Abbott is like Tea Party, Swan says TREASURER Wayne Swan will use a speech to a major union conference to equate the federal coalition with the conservative Tea Party movement in the United States. On the second day of the Australian Workers Union (AWU) national conference, Mr Swan will tell the 500 delegates the nation faces radical change under an Abbott government and its "callous Tea Party-inspired ideology." "Just as the Tea Party has annexed sections of the Republican Party in the US, here in Australia we are now witnessing an alarming radicalisation of the Liberal Party," he will say on Tuesday. We have an opposition in Australia which has now imported all the very worst aggressive negativity and reckless disregard for responsible economics from the Tea Party in the US. Following Prime Minister Julia Gillard's rallying call to union bosses and federal MPs at the conference dinner on Monday, Mr Swan will urge Labor supporters to ignore the pundits writing off the government's chances at the September 14 election. My advice is to not listen to them. There's no sure thing in a two-horse race, especially when one of the jockeys is called Tony Abbott. We can win. We have to," Mr Swan will say. The conference will also hear from ministers Jason Clare and Bill Shorten, as well as ACTU boss Dave Oliver.