Labour was in Parliament for the principle of white labour and defence for Australia. In 1903 the Hon. J. C. Watson opposed successfully a proposal to subsidise the home Government for Australian defence. Defence was only effective when the money and the men were found by the country intending to defend itself.
February 10th, 1910
agriculture defence economy federation social securityWe offer you good government. The essential quality of good government is that it should have sound and intelligible principles, that it should pursue great national and social objectives with resoluteness, that it should be able to meet the storms that arise from time to time with a proper sense of navigation, that it should have cohesion in its own ranks and a strong sense of mutual loyalty.
November 15th, 1961
economy infrastructure communications and technology communism defence education employment family foreign affairs health immigration Indigenous affairs industrial relations social security socialism tradeThe battle for progress with security, for social justice with the encouragement and rewarding of enterprise, for peace with a readiness to defend it, for the reaching of a state of life in which material well-being is seen as the foundation for mental and spiritual advancement, is not yet won. But the successes so far achieved are such as to give us high hopes and renewed determination.
October 29th, 1958
economy family communism defence foreign affairs health infrastructure tradeAs 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.
August 8th, 2010
climate change economy environment water family immigration social securityThis is no ordinary election. It comes at a time when the Government has precariously and unexpectedly survived by one vote for two years. It comes at a time when turbulence and international tension exist nearer to our frontiers than ever before except during the last war; when strength is needed in the voice of Australia; when our country cannot afford to compel its Government to spend a lot of time, week by week, on the problem of domestic political survival.
November 12th, 1963
education family health infrastructure communications and technology communism defence foreign affairs government administration Indigenous affairs industrial relations social security socialism tradeDeeply conscious of the grave challenge of the future, Labor presents its well considered programme. We bear the same shield as did Scullin, Curtin and Chifley. We walk in their tradition. We are men of one allegiance only. We have never changed our name. We represent the Australian Labor Party, which is Australian because it is Labor, and Labor because it is Australian. Our flag is the Australian flag which we have never sullied and which we have never raised in an unworthy cause.
November 16th, 1961
agriculture communism defence economy education employment family foreign affairs health immigration infrastructure social securityMen and Women of Australia: Our message is one of hope and faith—hope for the young, the anxious, the uncertain, the deprived; and faith in the future of Australia’s parliamentary democracy. Working together, we can get Australia working again, we can get the Australian parliamentary democracy working again.
November 17th, 1977
communications and technology economy education employment federal-state relations health Indigenous affairs industrial relations infrastructure social securityWe have attempted nothing spectacular. We have eschewed the monetary cranks and spurned the miracle workers. We have stuck to proved methods, honest value and honest money. But if we have attempted nothing spectacular in our methods of Government, I think we are justified in claiming that our efforts have resulted in what must be regarded as one of the most spectacular economic recoveries the world has known.
August 13th, 1934
economy employment trade defence federal-state relations health social securityThe most important issue in this campaign is Conscription, the conscription of a section of our twenty year old youths, against their wishes and their wills, to kill or be killed in the undeclared, civil war in Vietnam and the threatened extension of conscription to all twenty year olds and other age groups to increase our unwarranted and unnecessary commitment.
November 10th, 1966
defence economy education foreign affairs health immigration Indigenous affairs industrial relations infrastructure social security waterThe greatest legacy that this Government has given the Australian nation over the last eight and a half years is the strongest, best performing economy that we have seen since World War II.
It has not happened by accident. It’s not a fluke. It’s not been done by signing pieces of cardboard. It has been done by hard work and difficult decisions. And again let me remind you, it’s been done in the teeth of tenacious opposition from the Labor Party to virtually every fundamental reform that we have tried to bring about.
September 26th, 2004
defence economy foreign affairs crime education family health