Redmond Herring

This photo was taken just before Dad lost his job. He started at the State Electricity Commission as a 19-year-old trainee liney. Back then, getting a job like that meant security. The way Dad puts it – it was a job for life. Not because it was easy, but because if you worked hard and learnt your trade, you could build a good life for your family. He worked storms, fires and floods. Long nights keeping the lights on for Victorian families. People looking out for one another. I saw all of that growing up. It felt permanent. Unbreakable. Until one day, I came home and Mum quietly said: ‘I think your dad lost his job.’ The Liberals had privatised the SEC and were cutting workers – and my dad paid the price. He was sitting in the back room on the fold out couch. Cordless phone in hand. I'd only heard him cry once before. That was the moment I understood what a secure job means to a family – and how quickly it can disappear if nobody fights for it. I’m still fighting for it. Today, I announced that my Labor Government is creating Australia’s first publicly-owned apprenticeship academy. 2,000 new apprentices building our energy future. And every single one of them will be employed by the State Electricity Commission. The Liberals switched the lights off on my dad's career – now, Labor is training young people to switch them back on. Like dad always said: if you don't fight, you lose. It's why I'll always fight for workers like him – for their dignity, for their future.

I'm running numbers on family trusts. If the trust owned by mum, dad, and 19-year-old daughter earns $180,000 a year and they distribute $60,000 to each the tax will be three times $9,000 = $27000. At 30% flat, it's $54,000. That's double - The only way out is to change distributions to wages, but they must be able to justify the wage. It's a shameful attack on business