Bill Shorten has used the Brexit upheaval to try to bolster Labor’s economic arguments, saying the Coalition’s “radical ... trickle-down economics” risked creating the same social marginalisation that fuelled the British vote to leave the European Union.
The Coalition believes the international economic uncertainty of Brexit has boosted its bid for re-election and ever since the shock vote last Friday Malcolm Turnbull has argued it underlines the need for the political stability of a majority Coalition government and for his “economic plan”.
But in his final pre-election pitch to the National Press Club, Shorten questioned that argument, saying it ignored the real political and economic lessons of Brexit.
“The Liberals invoke it as a call for stability, but they fundamentally misunderstand the source-spring of the instability. It comes from people being marginalised, forgotten. A sense that political promises are wasted words,” Shorten said.
“The Liberals are asking Australians to reject the cooperative economic model and the social wage that has held our nation together for more than 30 years and delivered a quarter-century of growth, and embark instead upon a radical, expensive experiment in trickle-down economics.
“The gathering push of extreme right-wing populism round the globe are a warning to all of us, not to leave people behind ... we must give every citizen a sense of being an active participant in transition, in control of what’s happening to them, not a passive observer of change, left behind on the scrap heap,” he said.
Shorten linked his argument to proposed Coalition cuts to education spending and family tax benefits.
“The transition under way in our economy is not an excuse for cutting money from schools and infrastructure, it’s the reason we need to invest in them. The worst thing we can do for the national budget is to smash the family budget.”
But after a strong speech, Shorten struck problems with some of the questions.
He claimed a statement made by Turnbull earlier on Wednesday was “the gaffe that marked the end of the campaign” and Labor had already launched ads highlighting the remark which it said was “the end of the prime minister’s credibility”.
Shorten quoted Turnbull as saying “what political parties say they will support and oppose at one time is not necessarily what they will do,” claiming it was an admission by the prime minister that he intended to lie.
But straight after that statement at a doorstop on Wednesday morning, Turnbull made it clear he was talking about recent backflips by the Labor party. “You have seen the Labor party has opposed many measures of ours which they have subsequently supported,” he said.
Asked about that omitted section of the Turnbull quote, Shorten did not take a backward step.
“What I believe fundamentally is Mr Turnbull is saying that he is giving himself a leave pass before being elected not to keep promises,” he said.
Shorten also insisted a Labor government would not treat minor parties as “being some sort of social or political inferiors” and would bring a “respectful attitude” towards dealings with minor parties in order to make the parliament work.
But Shorten referred to senator Nick Xenophon, whose team could win multiple senate spots at this poll, as a “free-range independent” who was trying to “be all things to all people”.
“It must be a wonderful world going around just making up whatever you want to say to appeal to people,” he said.
Despite international economic uncertainties, Shorten insisted he would keep every election promise if elected on Saturday and did not need any “wriggle room”. But at the same time he suggested economic and political circumstances could derail the Coalition’s plans, imploring the media to ask Malcolm Turnbull whether he would proceed with his $50bn company tax cut “regardless of events”.
Shorten avoided answering a question about whether Labor would offer more than an additional $2bn for public hospitals over the next 10 years, on top of $2.9bn pledged by the Coalition, despite continuing to attack the Coalition for “cutting” $57bn from future spending.
“We will sit down and work with our states to make sure these agreements are effective and at the end of the four-year period we’ll be in a much better position to forecast which is required for healthcare for the years thereafter,” he said.
