Frontbencher says her party took a big risky policy agenda to the election that was hard to explain and easy to weaponise

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Clare O’Neil has ruled herself out of the race for deputy Labor leader, leaving fellow Victorian rightwinger Richard Marles as the last candidate standing, who is likely to take the role unopposed.

The shadow financial services minister told ABC’s Insiders on Sunday she believed she could do the “front-facing” aspect of the role but Marles, the shadow defence minister, would be better at the internal aspect of “bringing the party together behind the leader”.

O’Neil also gave a blunt assessment of Labor’s policy offering at the 2019 election, describing it as the “wrong platform”, unwieldy and risky and suggesting the party will have to ditch or at least reconsider every policy to reconnect with voters.

With nominations set to close on Monday, Anthony Albanese will become Labor leader unopposed, avoiding the need for a lengthy members’ ballot.

'It's important to talk straight': how Labor turned to Anthony Albanese in its hour of need Read more

Now that O’Neil and Jim Chalmers have ruled themselves out it is likely Marles will have an uncontested run for deputy when the Labor caucus meets in Canberra on Thursday, barring a surprise nomination.

O’Neil said that Marles has the right skills, qualities and experience for the role and will be a “brilliant” deputy.

O’Neil said she had put herself forward because it was “core to [her] being as a feminist” that a woman should be in contention for a leadership role.

She said she had been given a “fair hearing” and nobody suggested as a 38-year-old woman she should not aspire to the job, but had bowed out after respectful and honest conversations with her colleagues about the need for the new deputy to bring the party together.

O’Neil defended the fact Labor will have a male leader and deputy, citing the fact Penny Wong will continue as leader in the Senate and Labor “will have senior women across the shadow cabinet and in leadership roles”.

Senator Kristina Keneally is expected to nominate for deputy Labor leader in the Senate, a role currently held by the South Australian Don Farrell.

“Labor is the party of Australian women … The stars have not aligned on this occasion to put a woman in one of those two positions.”

O’Neil said that 46% of Labor’s caucus are women – almost reaching its 50% target – compared with 22% on the Coalition side, which she branded “unacceptable”.

She said the Labor party had “fallen short” and will need to think about preselecting women in safe seats to give them the “longevity” in the parliament that will support a run for leader or deputy in future.

The opposition will also need to “redesign a policy platform that will be more targeted at the people that we need to vote Labor”, she said.

Labor leadership: agitation grows over fate of women in post-election carve-up Read more

“We brought the wrong platform to the election and we need to reconsider every aspect of it and have a good look at why we got this one so badly wrong.

“When we are thinking about what went wrong, we took a big unwieldy, risky policy agenda to the election and it was hard to explain and it was hard to defend and very easy to weaponise.”

O’Neil said the electorate was “highly disillusioned” and marginal seat MPs had reported that voters had simply not believed Labor would deliver big ticket policies.

Labor proposed a swathe of new social spending including a $2.3bn cancer package and $2.4bn for seniors’ dental care funded by opposing tax cuts to middle and high income earners while reducing tax concessions for property investors.

O’Neil said Labor faces a higher bar to be elected to government, because it stands for “changing society and redistributing power and that offends some people” who then oppose Labor.

O’Neil said the party had to get “back to basics, showing we can do tangible things and we will be given permission by the Australian people to do some of the bigger and bolder things that we dream of”.