Thank you all for gathering here today, as we prepare to take back government from the forces of the extreme right. I fully admit that we in the left had a terrible election result, and I bear my share of responsibility for that. However, as bad as our election result was, it pales in comparison to how poor the right's management has been.

In a very short amount of time, they have managed to lose three MPs. It honestly came as a shock to me and many in the Labour Party. We thought it'd be a long, long road to government. But well, it's looking a bit more like a short stroll.

I don't mean to be too glib. Because as amusing as we might find the failures from ANCAP and the LNP, the Dumb-and-Dumber-Duo running the country, the truth is this election is important. It's very important.

It's important because, more so than any other, this election is a choice. It's a choice between the current lot running the country, who are so incompetent that they're in this situation in the first place, or a team of experienced leaders ready to govern for the good of all Australians.

This election is a choice between corporate profit or public good. ANCAP and the LNP are asking you to accept cuts to schools, hospitals, and housing. They ask you to accept those cuts and in return they will give you a miniscule tax cut. Meanwhile, their corporate donors will get tax breaks and subsidies to the tune of billions of dollars.

On the other hand, the Labour Party offers you an Australia in which the top end of town pay their fair share of tax. We're not here to weigh down the pockets of the average mum and dad -- no, we're just here to demand the people who have been pigs in mud, enjoying record profits during the pandemic, we ask them to contribute to the betterment of Australian society.

And we ask them to contribute so we can afford things like Medicare. So we can afford to protect and build on the achievements of progressive governments, which dramatically expanded access to Bulk Billing right here in Canberra -- thanks to a commitment I secured when I represented this seat as an Independent.

It was that same government that delivered two new hospitals for the Canberra region, which are under construction now and, when complete, will dramatically ease the strain on the Canberra health system.

We ask them to contribute so we can afford to put record investment in our schools. Our kids still don't have a real solution after the High Court cruelly and maliciously struck down the largest infusion of education funding in this country's history. If elected, we will be pursuing every avenue available to restore that lost funding, as well as restoring fairness to our education system.

We ask them to contribute so we can afford record investments in housing. The Socialist Government that I led introduced funding for a million new homes across Australia, and if elected as the Labour Member for Canberra I will be pushing to maintain that funding.

These are the things that can be accomplished when you leverage the machinery of government. But that's the problem with ANCAP. They are ideologically opposed to it! It wouldn't even be fair to say, as I first thought, that this election is a choice between a government that works for you, or a government that works for billionaires.

No, more accurately, this election is a choice between a government that works for you, or a government that doesn't work at all! A government that is stripped for parts and sold to the highest bidder.

That is the ANCAP vision for the future. It's a vision for the future where you wake up and get gouged within thirty minutes. That's right. Within thirty minutes of you waking up, a private electrical company, with totally unregulated power to set prices, will gouge you on the cost of your lights and the power to charge your phone. When you brush your teeth, a private water company, with totally unregulated power to set prices, will gouge you on the water. When you cook your breakfast, a private gas company, with totally unregulated power to set prices, will gouge you on the gas!

Then you'll get out of the house. You'll step into your car, but don't get too attached. It's not your car. We've seen that, without regulation, the one thing corporations do without fail is figure out a new way to gouge. So you won't own that car, you'll lease it. In fact, you won't own anything ever again. Ownership, that's a left-wing value. The private market can make a hell of a lot more money by providing you a temporary licence to access, and never giving you the opportunity to purchase.

It's already happening today with software! And so it is that, when you get into your car, you accept a $10 charge to your credit card to turn the heat on -- and you know how cold our winters get! -- and a $20 charge to drive to work. You pay a $5 toll the moment you're out of the driveway, a $10 toll when you turn onto the freeway, and another $5 toll on the road to work.

You walk in, you work. With the draconian approach to labour laws that these so-called libertarians have, you can expect to be in AND out at six.

Halfway through the day you get sick. You tell your boss. He says if you leave, your job goes with you. So you stay. And Sunday, the only day off left, you go to the doctor. He checks you out, tells you to go to a specialist, then charges $200. You go to the specialist, they take scans, you get charged $2000. He says you have to go to hospital, you go there, and you come out with a bill the price of your family home. Now you have to ask if you'll pay your children's school fees, or for your treatment.

That's the ANCAP vision of the future. And that's one choice.

Here's the other. The other is that you wake up, and you don't have to spend a cent all day. The roads for public use, the water for public use, the power for public use. All of this we hold in common, all of this is given to us by Mother Gaia, and all of this must be considered a public good.

That's the other choice. If you vote for Labour, you're making that choice. It's a choice for a world where you never have to worry about how you'll pay for medicine again. It's a choice for a world where homelessness is eradicated and our kids are the smartest on the planet. And it's a choice for a world where your human worth isn't just your net worth.

Thank you, Canberra, and let's win this thing!