work, your commitment to the Labor cause.
The fact that you never gave up.
The fact that you’re prepared to fight with one of your uncles at Christmas, over the fact Labor wasn’t all bad.
Staff booths, in the midst of the deepest National Party Territory, convince people to join your branch, turn out in the boiling sun or freezing cold all with a view of supporting this 130 year old institution.
At the end of the day we don’t have gleaming buildings in the middle of our big cities, or old sandstone lecture theatres.
The Labor Party only has its people and its ideas. But that’s all we need.
It’s particularly gratifying to be on here the South Coast as the Premier of New South Wales.
This is where we sparked our revival at the Bega by-election a couple of years ago.
And this is where we helped seal the deal, by painting the coastline Labor red.
Conference, this is just the beginning.
The first year of a forward-looking, problem-solving, hopefully, long-term Labor Government.
I’m very proud to be the leader of the Labor Party.
And I’m proud to represent the wonderful people of Country Labor, today and every day.
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