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On the Cabinet selection process:
What we’ve got [on the frontbench] is 29 skilled and talented and committed Labor performers. The process of having caucus be the people who decided means there’s a distinct departure from the last six years. I’ll allocate the portfolios in consultation with my colleagues, and I’ll certainly nominate parliamentary secretaries, again, in consultation with people.
But what’s really important here is that, under my leadership, the elected members of the federal parliamentary Labor party will have a say. And what you call factions, I describe as the inevitable consequence of people talking to each other.
I’m not an expert on who are the best 30 people in the team, I’d rather trust the judgement of my 85 colleagues and that’s what’s happened.
On Factional politics:
During the leadership campaign, I pledged that I would no longer take an active role in factional activities.
What I want to see under my leadership is – whether or not you are a Rudd person or a Gillard person, whether or not you’re an Albo person or a Bill person, whether or not you’re left or right, is secondary to – are you a Labor person?
So, I believe that’s the approach we need to take in pre-selections, that the best candidates should emerge, and someone’s background should be of secondary importance in terms of internal ALP processes.
Most people in the Labor Party don’t belong to a faction. I believe what’s important is to have more people in the Labor party participating, to have more ranges of candidates and also to have more people participating in selecting more diverse candidates. The old politics has to change.
On Positive politics:
We recognise [we’ve] got to be pro-immigration. We’ve got to be pro our regions; Australia is more than just three cities on the east coast. We need to be the party of science, research, and higher education. We need to be a brave party that stands up for people who don’t have a voice in our community. I’ve raised the need for national leadership to tackle the problems of domestic violence.
As a nation, we can’t afford to waste the potential of people in our community – that’s why talking about how we develop a better go for people on the disability pension is fundamental.
We need to be a party that promotes the onward march of women throughout the institutions of power, and an outwardly-focused society which understands that small business is fundamental to the economy and [that] it’s fundamental to community-building in every suburb and town in Australia.
These are the issues upon which Labor can provide a positive vision for Australia’s future.
On a commitment to Science and research:
The greatest resource we have in Australia is not the minerals beneath the ground, it is in the minds and capacities of Australians. We need to get behind our scientific and research community. We need to encourage careers in science, we need to make sure kids aren’t dropping out of maths and science in junior secondary school, right through to working with our PhD students to make sure they can go the distance, and then have the opportunities to apply the quality of their research in practical endeavours.
Today – and I’ve been the leader for a day – the way I work, I’m not going to outline all policies, what I will do, though, is work with my parliamentary team and people in the broader community. But people in the science, innovation and education community can be confident that with me as Labor leader, their issues are going to get debated in the national parliament and in the national political arena.
On winning the next election:
I believe I, and the Labor team, can make Labor competitive. The challenge for Labor isn’t what the Coalition thinks of us, we know what they think of us. The challenge for us is to convince Australians that our ideas, the application of Labor values, is the best chance on which Australians can aspire to lives of quality and meaning in the future.
I don’t think anyone is automatically guaranteed power. There’s not an inch of complacency in me, I don’t believe that, in some point in the future, it will simply be Labor’s turn. What we have to do is demonstrate and satisfy Australians that our ideas are relevant to their futures.