The Liberal-National Coalition agreement should not be kept secret because of its significant impact on government policy, the opposition leader, Bill Shorten, and shadow treasurer, Chris Bowen, have argued.

Speaking in Melbourne on Monday, Shorten said: “Australians are entitled to know what deals are being done to constitute the government of Australia”.

“Not only should there not be a secret agreement, there shouldn’t be secret deals full stop.

“How can you get the cooperation of the parliament and Australian people if they’re not even told what the deals are all about?”

Shorten said the Coalition agreement had contributed to the government retaining the $1.2bn baby bonus at the Nationals’ insistence and the junior Coalition partner’s defence of the $4bn emissions reduction fund.

Bowen told ABC’s AM on Monday that the previous agreement renegotiated in September had caused Malcolm Turnbull to “sell out” business with changes to competition policy and to block a conscience vote on marriage equality.

After the opposition leader, Bill Shorten, conceded defeat in the federal election on Sunday, attention has turned to the Coalition agreement and the Nationals’ call for a greater say in policy.

On Sunday the deputy prime minister and Nationals leader, Barnaby Joyce, said the junior Coalition partner would secure a written agreement so “there’s never any arguments later about what’s going on”.

Joyce said his first aspiration was “that the agreement remains confidential”. “That’s aspiration number one, two, three, four, five and six.”

The Nationals are set to gain an extra seat in the ministry after holding all their seats outside Queensland and gaining Murray from their Coalition partner. The Liberal National party holds a slim lead in two Queensland seats still in doubt, Flynn and Capricornia. In both seats the LNP candidate would sit with the Nationals if elected.



Joyce said he was “sure” they would win the seats. Depending on how many Liberals were elected, the Nationals’ representation would then be determined by the proportion they represented in the party room.

“There’s nothing clandestine, sinister or unremarkable about this,” he said.

Joyce said the Nationals would seek “portfolios that help the people we serve”.

“I think we provide a message for the Coalition but also for the nation. If you take dams, we drive issues such as dams, we drive issues such as making sure small businesses are looked after.”

Listing the party’s achievements and priorities, Joyce mentioned “looking after people in the drought; sealing roads; [and] the Rural Investment Corporation, making sure we have the capacity to be partners with people in rural areas”.

On Monday, Bowen said “we have to see what the National party will insist on as part of their Coalition deal. It should be public, absolutely, it’s a very important arrangement.

“We saw Malcolm Turnbull sell out good economic policy to the Nationals when he became prime minister by agreeing to an anti-business effects test, which is very poor policy indeed.

“[Turnbull] said [the Coalition agreement] was the reason why he won’t have a conscience vote in the parliament on marriage equality, so of course it should be made public,” Bowen said.

In March Turnbull embraced a plan to strengthen legal protections for small businesses and farmers against abuse of market power by big businesses – a change he is believed to have previously opposed – a win for the small business lobby and the National party.

Under the government’s proposed changes to section 46 of the Competition and Consumer Act a small business would be required to prove that the action of a bigger business had the “effect” of substantially lessening competition, instead of being required to prove that the action had been done with that “purpose”.

The Coalition agreement renegotiated in September also included financial concessions for stay-at-home parents, moving responsibility for water from environment to agriculture and new money for regional mobile blackspots.

Bowen also criticised the Coalition for first ruling out changes to superannuation then proposing controversial changes including the retrospective application of a $500,000 limit on non-concessional superannuation contributions.

He said he hoped the Coalition took a “more consistent and coherent approach” to policy making but refused to say which budget measures Labor would support due to “speculation the government will change policy”.

The superannuation measures have been criticised heavily by the rightwing thinktank the Institute of Public Affairs, and Tony Abbott’s former chief of staff, Peta Credlin, has warned they will not pass the party room.