Shorten lays out Labor vision
A Labor government would restore the compulsory superannuation guarantee and sign up to a Chinese-led investment bank.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten made the two commitments in a National Press Club appearance in which he pledged Labor would "under-promise and over-deliver".
Mr Shorten said the coalition's freezing of superannuation at 9.5 per cent instead of letting it gradually rise to 12 per cent was a "backward step".
"What they should do is allow superannuation to go up in the increments we proposed, so we have a larger pool of savings," Mr Shorten said.
Taking a shot at Prime Minister Tony Abbott's foreign policy credentials, he said Labor would sign up to the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank which the government has yet to commit to.
"When we are in government we will get the details right and we will sign up," he said of China's invitation for Australia to be one of the foundation signatories.
Mr Shorten said the prime minister had been blind-sided during his hosting of the G20 summit in Brisbane - by the US-China climate deal, US President Barack Obama's speech calling for greater action on climate and Chinese President Xi Jinping's offer to formalise relations with Australia.
"Tony Abbott revealed himself as unable to craft a nuanced and sophisticated foreign policy," Mr Shorten said.
"He let our country down. And you cannot govern today without a vision for tomorrow."
Describing the coalition's higher education changes as a "bleak, nasty plan", Mr Shorten said Labor's universities policy would be based on accessibility and affordability, excellence and balancing autonomy with accountability.
He said Labor's election platform would not be based on a list of "Tony Abbott's lies" but a set of policies thrashed out at the July 2015 ALP national conference in Melbourne and developed over the next two years.
"Labor will be defined in 2015 by the power of our ideas," he said.
He acknowledged that the federal budget was under pressure from falling commodity prices and the ageing population, but he would not commit to quarantining any spending areas.
"These are still early days for us," he said, adding that the opposition had yet to see the government's mid-year budget review.
However, he said the government should dump its paid parental leave scheme, go after multinationals which are avoiding tax, make superannuation tax breaks for the wealthy less generous and introduce an emissions trading scheme.
https://au.news.yahoo.com/a/25619338/shorten-lays-out-labor-vision/
A vision to get elected and then it will be back to business as usual!
