The Australian Labor Party member was in the city for the annual Light on the Hill address on Saturday in honour of Bathurst man and former Prime Minister Ben Chifley.

And, while many politicians fly into the city, Ms Plibersek was hosted by Country Labor on the Lachlan Valley Railway heritage train from Sydney to mark the centenary of the 1917 Great Strike.

“One hundred years ago, Ben Chifley got the sack,” she told those gathered for the event at Bathurst Panthers Leagues Club.

Ms Plibersek said it may have been a century since he and “tens of thousands of his union comrades” stood up for the conditions of the workers, but the story was just as relevant today.

“It’s absolutely as relevant today. Ben Chifley and great Labor leaders before him have had great struggles before them,” she said.

“They led by way of inclusive prosperity.”

The words “light on the hill” were first spoken by Mr Chifley during a NSW Labor Party Conference on June 12, 1949.

“It means the struggle that we all have as a society or a community to do something better for all people,” Ms Plibersek said. “It’s all of us working together.”

Ms Plibersek said there was a “growing inequality” in Australia and prosperity should be for everyone.

“It’s that need for working people to grow and make sure that as businesses do better that workers do better,” she said.

Ms Plibersek said education should be available for all people, and the Labor party was concerned about cuts to this sector in Bathurst.

“Almost $23 million in Calare will be lost through Gonski cuts,” she said.

“Charles Sturt University’s close to $50 million in cuts and it’s likely to represent 90 jobs losses.”

Ms Plibersek also used the address to target the Turnbull Government.

“After 25 years of continuous growth, our society is less equal than it’s been in 75 years,” she said.

“We have 2.9 million people living below the poverty line. We have 1.8 million people either unemployed or underemployed. We have the lowest wages growth on record.

“It is truly shameful that our annual growth performance is now lower than countries that did go into recession during the GFC [Global Financial Crisis].”

In closing her address, Ms Plibersek said it had been 66 years since Ben Chifley's death.

“The Bathurst he grew up in, the Labor Party he led, the Australia he loved – that we all love - have all changed beyond the reach of his imagination,” she said.