Bill Shorten has admitted that he will keep some of Malcolm Turnbull’s changes to the national broadband network if Labor is elected to office, as he made his case to voters during his first televised open forum debate.
Shorten fielded questions from voters on a wide variety of subjects during the town hall meeting in the marginal Queensland seat of Petrie. Of the 150 swing voters there, 68% said they would be more likely to vote Labor following Shorten’s address, and only 9% said they would be less likely.
Shorten outlined key Labor policy areas in the Sky News/Courier Mail people’s forum in Brisbane, the first televised event before the 2016 election, though did not make any new policy announcements.
The opposition leader admitted that he would not unpick all of the Coalition’s changes to the NBN, which include the introduction of mixed technologies like copper wire to keep the costs of the project down.
“We won’t rip up everything that [prime minister] Malcolm Turnbull has done,” he said.
He criticised the use of copper networks for the infrastructure project, saying it was “old technology”.
“It’s the equivalent of building one-lane off ramps off the highway,” Shorten said. “We think you can do a much better job with fibre.”
It was revealed in August 2014 that Turnbull, then communications minister would opt for mixed technology over Labor’s fibre to the premises model.
Shorten had a swipe at private insurance companies for jacking up premiums, saying he would lead a “government with guts” that would slow the rate of increases.
But when asked if he would threaten to cut the concessions that private insurers enjoy, or what form his negotiations would take, Shorten was vague on details.
“Let’s put some water in the punchbowl, sober this system up,” he said. “I’m not going to reveal the dark arts in how I negotiate.”
Shorten often swung the conversation back to the traditional Labor heartland issues of health and education.
He pointed to reductions to the bulk-billing incentive for pathology and diagnostic services as proof the government was “bent” against bulk-billing patients for their health needs.
“We are gravely concerned that the Medicare system is under great threat,” Shorten said. “We will fight with our last drop of breath in us to make sure the system is not further undermined.”
He said promoting needs-based funding, as championed in the Gonski funding model, was an “obligation” of the federal government, and on childcare vowed to spend more on the policy area in order to keep downward pressure on childcare fees.
Shorten also promised to offer greater incentives to employers for hiring mature aged jobseekers.
“It’s an old fashioned way of doing it, but it works,” he said of the subsidies.
Speaking after the forum, the immigration minister, Peter Dutton, accused Shorten of being the “most dangerous leader of the Labor party since Gough Whitlam” for being fiscally irresponsible.
“Taxes will be jacked up under Labor...to pay for this reckless spending,” Dutton told Sky News.
He played down Shorten’s performance, saying voters left the town hall happy because the opposition leader would promise and say anything to get elected.
“He’s tipping money out the door,” Dutton said.
But not all voters were happy with Shorten’s performance.
One lamented the “missed funding opportunity” in keeping tax exemptions for religious organisations, while another accused Shorten of presenting a “false dichotomy” in his economic policies.
