7.11pm – Jun 17, 2016

Phillip Coorey

Bill Shorten has urged Malcolm Turnbull to dump plans for a same-sex marriage plebiscite, warning it will act as a vehicle for the same type of hatred that led to the Orlando massacre and the brutal assassination of British Labour MP Jo Cox.

In the third debate between the leaders this election campaign, Mr Shorten, who is promising a parliamentary vote if elected, told Mr Turnbull to show some leadership and stand up to the right wing of his party.

"This is a debate where I don't believe people's relationships and love for each other need to be submitted to a public opinion poll," Mr Shorten said.

"Two terrible events in the last week have shown that hate and terrorism does exist in modern societies. I don't want to give haters a chance to come out from under the rock and make life harder for LGBTI people or their families, to somehow question the legitimacy of their relationship.

"We can change this and do it without the hate and the homophobia."

Mr Turnbull supports same-sex marriage and opposed a plebiscite. But he agreed to have one in return for the numbers to roll Tony Abbott for the leadership last year.

He accused Mr Shorten of underestimating the decency of society.

"I believe Australians are better than that. I believe we can have a discussion about marriage equality. It can be civil. It can be respectful. And we will make a decision, as a nation, and then, as a nation, we will respect the outcome," he said.

The Prime Minister said he was confident the Yes vote would prevail.

In what could be the final match-up between the men before the July 2 election, both men agreed they would not legislate to lower penalty rates but Mr Shorten said Mr Turnbull could not be trusted.

"I'm the first leader of the Opposition to ever put a submission into the independent umpire supporting the retention of penalty rates. I believe that penalty rates are not an unfair burden in our system. Unfortunately, despite what Mr Turnbull said to you tonight, 61 of his candidates and MPs are on the record as supporting reductions in penalty rates," he said.

Mr Turnbull said government's had no business trying to influence an independent umpire.

"We believe the independent umpire should be independent and not be lent on by Government one way or the other," the Prime Minister said.

Both also agreed that freeing up more land would help housing affordability and that mental health needed de-stigmatising, and they both assured that the days of rolling prime ministers mid-term were over.

Mr Turnbull, who moved against Mr Abbott in September, promised an end to the churn, saying stability would be restored if he won the election.

"I am opposed to churning prime ministers. Very committed to the prime minister being the same after the election, as it is now," he said.

Mr Shorten, who played a key role in dumping both Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard, said Labor had learned its lesson out of the chaos of its last term in government.

"Australians want to choose their Prime Ministers and they don't want political parties to overturn them mid-term," he said.

"So, I have been lucky. My party's learnt that lesson, we have been united in my time as Leader of the Opposition."

The debate covered a wide range of territory with neither man landing any new punches on the other. They clashed over the National Broadband Network, climate change and the Coalition's 10-year plan to cut company tax.

Mr Shorten said Labor had supported company tax cuts in the past but these cuts were unfunded.

"Paul Keating, Chris Bowen and myself have never, ever supported reducing corporate tax means paying sick people more if they can't go to the doctor," he said.

Mr Turnbull said the cuts would create more investment and more jobs.

"You get more employment, you grow the economy, and that does ultimately result in higher company tax revenues," he said.

Mr Turnbull has said the Coalition will pursue limited deregulation for universities. This was flagged as an "option" in a discussion paper released in the budget, but had not been confirmed.

Earlier ths week, Treasurer Scott Morrison said "deregulation of fees is not something we are doing".