A continuing narrative throughout Australia's history that says it is better to build up than to tear down - this is the continuing mission of Labor.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Labor is at its best when we are the party of ideas and action - ideas that empower the powerless and actions that build a better Australia for the long term.
We believe in the Australian promise; that if you work hard, you won't be left behind.
The Australian people want to help build this country into a great nation. This budget... has not realized the capacity of the Australian people. It has underestimated them. It has let us down.
It may be that the carbon tax is the final chapter in the strange death of Labor Australia.
I deeply believe that if the Australian Labor Party, a party of which I have been a proud member for more than 30 years, is to have the best future for our nation, then it must change fundamentally its culture and to end the power of faceless men. Australia must be governed by the people, not by the factions.
It is only through labor and painful effort, by grim energy and resolute courage, that we move on to better things.
Labour may be a burden and a chastisement, but it is also an honour and a glory. Without it, nothing can be accomplished.
In the U.S. the powerful critics of austerity such as Paul Krugman and Robert Reich rightly identify the decline of 'labor' as a problem, and renewing trade unionism part of the solution. Our opportunity is to make the same case in the UK.
Instead of an end to austerity, Labour has made clear that it wants to impose more austerity cuts.
Australia as a nation, as a set of cities and some regional centres, that project died a death and we didn't get it up, but I still think there's merit in that.