ALP ... Labor's national conference took place today: Stuart McEvoy

I'm Kevin and I'm here to help

April 27, 2007 10:30am

A NEW leader, a new song and a new slogan greeted delegates at Labor's national conference in Sydney today.

The conference is a milestone for Leader Kevin Rudd, his first as party leader, and his speech today was expected to be key for supporters and detractors alike.

Mr Rudd was greeted with a specially-commissioned song as he appeared at the Sydney Convention Centre this morning to address Labor delegates, flanked by the message "Australian Labor, Fresh Thinking".

Delegates gave Mr Rudd a standing ovation as he walked to the stage, greeting his children and his wife Therese Rein on the way.

"My name is Kevin, I'm from Queensland and I'm here to help," he said.

Mr Rudd used his speech to launch a fierce attack on Prime Minister John Howard, branding him "increasingly arrogant and out of touch" after 11 years in power.

Mr Howard was "stuck in the past" and had "run out of ideas", he said.

"Mr Howard doesn't really believe in a single idea which didn't appear on black and white television," Mr Rudd said to laughter and applause from the crowd.

"And to conceal his absence of ideas he's now increasingly driven by short-term politics in order to cling onto long-term political office."

Mr Rudd accused Mr Howard of having turned his back on Australia's battlers, with personal debt at record levels, housing becoming increasingly unaffordable and record HECs debts for university students.

But he reminded the party faithful that Labor would not be able to clinch victory at this year's federal election if it only relied on voter unhappiness with the Government.

"As I've said to my colleagues on many occasions, we will not win this election on the basis of a protest vote against Mr Howard alone," Mr Rudd said.

"We can only win it on the basis of a positive vote for us - and our alternative plans for Australia's future."

Mr Rudd reiterated Labor's plans to improve public education, invest up to $4.7 billion in a new high-speed national broadband internet network, and tackle problems with business regulation to help boost productivity levels.

And he repeated his promise to dump the government's industrial relations policies "once and for all" and introduce policies to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 60 per cent by 2050.

"We can build productivity growth through an education revolution, the application of new technologies, by freeing up our businesses from unnecessary regulation and by encouraging a new age of innovation - including our critical manufacturing industries," he said.

"I don't want to be a prime minister of a country that doesn't make things any more.

"And we are capable of building this prosperity on the back of these reforms - without throwing the fair go out the back door."

Crossroads

Mr Rudd said Australia was approaching a crossroads and Australians needed to deal with it head-on.

"One thing we know for certain is that the history of nations is made up of those who understand, anticipate and act on the challenges of the future, and those who do not, those who instead bury their heads in the sand, those who hope it will all just go away," he said.

Mr Rudd said Labor was at its best as a navigator of Australia's future.

"This election in just a few months time will be about the future versus the past," he said.

"And we, friends, are the party of the future.

"And our opponents, friends, have become the party of the past."

Mr Rudd outlined what he saw as the greatest challenges facing the nation - the end of the mining boom, global warming, the threat from terrorism, and what he called the dysfunctional federal system of government.

"When I look to the next decade, the future I see for Australia is one fundamentally shaped by the rise of China and the rise of India," Mr Rudd said.

"The future I see for Australia is one in which our current mining boom does not last forever, and rather that simply being the lucky country , we will have to make our own luck.

"The future I see for our country is also one challenged by long term energy security, climate change and its impact on water security, food security and national security."

Australians needed to ask themselves if Australia was ready for these challenges, Mr Rudd said.

"I am an unabashed optimist when it comes to our country's long-term future," Mr Rudd said.

"Australian people want prosperity but they want prosperity with a heart," Mr Rudd said.

News Limited