Fed: Rudd recasts Labor as party without class war

AAP General News (Australia)
04-29-2007
Fed: Rudd recasts Labor as party without class war

By Maria Hawthorne, Chief Political Correspondent

SYDNEY, April 29 AAP - Labor leader Kevin Rudd today declared the old politics of class
envy dead, saying even families on $250,000 were struggling.

Only nine per cent of Australians earn more than $125,000 a year and the average wage
is closer to $57,000.

But Mr Rudd used Labor's national conference to unveil plans to help even the country's
wealthiest households install solar panels and rainwater tanks.

Under today's announcement, households earning up to $250,000 a year will be entitled
to low-interest loans of up to $10,000 to help defray the cost of installing green energy
devices and water saving measures.

Mr Rudd said there was nothing wrong with offering the assistance to people on higher incomes.

"Our policy includes all working families," Mr Rudd told reporters.

"We don't have some sort of class enemy basis upon which we do this - that's the old
politics of the past.

"I'm not on that bandwagon, we're on about something totally different."

Mr Rudd said in some parts of western Sydney, families were struggling to make ends
meet on $200,000 with interest rate rises and a crisis in housing affordability.

In his bid to modernise the party ahead of this year's election, Mr Rudd also defended
plans to recruit AFL legend Graham Cornes' wife Nicole as a star candidate for the Adelaide
seat of Boothby, despite Mrs Cornes not being a member of the Labor Party or a union.

He said it was no longer relevant to insist that all Labor candidates be paid-up members
of a union - but declined to ask the party's national conference to change the rules.

Mrs Cornes, a newspaper columnist and mother of two who admits to previously voting
Liberal, will join the Labor Party tomorrow after meeting Mr Rudd this weekend.

Mr Rudd said it was important to get the best candidates, not just those who had worked
their way up through party and union ranks.

He said he did not know how many members of the current Labor caucus were union members.

"I wouldn't have a clue and frankly I don't care because I don't think it is an essential
criteria," he said.

"This for us when it's come down to the question of who's in parliament, who's the
preselected candidates, it's not an issue, it's not a priority."

He denied that he had attempted to distance himself from the union movement by not
mentioning the word "union" once in his 2,300-word speech on Labor's new industrial relations
policy.

"I'm immensely proud of what organised labour and the unions have done in this country
for over 110 years, going back to the great strikes of 1891," he said.

The party remained close to the unions, despite some anger at the new policy banning
most strike action, he said.

"There's been some blowback from some of our friends in the trade unions on the whole
question of secret ballots and strikes," he said.

"I understand that. This is the 21st century, we've got to move on."

AAP mfh/it/mn

KEYWORD: LABOR NIGHTLEAD

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