Tuesday 11 October 2016

Australian opposition leader Bill Shorten to declare Donald Trump 'unsuitable' to lead US

Extract from The Guardian

Labor leader to say Republican candidate has ‘confirmed the worst fears of millions’ in the US and beyond

Bill Shorten
Bill Shorten believes Donald Trump’s political power comes from those ‘who have felt the rough edges of globalisation and economic change’. Photograph: David Moir/AAP
Australia’s opposition leader, Bill Shorten, will declare that Donald Trump is “entirely unsuitable to be leader of the free world” in a speech to a Canberra conference on Tuesday.
The Labor leader will tell the Committee for Economic Development of Australia on Tuesday morning that Australia’s alliance with the US is “bigger than any individual and stronger than any disagreement”.
“But I know I am not the only one relieved that with every passing day, with every disgusting, demeaning comment Mr Trump makes, the possibility of him being president fades,” the Labor leader will say.
“By his own words and his own actions, he has confirmed the worst fears of millions in the United States and beyond its borders – he is entirely unsuitable to be leader of the free world.”
Shorten’s comments follow the rancorous second presidential debate in the US, in which Trump threatened to imprison his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton.
Trump’s political fortunes seem to have flagged after the first face-off with Clinton and after revelations he made lewd remarks about women – but the Republican nominee has dug in and doubled down, trying to turn the political attack back on Clinton.
Shorten will tell the Canberra conference that Trump pitches cynically to marginalised voters – workers who have been outsourced, downsized, rationalised and “families feeling the pinch of flat wages, widening inequality, falling living standards”.
“Like the Brexiteers, like extremists from every point on the political compass, he draws his power from the people who have felt the rough edges of globalisation and economic change,” he will say.
“Marginalised, alienated groups being told that migrants, minorities, ‘big government’ are to blame.”
Shorten says it is important that political parties develop policies promoting inclusion and ensure that citizens do not feel left behind.
“We need to win the argument, we need to overcome the false choices and simple solutions of ‘us versus them’,” the Labor leader will say.
“We must recognise the mantras of innovation and disruption can be a confronting message for Australians in insecure work. We need to understand that, when a lot of Australians hear the word automation, they think redundancy.”
Shorten will say workers process calls for flexibility differently from employers and business organisations.
“When many Australians hear the call for ‘flexibility’, they believe our system is good at flexibility for employers but not so good at flexibility for employees.
“That many Australians know the calls for a low-wage, easy-to-hire, easy-to-fire system will not deliver hundreds of thousands of new jobs. And, as analysis from CEDA and others has made clear, the march of technology in our workplace is unsentimental and unstoppable.
“It’s our job, as policy makers, to harness this force for our people’s benefit.”

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