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Never be in any doubt: I will never tolerate a situation in which my fellow Australians live in the economic shadowlands, drifting in and out of unemployment and low wage jobs without a helping hand. That is not the Australian way! Our thinkers, our creators, our inventors, our scientists and technologists—these are just some of the people crucial to Australia’s future.

There is no one magic source for that security and opportunity. It is not good enough to mouth assurances that they will somehow magically trickle down from on high, or emerge out of some soulless economic machine. If a tax looks like it is going to hurt, that is because it will. Governments cause pain frequently enough, even when they don’t mean to, and there is no mystical virtue in accepting pain for pain’s sake.

And as we look to the future of our children, let’s not forget the greatest intergenerational challenge of them all—saving our planet. Australia must play a role in the international struggle against global warming. Our national icons are at stake: The coral bleaching and destruction of the Great Barrier Reef; The flooding of Kakadu National Park with salt water. No responsible leader could stand by and watch these things happen.

We are very much aware that the great progress we have made in the last three years—the unprecedented economic growth, the low inflation, the lowest level of strikes since 1940, the huge growth in jobs, the growth in exports and productivity—has not translated automatically into material benefits, or a greater sense of security among many Australians. But that is not an argument for throwing out the policies which have given us strikingly good results.

It is with an immense amount of personal pride and also an enormous amount of humility that I bring together today the essential argument as to why, after 13 long and difficult years, this nation of ours needs emphatically a change of government.

At Mr Howard’s policy launch on Monday there was nothing on climate change. Nothing on water. Nothing on hospitals. Nothing on infrastructure. And whatever amount of money Mr Howard may yet throw at these long standing challenges over the next ten days, it just not going to be real. The truth is, it’s all just too late to be believable.

The program I put down and talked about tonight does offer a different way of doing many things. It’s built on giving people incentive is built on less government and lower taxation. But above all, it is built upon my unshakeable belief that if you give Australians the right encouragement and the right incentive, they can lick anything.

Ladies and gentlemen, and my fellow Australians. Election campaigns are never held in a vacuum. They are not dry comparisons of neat policies, be it economic, taxation or otherwise. They are an opportunity for a nation collectively to stock take. To ask what Australia stands for and to ask what they want it to stand for in the future.

As a liberal, I support lower taxes, smaller government and greater freedom. As a conservative, I support a fair go for families and respect for values which have stood the test of time. As an Australian, I support policies which work and which don’t trifle with our country’s future. Mine is a genial pragmatic political creed based above all on respect for the people and the communities that have produced here perhaps the most free, fair and prosperous society on earth.

National security is therefore about a proper response to terrorism. It’s also about having a far sighted, strong, well thought out defence policy. It is also about having an uncompromising view about the fundamental right of this country to protect its borders. It’s about this nation saying to the world we are a generous open hearted people taking more refugees on a per capita basis than any nation except Canada, we have a proud record of welcoming people from 140 different nations.

But we will decide who comes to this country and the circumstances in which they come.