Media Release - International Progressive Leaders To Tackle Inequality

WAYNE SWAN MP

MEMBER FOR LILLEY

INTERNATIONAL PROGRESSIVE LEADERS TO TACKLE INEQUALITY

In February, Labor will host progressive leaders and thinkers from around the world at a Sydney conference that will focus on the global challenge of overcoming economic and social inequality.

The conference, organised by Australian Labor’s Assistant National Secretary Sebastian Zwalf, will canvass a clear and bold progressive policy framework that focuses on strengthening growth and lifting living standards for all while spreading opportunity fairly.

It will feature speakers from the United States and the United Kingdom, including Neera Tanden, President and CEO of the Centre for American Progress, Harriet Harman MP, former Deputy Leader of UK Labour, and Tom McMahon, former Executive Director of the Democratic National Committee.

The conference will discuss:

• Policies to promote sustained full employment, a stronger voice for workers, progressive taxation, fair trade, and the taming of corporate excess;
• Countering the political power of plutocrats by strengthening social democratic parties and representative democracy;
• The impact of identity politics and a progressive agenda to address racial and gender discrimination;
• Party organisation and campaign techniques to mobilise strong and democratic grassroots social movements.

Across the globe, the trickledown economic agenda established in the 1980s by conservatives is crumbling under the weight of excess.

Tax cuts and deregulation for the rich and powerful, alongside cuts to the social safety net and wage suppression for the rest, have entrenched rampant income and wealth inequality, eating away at the heart of society and threatening democracy.

Political polarisation is fuelled by the despair of working people who have seen their living standards decline, while a narrow elite are permitted to pocket massive gains in income and wealth.

Inequality in Australia is on a swift march down the American road to a hollowed out middle class and a vast army of working poor. The wage share of national income is at its lowest level in Australia in more than 50 years.

Only Labor has the polices to tackle inequality and stand up for working Australians.

The conference will be held in Sydney on Saturday 24 February.

Monday 29 January 2018

MEDIA CONTACT: DANIEL DE VOSS 0403 775 158