Bill Shorten has left open the option of boosting wages for aged care workers, saying the fact that Labor is supporting early childhood educators in this election “does not mean that we won’t work to help aged care work force in the future”.

In a solo appearance on Q&A on Monday night, the Labor leader was asked why he was making a special case for subsidising the salaries of childcare workers, but not aged care workers.

Labor has promised to increase the pay of early childhood educators by 20% over eight years, an average increase of $11,300 above any award rises.

Shorten said Labor was confident it could deliver assistance for childcare now and would wait to see the outcome of the royal commission into aged care before determining whether to roll out assistance there too.

He said the analysis of which sectors were being helped and which were not in the event Labor wins should not be a “Hunger Games” exercise or a competition for “who is the most miserable”.

'We need to be bold': Bill Shorten keeps his eyes on the prize Read more

Shorten said early childhood educators were the first people entrusted with children outside the family home and “because it’s a feminised industry the vast bulk workforce of women have been underpaid forever”.

“That’s why we are going to look after early childhood educators [but] my answer shows we’re thinking about what to do in aged care too.”

After the 28 April announcement of Labor’s wage subsidy policy, which is forecast to cost $9.9bn over a decade, Shorten initially left the door open to extending the concept to other sectors, noting that childcare had been selected to “go first”.

But after the policy, which also includes free childcare for families earning less than $69,000, was swiftly blasted by the Morrison government as “socialism” and a bribe to unions representing childcare workers, Labor’s workplace relations spokesman, Brendan O’Connor, shut down the idea it could be applied to other sectors.

While Shorten again signalled on Monday night the concept could be used elsewhere, O’Connor said a couple of days after the policy launch there were “no plans” to extend the model to other sectors. “Childcare is a special case,” he told the ABC. “Childcare has been historically underpaid.”

Scott Morrison has declined to appear solo on the Q&A program. The treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, went on the program just after the April budget.

Over more than an hour, Shorten faced hostile questions about Labor’s revenue measures, including dividend imputation and changes to negative gearing, and launched an unapologetic defence of his policies.

He was challenged to oppose the controversial Queensland Adani coalmine as a test of Labor’s commitment to climate change. Shorten said Labor would adhere to the science and the law and not create sovereign risk.

“There is no doubt in my mind that we’re moving to more renewables,” he said. “There’s no doubt in my mind that coal-fired power is getting more expensive and renewables are getting cheaper.

“But at the end of the day we have to have a framework of laws. We have to have a framework for investment.”

Shorten was asked what he had learned from Kevin Rudd’s declaration that climate change was the great moral challenge of our time, and his subsequent retreat from emissions trading in 2009.

“What I learned out of 2009, you can stand for something or fall for everything and we’re going to stand and fight on climate change,” he said. “We’re not retreating”.

Shorten again said Labor would consider an increase in the Newstart payment after a review undertaken if Labor wins, but declined to put a dollar amount on it.

He also signalled there would be substantial reform in Indigenous affairs, to be led by Pat Dodson. Shorten characterised Indigenous disadvantage as a “national disaster, a national emergency”.

Asked about his persistent unpopularity with voters, he said he had seen off two prime ministers as leader of the opposition, and Labor had a unified and stable team who would ensure its pre-election commitments were delivered.

Shorten pointed out that Malcolm Turnbull, who had been popular with the public, and feted by some journalists as the “Sun King”, was now watching the program from New York rather than from the Lodge.

He said if he won the prime ministership, he would listen to the community and seek to be inclusive. “If I’m elected prime minister, we’re going to do the public meetings and go out and listen to people, so my style of leadership is to listen.

“My style of leadership is to get the best out of people. This isn’t just an idle statement. Love us or hate us, the Labor party for the last five and a half years has been stable. Not for nothing did Bob Hawke say if you can’t run your own party you can’t run the country.”