Bill Shorten has said he will not automatically step down as leader of the federal branch of the Labor party if the royal commission into trade union corruption makes adverse findings against him.
He also shot down a windfarm sceptic who tried to draw out the Labor leader on what she described as the “dangerous” use of the renewable energy source during an appearance on the ABC’s Q&A program on Monday night.
A large number of questions from members of the public, and from the host, Tony Jones, centred on Shorten’s time as head of the Australian Workers’ Union.
When asked if he would step aside and make way for the Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese if the royal commission made adverse findings against him, Shorten said no.
“I don’t accept automatically I am going to allow that royal commission which is set up on a political basis to start dictating what the Labor party does or how we run our politics in this country,” he told audience members in the Victorian city of Ballarat.
“If there is criminality found by this royal commission, well then that is a matter which needs to be looked at, but I don’t accept that everything that this royal commission is doing is started with the best of motivations, nor do I believe that this process has been entirely fair.”
He added that Labor would not automatically put “in the bin” all the findings of the commissioner, Dyson Heydon – who rejected claims of impartiality after a decision to speak at a Liberal party fundraiser. The former high court judge withdrew from the event.
“I don’t believe it is the best use of $63m to investigate gossip and innuendo when in fact there are other mechanisms to investigate criminality,” Shorten said. “I don’t buy that.”
He flatly denied the AWU had accepted money from the building company Thiess John Holland while negotiating an enterprise bargaining agreement for its workers. “The answer is no. The arrangement which is entered into quite often is that the union will ask the company to help pay for the training of their workers.”
Shorten was asked by a member of the public if it was “fair” that she and her family had been forced from their homes owing to sound from what she described as “dangerous and unsafe” wind turbines.
The opposition leader swiftly took her down. “I am sorry that you are in the difficulties that you and your family are in,” he said. “But I don’t agree with the general view that windfarms are, as I think you said, dangerous and by implication very bad.
“I’m not going to tell you that what you are going through is good or what’s right for you, but I don’t believe that windfarms are causing the sort of collective menace which you and other sceptics of windfarms believe they are.”
The Abbott government was panned for creating the position of wind commissioner to investigate claims of ill health resulting from infrasound. Research has found that turbines do not cause health problems.
Shorten downplayed the impact on the opposition of Malcolm Turnbull becoming prime minister and minced no words in farewelling the newly ousted Liberal party leader.
“I think it is a good thing for this country that Tony Abbott is no longer prime minister of Australia,” he said. “Of course, though, I would have liked to have been the one who replaced Tony Abbott because whoever did that was going to get a boost in the polls, as they say.”
The first Newspoll since Abbott was deposed show the Coalition has received the expected bounce and Shorten’s popularity has fallen in the face of competition from the new prime minister.
The Coalition’s two-party preferred standing has gone up five percentage points, while Labor’s is down by the same margin. Turnbull is the preferred prime minister, sitting at 55% compared with Shorten’s 21%.
The opposition leader insisted on Q&A that Labor was doing a good job. “I think we’ve been a very strong opposition to Tony Abbott,” he said. “The opposition, we’re still here and Mr Abbott is gone.”
