The moment is now to change the government

Sometimes it’s important to embrace what former US President Barack Obama called, “the fierce urgency of now”.

That moment is here.

Tomorrow, working Australians have the opportunity to raise their voices through the power of the ballot box and demand change.

We get the opportunity to vote to end corruption and waste. We can stop the attacks on workers’ rights and the drive to push wages through the floor as the cost of everything rises. We can say ‘no’ to destroying Australia’s celebrated superannuation system that allows workers to retire with dignity.

Australian workers can use their vote to stand up and demand that we save our beleaguered aged care system by paying workers a decent, living wage and providing them with the secure jobs they deserve.

Now is the moment for your voice to be heard when it comes to demanding an end to the endless stream of insecure work that traps people in jobs, offers no entitlements and leaves them doing multiple jobs in the hope they can pay the bills for another week.

With our vote, we can reject the insidious lie that asking for a pay rise means losing your job. We can put a halt to further cuts to public sector job cuts which would see the services Australians rely on even further diminished.

Workers know the NDIS matters and that it is a transformative initiative that offers hope and support for millions of Australians living with disability, giving them the opportunity to live better lives.

Your vote on the weekend can reinforce our commitment to those people that we are determined to ensuring no one is left behind.

Your vote can change the government.

ACTU secretary Sally McManus urges all workers to engage in conversations with their friends and loved ones about what is at stake as Australians cast their vote.

Working Australians are already buckling under cost-of-living pressures that have exploded under Scott Morrison. McManus has reiterated that workers will be even worse off if the Morrison Government is returned to power.

“Australians are sick of waiting for wage growth that Scott Morrison keeps telling them would follow when unemployment was low. Unemployment has been low for six months now and in every once of those months, workers’ wages have gone backwards in real terms,” McManus says.

For Australian workers struggling to save for a house or pay the rent, casting a vote this weekend offers the best opportunity to turn the tide on the housing affordability crisis.

ACTU President Michele O’Neil encourages workers to use their vote to reject Scott Morrison’s on superannuation through his phony housing policy which will do nothing for housing affordability and will ruin the retirement plans for millions of workers.

“This is not a housing policy – this is a desperate, last-minute act from a Prime Minister trying to cling to power,” she says.

“The Coalition has had almost a decade to do something about housing affordability and has done nothing.”

“This policy has rightly been rejected by governments on a number of occasions because it would only serve to drive up house prices and rip tens of thousands of dollars out of the retirement savings of working people,” O’Neil says.

That can all be stopped, however, with your vote on the weekend.

The time is now. Time to change the government.