The ALP’s Senate Leader, Penny Wong, has delivered this year’s Light On The Hill Address in Bathurst.
Wong, the ALP’s Leader of the Opposition in the Senate, told her audience that “Labor stands for fairness, growth and building the future”.
She said: “Labor’s record of opening Australia’s economy to the world has been one of the most important ways of achieving these goals – from Chifley’s support for Bretton Woods, to Whitlam’s across the board tariff cut, to Hawke and Keating’s dismantling of protectionism, to Rudd and Gillard’s pursuit of trade agreements and a place for Australia in the Asian Century. In today’s world, the forces of globalisation drive economic, technological and social change. Labor knows we won’t improve living standards by pulling down the shutters.”
However, Wong said: “Labor recognises that while globalisation brings tremendous benefits, it can also drive rapid, unpredictable and sometimes unsettling change. That is why we see a role for government in implementing policies which empower our citizens to participate in the globalised economy. Policies that will allow more Australians to prosper and benefit from economic change, rather than being discarded and left behind.”
Chifley was Labor Prime Minister from 1945 until 1949. Prior to that, he was Treasurer in the Curtin government from 1941. Amongst other things, Chifley is remembered for his 