Gillard announces election date
By Malcolm Farr, Simon Benson
news.com.au
January 30, 201312:42PM
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Gillard names election date
Julia Gillard has announced an election
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Gillard names election date
Prime Minister Julia Gillard announces the federal election will take place on September 14.
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Julia Gillard has announced an election for September 14. Picture: Ray Strange Source: News Limited
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VOTERS will go to the polls on September 14 in what will mark the longest election campaign in the nation’s history.
In a speech at the National Press Club Prime Minister Gillard confirmed the election date.
Ms Gillard has confirmed she spoke with NSW Independents Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott about the election date before making the announcement today.
Mr Oakeshott said: “I welcome the certainty of a September 14 federal election date announced. Parliament runs full term, election date confirmed.”
The Prime Minster began her speech, which outlined her priorities for 2013, by declaring most Australians fear our children will not lead a better life than themselves.
“I want this audience to feel all the force of that concern. I most certainly do, the Prime Minister told the National Press Club in Canberra.
Ms Gillard pointed to insecurity for many following the global financial crisis, and extra pressures fro the ordeal of long commutes to work to paying household bills.
“It means it can be a struggle to make ends meet and it can seem far harder to get ahead in the post-GFC world,” she said.
“It means we are more likely than earlier generations to face the challenges of parenting and caring for older parents at the same time.
“Combined with the travel time to work and, for some, concern about community safety, life can be very stressed and pressurised.
“Through all this, we are more connected with information about world events and causes of community anxiety than ever before.
“Over time, the uncertainties and pressures we live with have led some of us to be concerned that our children won’t live a better life than us.”
The speech highlighted families as a priority for Labor and the focus of broader economic policy this election year with the Prime Minister pledging to make the next generation “stronger, fairer, smarter”.
“As a generation of Australians, our greatest task, our highest calling, is to build a future of greater shared opportunity and less risk for the next generation,” said Ms Gillard.
“I want to eradicate any sense we can’t get this done. As a nation, we are strong, fair by instinct, smart.
“I know that we have it within us to ensure the next generation of Australians is stronger, fairer, smarter. I am an optimist; everything we have achieved as a nation reinforces that optimism, everything we are planning delivers on it.”
But Ms Gillard foreshadowed tough Budget measures – what she called “long-term saving measures” – to pay for that security by warning that governments were facing their toughest revenue raising periods for years.
As expected, she nominated increased school funding and creation of a National Disability Insurance Scheme as the destinations for much of the savings, but did not in her speech say where the cuts would be made.
The Prime Minister said government revenue per unit of national output was at the lowest since the early 1990s.
“In other words, for a given amount of economic income generated, less money is finishing in the public purse, to be used for the Australian people,” she said.
“We are experiencing a proportional reduction in the amount of revenue being generated from any given amount of economic income. This is part of a trend which is felt worldwide.
“Now, the immediate effect of this was made clear by the Deputy Prime Minister (Treasurer Wayne Swan) last December.
“While within our medium-term fiscal strategy, spending is tightly constrained, the amount of tax collected from all sources — particularly from company tax — is significantly lower than independent forecasters or the Treasury have anticipated.
“Compared to the public revenue which was forecast on the eve of the global financial crisis in 2008, what has actually been collected in tax since is far lower — on average, lower by more than $30 billion every year.
“Even compared to what was forecast once the worst of the global financial crisis had passed, annual revenue is tens of billions of dollars below what was expected.”
More to come