Bill Shorten has unveiled Labor’s election manifesto in a five-point policy agenda focusing on health, education and the cost of living.

He says his “fair go action plan” could take Australia into the next decade, if Labor is elected.

However, the prime minister, Scott Morrison, dismissed Shorten’s policy agenda on Sunday, saying it would only amount to higher taxes.

In a major speech in western Sydney on Sunday, with his senior Labor colleagues sitting behind him, Shorten told an audience of the party faithful that Labor was taking nothing for granted ahead of next year’s election.

He said that, if Labor won government, it would have to restore voters’ faith in democracy and demonstrate that politicians could still put the national interest ahead of their own.

“The reason I want to be prime minister is because I want Australia to hand on a better deal to the next generation than the one we received from our parents,” he said. “This to me is the essence of the fair go.”

He said his five-point plan provided the foundation of Labor’s policy goals, with a focus on fixing schools and hospitals, standing up for workers, relieving pressure on family budgets, ensuring a strong economy and investing in cleaner energy.

On health, he said Labor would unfreeze Medicare, make record investments in mental health, invest in more hospital beds and staff, and invest in new urgent care clinics to relieve pressure on emergency departments.

“If I’m elected prime minister … I promise Australia that it will always be your Medicare card, not your credit card, that guarantees you access to quality health in this country,” he said.

On education, he said Labor would deliver fair funding for every public school in the country, based on need. It would put Tafe back at the centre of vocational education, renovating Tafe campuses around the country and waiving upfront fees for 100,000 Tafe places in its first-term in government. It would also uncap university places and from 2021 make preschool and kindergarten available to every three-year-old for 15 hours a week, 600 hours a year.

On the family budget, Labor would cap rises in private health insurance premiums at no more than 2% for its first two years of government. It would “invest in renewables to bring the price of power down”. And it would try to get wages growing again through industrial relations policy.

“In our first 100 days of government, we will restore the Sunday and public holiday penalty rates of 700,000 working Australians,” he said. “We’re going to put the bargain back into bargaining, so employees and employers can sit down and negotiate without the unfair threat of termination of the existing agreement hanging over every conversation.

“We’re going to crack down on firms exploiting labour hire: because if you work in the same place, wear the same uniform, perform the same tasks with the same skill, then regardless of the legal identity of the employer, if you do the same job, you get the same pay. Under Labor, this will be the law.”

Shorten said Labor would also stop sham contracting by introducing a new, stronger test for the definition of “casual employment”.

“If you’re working fulltime hours, you shouldn’t be classed as a ‘casual’ just because your boss doesn’t want to give you sick leave,” he said.

He also said Australia needed a new approach for the equal treatment of female workers, with higher wages for jobs overwhelmingly performed by women: aged-care workers, early childhood educators and paid carers.

He also wants women to retire with stronger savings in superannuation.

“It is why, if we’re in government, we’re going to change the law, so that if you take parental leave your superannuation contributions don’t stop,” he said. “It’s a down payment on equality for women.”

Morrison attacked Shorten’s policy agenda on Sunday, saying it would lead to higher taxes.

“I’ll tell you what Bill Shorten’s five-point plan is: more tax, more tax, more tax, more tax, more tax,” Morrison said. “That’s Bill Shorten’s plan. More tax doesn’t grow the economy. More tax, when you don’t grow the economy, doesn’t guarantee Medicare or hospitals or schools. All it means is more tax dragging the economy down. Taking more of what Australians earn.”

Morrison also criticised Shorten’s strong support for the union movement, saying Shorten was backing people to make the rules “who are quite happy to break the rules”.

On Sunday, the Australian Council of Trade Unions joined global rallies celebrating the World Day for Decent Work.

Now in its 10th year, the day marks the achievements of trade unions, and renews call for working people to continue fighting for better pay and conditions.

“The rules are stacked against working people, both in Australia and around the world,” the ACTU president, Michele O’Neil, said. “The rules need to change.”