Labor leader returns to ‘people first’ message, prioritising health and education over tax cuts, to give campaign a boost as pre-poll voting begins

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Bill Shorten has raised the prospect of a treaty with Indigenous Australians and claimed his university funding policy will provide a “defacto” cap on fees in a confident solo appearance on the ABC’s Q&A program.



The opposition leader sought to use the high rating show to give his campaign a lift as early voting opens Tuesday with the national opinion polls showing a tight race but party strategists believing Labor is lagging on the seat count.

Shorten constantly returned his “people first” message – that the ALP has deliberately chosen to prioritise health and education funding over company tax cuts for “the big end of town” – decisions he said were prompting self-interested attack campaigns by big business and the property industry angered at Labor’s proposed cuts to negative gearing tax concessions.

Q&A: Bill Shorten takes questions on housing affordability, tax cuts and the NBN – as it happened Read more

But while often referencing his own “straight answers” he also repeatedly qualified them.

He said he would look to a treaty with Aboriginal Australians alongside constitutional recognition, something new Labor Senate candidate Pat Dodson raised at the beginning of the campaign, but when pressed said he could not give all the answers at one time. He implied that European settlement of Australia had been an invasion, but did not say so directly, responding instead with “if I was Aboriginal, I wouldn’t exactly call it a welcome, would you?”

ABC Q&A (@QandA) .@billshortenmp Do you disagree with the NSW University view that this country wasn't settled but invaded? #QandA https://t.co/e2v07B25iD

Asked whether Labor would cap university fees he said: “We would put downward pressure. By providing a minimum guarantee of funding to every university and not creating a race to the bottom in terms of deregulation of fee courses, I believe you have a defacto cap, but I can’t speak for each course and the technology involved in each course. That would be a bridge too far.”

ABC Q&A (@QandA) .@billshortenmp Can you assure us that university will be more accessible & affordable than now? #QandA #ausvotes https://t.co/UaNdw9aaYC

He promised greater transparency for the offshore asylum seeker detention centres including allowing journalists onto Manus Island and Nauru, but quickly added that Labor was as committed as the Coalition to “stopping the boats.”

He insisted the future of the Great Barrier Reef depended on properly addressing climate change, and ridiculed the Coalition’s reef rescue plan.

But he quickly added Labor did not oppose coalmining, or Adani’s massive Carmichael mine planned for the Galilee basin, although Labor would not provide the project with any government subsidy.

Pre-poll voting predicted to be used by up to 40% of electors Read more

Under persistent questioning, Shorten was forced to abandon the convoluted language Labor has used to admit it would not lower the budget deficit by as much as the Coalition over the first three years.

Last week, seeking to deny the Coalition a clear “grab” to use in attack ads, Shorten and the shadow treasurer, Chris Bowen, said Labor would not preside over the “same degree of fiscal contraction”.

“We will not reduce the deficit as fast as the government in the first three years because they’re relying on cuts which are fake and bogus. That’s a straight answer. After the fourth year, we will reduce the deficit further and better and start paying down government debt,” Shorten said.

The loudest applause from the audience in the western Sydney suburb of Penrith came when Shorten described how his negative gearing policy would slow house price rises, in response to a question from a 31-year-old who said people his age were never going to be able to afford a house in Sydney.

Shorten said his policy to end negative gearing for investors buying existing properties meant that when the questioner was “bidding for a house, there might be a couple of less bidders but there will still be competition for housing prices. It’s not going to ruin the housing market but it will reduce the heat on the housing market.”

At the end of the show host Tony Jones announced that Malcolm Turnbull would appear next Monday, one day after Labor’s campaign launch, in a program to be broadcast in Brisbane.