FED:We'll renovate Labor tradition: Gillard

AAP General News (Australia)
08-31-2010
FED:We'll renovate Labor tradition: Gillard

CANBERRA, Aug 31 AAP - Prime Minister Julia Gillard has pledged to renovate Labor's
tradition to make lasting improvements to Australian democracy.

With the Australian Electoral Commission's two-party preferred count oscillating between
Labor and the coalition, Ms Gillard's claims to legitimacy have been tested.

But in a 26-minute speech to the National Press Club, she pledged to make changes if
Labor retained power in a hung parliament, without spelling out specific details.

"I want to renovate that Labor tradition, to deliver lasting and durable improvements
to our democracy, improvements not just for this parliamentary term, but measures to permanently
uplift our system of government as other reforms have done in generations past," she said.

With three rural independents - Tony Windsor, Bob Katter and Rob Oakeshott - deciding
who will form the next government, Ms Gillard took a veiled swipe at the coalition for
claiming they better understood regional Australia.

"Let me assure Australians, there is no scramble on the Labor side," Ms Gillard said.

"We don't have to rediscover regional Australia - because we never lost it."

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