Federal President, Angus, Members of the Federal Executive, parliamentary colleagues, delegates, and friends.
It is an extraordinary privilege to address this Council as Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party.
A Party I am so proud to belong to.
The Party of freedom and choice, of personal responsibility and individual enterprise. Of family and small business. And to quote Robert Menzies (as all good Liberals do) the Party of salary earners, shopkeepers, skilled artisans, professional men and women, farmers.
The strivers, the planners, the ambitious ones.
The party of Menzies, of Fraser, of Howard.
The party of Abbott, of Turnbull, of Morrison.
The party of Rockliff, of Crisafulli, of Finocchiaro.
The party of Hurn, Sloane and Wilson.
One Party of unity and fire.
This is a position I take with a deep sense of responsibility and gravity, particularly at this time, one of the most serious for our Party and for our country.
I'm honoured that you all have travelled to my home state of Victoria.
As you would expect from a Senator, I am a proud - even parochial - Victorian.
But sadly, my state is a cautionary tale.
You need not walk far to see what a corrupt and incompetent Labor Government can do to a once prosperous city and state.
Rampant union corruption on building sites; crime that goes unpunished; a bloated public sector but corroded public services; an economy that burdens business and families with punitive taxes and future generations with unserviceable levels of debt.
My state is an object lesson.
A lesson of the dangers of a Labor government content to sacrifice the economy, grow the state, and shrink the citizen.
So long as political patrons and union mates are comfortable, the rest of us are forgotten people.
I know this from experience.
I've told this story before….
I left Melbourne university in 1992, proudly clutching my commerce degree, and all the requisite grit and persistence ready to join the workforce. Nothing but a ponytail and a dream.
Straight into Paul Keating's recession we had to have.
Pyramid Building Society, Tricontinental, Victorian State Bank.
The economy had tanked. Insolvencies were daily news. Commercial properties were empty. Double digit interest rates crippled businesses and households. House prices were in free-fall.
It was a harsh welcome to adulthood.
I couldn't get a job. Neither could those I graduated with.
No one was hiring. Cadetships and grad programs were paired back. But so were jobs in hospitality, in retail, in trade.
Youth unemployment in Victoria was over 30%.
It was an unemployment rate not seen since the Great Depression.
It was a scarring experience for my generation. Many of my friends moved away - most overseas where prospects were better for the young and ambitious. Some of them never came home. At the time they called it "the brain drain".
Labor's economic management - mismanagement - had mortgaged our youthful optimism and spent it on a future without hope.
I say to all of you who are here today - walk out through the Melbourne CBD and you can see the warning signs.
History is repeating.
For lease signs and abandoned shops; vacancy rates in the CBD have risen 6 percent since last year with nearly one in five Melbourne properties empty.
And why would you want to start a business here?
Our payroll, stamp duty and land taxes are exorbitant. Our roads and infrastructure are crumbling.
Crime is everywhere - in our homes, on our streets, in our shopping strips, on our building sites. Firebombings, home invasions, knife crimes, drugs, bikkies, extortion, vandalism.
What is worse, victims can't even expect our police to deliver justice.
Nearly half of all crimes in Victoria went unsolved last year. Nearly two thirds of crimes committed in the CBD went unsolved, a record high.
As the comedian Dave Hughes has said, what is the point of paying tax when you know it's just going to be stolen by criminals because the Government is so f-cking useless?
And when people do call it out as woke, broke and violent, as Bec Judd has, you have Labor use the power people trusted them with to try and silence dissent.
This doesn't happen overnight. It is a decline that occurs when bad Governments fail our people.
It happens when politicians back bureaucracy, rather than backing Australians.
It happens when politicians are led by convenience rather than conviction.
But, Liberal friends, all is not lost.
I want to finish my cautionary tale with a message of hope.
Because Liberal Governments can deliver a pathway back to prosperity and hope.
It was the election of Jeff Kennett and Victorian Liberal Party Victoria in late 1992, and then federally the election of John Howard in 1996, that heralded a genuine shift in the prospects of my generation.
Opportunities began to reappear - opportunities for meaningful employment and career choices, opportunities to save and invest, to take risks; opportunities to start a family, start a business, buy a home, build a life.
It wasn't a coincidence.
Liberal governments were not just custodians of that transformation. They were the drivers of it.
Liberals have always believed in the power of economic freedoms to deliver prosperity. That aspiration and ambition lift all of us higher.
My generation were the beneficiaries of that Liberal tradition.
And I was exhibit A - a citizen well served - who flourished under good government.
It's what made me a Liberal.
And I will be forever grateful to those leaders, those policy makers - those giants of our Party - for that first foot in the door, for a career trajectory, a first home, a family, choices, opportunities.
I want all of those things for my three kids. All now in their early 20's. All starting out in their lives.
But as smart and hard working as they are, with all the gifts of a supportive and loving family and a great education, they can't see how they will get ahead.
I understand their despair.
I know it can be different.
But it won't be under Labor.
Labor promised cheaper mortgages, cheaper power and higher real wages.
Instead, Australians have received higher prices, higher taxes and lower living standards.
Labor has spent too much, taxed too much and regulated too much.
Labor has treated productivity as a talking point rather than a discipline.
Labor has allowed the public sector to bloat while the private sector has floundered.
The result is a country where effort is less rewarded, investment is less attractive, and confidence is harder to sustain.
As Liberals, we know the role of Government.
It must keep Australians safe, protect the vulnerable, provide essential services and maintain the conditions for prosperity.
And it must respect that it's purpose is to serve Australians - not control them.
Every dollar government spends is a dollar first earned by an Australian.
Every new tax has a cost.
Every new regulation has a consequence.
Every new burden on business eventually falls on workers, consumers or families.
No wonder young Australians are asking whether home ownership is still realistic, whether they can still get ahead.
They see a country rich in resources, talent and enterprise, yet constrained by housing shortages, energy uncertainty and expanding regulation and taxes.
They see a government that speaks often about fairness but leaves them with debt, scarcity and diminished aspiration.
That is the deepest failure of Labor's approach.
It weakens the economy, narrows opportunity and erodes hope.
A country does not become fairer by making it harder to build homes.
It does not become more prosperous by punishing investment.
It does not become more compassionate by leaving the next generation with higher debt and fewer choices.
That is why Liberal values matter.
Enterprise creates wealth.
Responsibility sustains communities.
Opportunity gives purpose to a generation.
And prosperity is built from the ground up: through work, investment and ambition.
We believe strong communities are built by families, volunteers and local institutions - not by distant bureaucracies.
And we believe Australia's future depends on a government that trusts its citizens, respects their effort and rewards their contribution.
That is the Liberal tradition.
We are not a party of grievance or protest.
We are a party of prosperity.
We are not untried. We are not untested.
We have delivered prosperity to generations past and we can - we will - deliver it again to generations ahead.
As our next generation is looking at the future with more anxiety than confidence, we as Liberals must be there for them.
As Robert Menzies said, the future is not only within your power but within your responsibility.
One Party of unity and fire.
All of us must take up the fight.
Labor's toxic taxes are an assault on aspiration and an intergenerational fraud, and we will fight them every way and every day.
Labor have given us a galvanising mission.
But Liberals are at their best not only when we have something to fight against but when we have something to fight for.
We must fight for this - we must fight to protect our way of life and to restore our standard of living.
A Liberal Government led by Angus Taylor will deliver a freer, fairer, better Australia - to this generation and the next.
We will back small businesses - the ambitious self starters who are the engines of prosperity.
We will support the individual who invests, takes a risk and builds wealth for their future.
We will be there for Australian families who want choice and opportunity, a place to call home, and to keep more of what they earn.
We will unshackle the private sector to create a competitive thriving economy.
We will keep Australians safe - rebuild trust in our institutions, our public sector and our defence and national security.
And we will take fiscal responsibility seriously - not as an abstract virtue - but as a moral commitment to the next generation - because Liberals believe that young Australians deserve to inherit opportunity, not obligation.
That is the contest before Australia.
You saw it in Angus Taylor's Budget in Reply.
It was a statement of priorities: lower taxes, abundant cheap energy, more homes, controlled spending, renewed productivity, restored ambition and national pride.
We've done it before.
We can do it again.
The bruises of the past make us hungry for this fight, but we need everyone here to rally.
Under Angus and our Liberal team, a Liberal government will deliver for Australians.
Enterprise is the answer to Labor's stagnation.
Responsibility is the answer to Labor's debt.
Aspiration is the answer to Labor's decline.
That is the choice.
That is the fight - a future worth fighting for.
The Liberal Party is a party of hope, aspiration and opportunity.
It is a party for people who build, save and serve.
It is a party for Australians who believe tomorrow should be better than today.
One Party full of unity and fire.
A party that will fight for a fairer, freer and better Australia.
Ladies and gentlemen, I am so very proud to introduce my friend and leader, the next Liberal Prime Minister of Australia, Angus Taylor.
