Anthony Albanese has set out wage growth through productivity, a rebooted manufacturing sector and universal child care as the centrepieces of his economic policy.
Spruiking Labor's economic plan and the reformations put in place by previous Labor governments, Mr Albanese told the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry the country needs to return to a gain-sharing wages model.
The group incentive model that seeks to boost productivity through a pay-for-performance system will work in synergy with a growing economy, Mr Albanese says.
"The economic reforms I am taking to this election will grow the national income and lift productivity," he said in Sydney on Thursday.
"We must return wages to the gain-sharing model. When a growing economy underpinned a first-world wages model. When the larger national income pie grew for the benefit of both workers and business."
Enterprise bargaining reform will also promote productivity, Mr Albanese says.
"Bringing business and unions together at the enterprise bargaining table, with productivity gains as a focal point, is the only way we can increase both profits and wages without inflationary pressure."
Mr Albanese thanked former Labor prime minister and treasurer Paul Keating, who was in the audience, for his lasting reforms which included "a social dividend for the public good".
The opposition leader is seeking to add universal child care to the list of lasting Labor reforms.
It will also boost Australia's economic output and female participation by supporting mothers.
"We need to fix the persistent, structural barriers that prevent so many women securing decent jobs and careers, and financial security over the course of their lives," Mr Albanese said.
"This is where our childcare policy will play such a crucial role."
The commitments to child care and increasing skills and onshore manufacturing will also build economic resilience to protect against international shocks, Mr Albanese said.
"We cannot continue to be at the end of the supply chain," he said.
"The lesson of the pandemic is we need to be more self-reliant. We need to be stronger, we need to support our own people."
Mr Albanese ruled out any tax reviews or changes beyond making multinationals pay a fairer share.
He earlier toured a clean energy expo in Sydney, where he began to spruik the party's economic platform that would incorporate renewable technologies but stumbled on another of his policies.
The Labor leader failed to list the six points of his party's NDIS platform, with his adviser handing him his policy brief midway through a news conference.
Mr Albanese has been under attack for not knowing his brief - an accusation he denies - but was unable to outline his plan when repeatedly questioned by journalists.
"What (the plan is) about is making sure that we take pressure off people who are at the moment having their programs cut," he said.
"We will make sure that there's administrative efficiency. So much is being wasted. We will put people at the centre of the NDIS in all of our programs."
After being handed his policy brief and stalling while he flipped through the pages, Mr Albanese read through the six points.
The plan includes: lifting the staffing cap and urgently reducing insecure labour-hire arrangements; stopping spending waste on the excessive use of lawyers; boosting efficiency; stopping any cuts; fixing regional access; and co-designing changes to the scheme with the sector.
Mr Albanese also failed to directly point towards fiscal cuts to the NDIS when asked about Labor's attacks against the government, saying they could be found in the budget document.
"If you look at the underspend that was there in the budget, in the budget last time and the time before, those underspends were there," he said.
"The government produced savings there."
But statements from the most recent budget chart a consistent rise in NDIS funding from 2015/16, and a projected increase each year to 2032/33.
