Bill Shorten demands an end to election date uncertainty as senior Liberal figures line up to attack him at the party’s federal council meeting

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Tony Abbott is pushing the Liberals as a party for everyone ahead of the next federal election as senior government figures attack Labor.

The prime minister said there was a clear choice between the Coalition and Labor.

“We stand for all of us,” Abbott told the Liberal party federal council in Melbourne.

Senior Liberal federal executive members used the meeting to talk up Abbott and talk down a “weak” Bill Shorten and “directionless” Labor party.

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They maintain the next election – due around September 2016 – will be held in the second half of next year, dismissing speculation of an early poll before parliament resumes from its six-week winter break.

The opposition leader, Bill Shorten, responded by calling on Abbott to set an election date and stop the “shilly-shallying”.



“I think Mr Abbott needs to make it very clear for the sake of Australia, for the sake of business confidence, that he will go his full term or not,” Shorten told reporters in Melbourne.



“I think it would be good if he just set a date and spelled it out. If it’s going to be in 15 months time, he should just say that’s what’s going to happen, full stop, no shilly-shallying or changing that matter.”

The deputy Liberal leader, Julie Bishop, laid into Labor at the federal council meeting, saying “the once great movement” had been taken over by political narcissists.

“The very soul of the Labor Party has been hijacked by a group of backroom bovver boys with no sense of a moral compass and the leader of the pack is none other than Bill Shorten,” she said.

The party’s federal director, Brian Loughnane, on Friday said Labor was not ready for government.



“Bill Shorten is not up to it,” he told the federal council, before playing a Shorten attack ad. “He is a weak leader in charge of a divided and directionless party.”

Abbott said the ABC’s Killing Season program on the Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard leadership battle had answered what Labor stood for these days.

“They’re for themselves,” he said. “Labor has not changed. Almost two years into this term, they still want a carbon tax, they still have no policies to stop the boats, and they’re still addicted to taxes and spending.”

While Labor remains ahead of the Coalition in opinion polls, the treasurer, Joe Hockey, said there was no doubt momentum was swinging back to the Liberal party.

“The Labor party’s been mugged by reality and that is they can’t keep going as an empty vacuum, they need to actually have some policies,” he told reporters.

“You’ve got to have something more than saying no. You’ve actually got to have policy substance and the Labor party is suddenly realising that, particularly with a resurgent Greens.

“I think you’ll see the Labor party become the light green party over the next few months.”

Abbott said the government would not increase taxes or restrictions on superannuation, nor would it change the rules on negative gearing.

Australian Associated Press contributed to this report