Let's take stock, quickly
Thank you very much for hopping on board the Q&A live broadcast express, it’s been delightful.
Let’s wrap tonight’s event with a short recap.
- The Labor leader Bill Shorten appeared solo on the Q&A program in western Sydney, taking questions from the audience on budget management, housing affordability, business tax cuts, health funding, pensions, public transport, the environment and transparency in border protection.
- There were a couple of wobbles but no stumbles.
Now, we’ll be back tomorrow from first light with live coverage of the campaign, which is now rolling relentlessly into the home stretch. Three weeks to go, pack lunch, and plenty of fluids, there won’t be time for many more pit stops now, it’s a gallop for the finish, ears pinned back, nostrils flying.
Have a great evening. See you in the morning.
PS: And interesting that the prime minister evidently feels he now can’t afford not to turn up.
A summary next.
Solid performance, some sass at the host won't hurt
Bill Shorten got through that outing solidly on his feet. There were a few rough moments. The question on whether Australia was invaded by the British prompted a degree of sliding and swerving. Shorten clearly did not want to come straight out and tell the pensioner she would not get a pension increase if Labor won the election. He clearly worried that he had overshot on sympathy for transparency on the border protection transparency question, and tried to walk that back a fraction.
Not seamless, but a solid performance. And I don’t think it would have hurt the Labor leader at all to give a bit of lip to Tony Jones, who kept coming in to try and keep the answers on point. I know why Jones did that, he was seeking straight answers to straight questions, but it’s not always a great look from the arm chair vantage point. You can look a bit fond of the sound of your own voice, not to put too fine a point on it.
A couple of other points of interest. Western Sydney was the host of that broadcast. Not one question on national security. Not one question on boats from the Ray Hadley perspective. Only one negative question about negative gearing. The biggest applause of the night was on housing affordability – and the Labor leader had an answer. No questions on foreign investment. But several questions on budget management.
Interesting.
Final question is on arts funding. The questioner quotes Winston Churchill on arts funding. Churchill liked arts funding.
Bill Shorten sprints through the arts policy.
And with that, Tony Jones wraps it up.
With an announcement! The prime minister will be on next Monday.
I’ll be back with a few thoughts shortly.
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Question sixteen is on the gender pay gap. What will Labor do to fix it?
Bill Shorten says the gender pay gap is a priority for Labor, as is domestic violence funding and women’s representation.
Bill Shorten:
From paid parental leave, through to superannuation, leadership, violence against women, my party sees the equal treatment of women is a mainstream political issue in this election.
If this country did nothing else in the next 15 years, we’d make sure women are treated equally, we’d have it made. We’d be the richest country in the world.
Question fourteen is on the ABCC. Why won’t Bill Shorten support it given the CFMEU intimidates people, women, on building sites?
Bill Shorten doesn’t think anyone should intimidate women. He also doesn’t think the prime minister mentions the ABCC very much.
Question fifteen on Badgery’s Creek airport.
Q: Are you prepared for Labor to lose the west in your support for the airport?
Bill Shorten says he supports the airport. He thinks it will be good for western Sydney. He loves western Sydney, loves jobs for western Sydney.
Bill Shorten:
It’s not an accident I’m having my campaign launch here on Sunday. Because I get that Western Sydney speaks for a lot of the stories of Australia.
Question thirteen. The gentleman quotes Gough Whitlam on trusting the people.
Q: Bill, what’s your position on trusting the people? Will you repeal those provisions of the border protection legislation and other legislation that have the potential to keep the truth from our citizens?
Bill Shorten starts with whistleblower protection.
Tony Jones interrupts. Shorten goes the sass. Sorry, mate. I don’t want to interrupt your question with an answer.
Bill Shorten:
It would have to be an amazing set of circumstances where we’re not prepared to tell you what was going on [on Nauru or Manus island]. I haven’t got all the security agencies in front of me but as a general rule, this nation operates best if you treat people as smart and intelligent and tell them what’s going on. I find it the easiest way to get consensus on tough issues. If you treat people like mushrooms and keep them in the dark, you can’t be surprised people don’t back in policies.
Q: You’d allow journalists into any offshore detention centre?
Bill Shorten pivots to Labor not being soft on the people smugglers.
Question twelve, from a specialist at Nepean hospital.
Q: Will you work with us in a constructive and collaborative manner to create a funding model which more evenly distributes and more justly distributes our health resources so that we can look after our patients?
Bill Shorten:
The answer is yes, we are providing extra funding. We’ll work with the states in hospital administration. We’re providing more funding than the other guys.
Q: Isn’t it the case that you’ve had to cut back on your original promise for funding to public hospitals?
Bill Shorten:
There’s no way anyone currently breathing in this world could replace every dollar the Liberals have taken out.
Q: But the previous promises made by Labor governments, you’ve had to cut back?
Bill Shorten:
That’s not right, mate. 50% efficient funding is what we’re doing.
Question eleven.
Q: If Labor win this election, can we expect an increase in aged pensions?
Bill Shorten doesn’t give the questioner a direct answer, he speaks about health care funding and other benefits. He says Labor foiled a government effort to lower the indexation rate.
Tony Jones pushes him for a direct answer.
Bill Shorten:
We have no plans to increase [the pension] beyond indexation.
A lady wants Labor to fund a national express bus network. Bill Shorten says he’d like to talk to her about that afterwards.
Question nine is on the reef. Tony Jones wants to know if the Coalition has outbid Labor on the reef today with a $1bn commitment when Labor has promised half that amount. Bill Shorten laughs at that. The Coalition has not outbid Labor on climate change, he says. You can’t be serious about the reef if you aren’t serious about climate change.
Question eight: was British settlement of Australia an invasion?
Bill Shorten walks around this very carefully, affirmation without explicit acknowledgement.
If anyone says that Aboriginal people weren’t dispossessed from their land by the British settlement they’re telling lies.
Q: Would you describe this - that’s the question - as an invasion?
Bill Shorten:
If I was Aboriginal, I wouldn’t exactly call it a welcome, would you?
Shorten points to his convict ancestors. He says they weren’t part of an invading force because they were brought to Australia against their will.
I want to go to the issue. Aboriginals were dispossessed off their land. This was Aboriginal land.
The questioner wants sovereignty for Aboriginal people.
Shorten gives a clear signal that Labor would countenance a treaty with Indigenous people (Pat Dodson flagged this in the first week of the election campaign), but when Jones pushes him on the treaty, Shorten walks is back slightly.
Bill Shorten:
What I’m not going to do is give all the answers on one spot at one time.
The would-be homeowner persists. Housing has never been so expensive.
Bill Shorten:
My party is giving first home buyers a chance to compete on a more level playing field so you can get your home. The dream of Australians is not the right to claim a tax deduction, the dream of Australia is making sure your kids can grow up and buy their own home.
Q: How can he do that unless prices come down?
Bill Shorten:
Prices, if they grow more slowly, give you a better chance.
'I believe that our policies will mean housing prices won’t grow so fast'
Seventh question is on housing affordability. What will Bill Shorten do for 31 year olds who can’t afford a house in the city they live in? Big applause for this question.
Bill Shorten goes to negative gearing and capital gains tax, and level playing fields between owner occupiers and investors.
It’s not going to ruin the housing market, but it will reduce the heat in the housing market.
Tony Jones calls up another questioner who is “quite sad” about negative gearing going away. Shorten says you can still negatively gear, you just need to buy a new house, and existing investors aren’t pinged, they are grandfathered.
Jones says what about second hand houses - this argument the government uses about houses being driven off lots and becoming second hand houses. Bshaw, Shorten says, or some noise approximating that.
Typical government propaganda!
Q: To pick up Damian’s point earlier, the price of housing would go down so people like Damian would afford to buy one? Is that what you’d hope would happen?
Bill Shorten:
Tony, let me answer it. I believe that our policies will mean housing prices won’t grow so fast but I don’t believe that this is going to affect in a downward way the price of houses.
Sixth question is on the banks. Why does Bill Shorten hate banks?
Bill Shorten:
I’m not against banks, I just don’t think they need a $7.4bn budget transfer to their bottom line to make more profit.
I work with banks and have my whole working life.
I just won’t work for them.
Fifth question is on the corporate tax cuts. Will Labor support them?
Bill Shorten:
No, we’re not prepared to match [the Coalition’s] 10 year plan. I would love to be in a position where I can make everyone happy but I also know that’s not leadership.
Bill Shorten is back to choices. He’s not prepared to cut Medicare or school funding. He says he’ll support tax cuts for small business, turnovers less than $2m.
The questioner is from a business which turns over more than $2m. She thinks the Labor leader is stereotyping business.
Bill Shorten says he’d like to tell her what she wants to hear, but he can’t on this occasion.
Tony Jones asks is he prepared to hear submissions on the size of businesses? Shorten says he’s always prepared to listen but $2m has been the acceptable turnover threshold until very recently.
Q: Would you put a cap on the cost of degrees?
Bill Shorten walks around that carefully. He says Labor’s policies would create a defacto cap because Labor doesn’t support fee deregulation.
But I can’t speak for each course and the technology involved in each course.
That would be a bridge too far.
Fourth question is about the accessibility of university for kids from western Sydney. Can the Labor leader guarantee accessibility?
Bill Shorten:
Yes. Yes, I can.
Third question is where are you getting the money for the NBN? Tony Jones says it’s not a magic pudding. Bill Shorten says Labor will get the money from the same place as the Turnbull government. He says the rollout of fibre is getting cheaper. More fibre means more money, surely, Jones says to Shorten.
Bill Shorten:
It will involve greater capital expenditure, full stop.
How much more, Jones wonders?
In capex terms, about 3.4bn.
Shorten says doing it with fibre means you do it once, not multiple times.
Oh dear, David is worried about vociferous minorities and fallacious, unfounded and false justifications from the Gillard period.
Bill Shorten doesn’t agree with David’s characterisations. He gets a clap from the audience for the mild smack down.
The Labor leader would like to run through Labor’s spending proposals. It looks like a long list to Tony Jones, he’d like him to keep it brief. Shorten says slightly crisply that he’ll be factual.
The questioner thinks that Bill Shorten’s words are hollow.
The Labor leader says this:
That’s your opinion and you’re entitled to it. What I’ll say to you back is this: money spent on making sure children have got the best resources in schools is an investment for the future. Money spent on the National Disability Insurance Scheme is more efficient than that broken system where crisis is the only way resources get allocated.
This debate about spending has to be seen in the context of what this election is about. It’s about choices.
Bill Shorten opens with the mass shooting in Orlando. He wants to acknowledge the particular pain and upset which members of the Australian LGBTI community might be feeling. Then, some generalities about equality.
Then what host Tony Jones describes as a serious political question.
Q: I want to know how a Shorten government would spend more yet save more at the same time?
Shorten says Labor will return to budget balance at the same time as the Coalition.
Jones intervenes. He wants a straight answer about Labor’s position over the forward estimates.
Bill Shorten:
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.
The questioner wants to know what the savings are.
Shorten goes through the various savings proposals. Multinational tax, super concessions.
We have a very clear plan and we will stick to it.
Jones intervenes again. When do we see your costings?
Bill Shorten says well before the advertising moratorium, after Labor has finished outlining its policies, which he signals is the end of this week.
Bill Shorten takes questions from the audience in Penrith
Labor will launch its campaign in Penrith this coming weekend and the broadcast tonight is from that western Sydney suburb. The crowd looks friendly. Appearances of course can be deceptive. Bill Shorten is smiling.
The first question is about scripting in campaigns. Could the Labor leader try being less scripted?
Bill Shorten:
Let me try going off script.
Last beverage check, Q&A will be underway very shortly.
I hope folks are watching tonight’s Media Watch. It’s a realistic diagnosis of my industry’s problems. A perfect storm is one way to describe it.
Updated
#qanda Penrith style! pic.twitter.com/mxHg9HPDER
— Flip Prior (@FlipPrior) June 13, 2016
A reminder to book your tickets!
Just while we’ve got time, a reminder about our live election panel discussions over the next fortnight. My colleague Lenore Taylor and I will be hosting a panel discussion in Sydney this Wednesday evening, 15 June, on the theme of fairness.
We’ll be joined by Tanya Plibersek, deputy leader of the opposition and shadow minister for foreign affairs and international development, Trent Zimmerman, the Liberal MP for North Sydney (Joe Hockey’s successor) and Cassandra Goldie, chief executive of Australian Council of Social Service. What does “fair” policy look like? Is fairness more important than ever in the Australian political debate?
Our Melbourne discussion on Tuesday June 21, presented with the Coopers Malthouse Theatre, will focus on the economy. We will be joined by author and journalist George Megalogenis, Christian Porter, the social services minister and former WA treasurer, and Jenny Macklin, shadow minister for families. We’ll be considering an economy in transition and the two economic alternatives being presented by the Coalition and Labor in this campaign.
This link has all the information you need to reserve your place for either event.
We look forward to seeing you there.
Fancy meeting you here
Hello good people and welcome to Monday night on Politics Live. Thanks very much for joining me. I thought it would be fun to come together for a live call of the Labor leader Bill Shorten’s solo appearance on Q&A this evening, which kicks off at 9.30pm on the ABC.
Why? Well, two reasons.
I know there are a bunch of political tragics who count down the hours until they can shout in unison at the television during Q&A on Monday nights. You know who you are. I tip my hat to that level of dedication, which leads me to the second imperative. There are another bunch of political tragics who would rather punch themselves in the head than waste an hour of their lives watching the ego-saturated talking points sass fest that is Q&A. You know who you are. I might even count myself among your number.
So you can consider tonight’s live call a public service to both camps. If you are in tribe A then the beauty of tonight is we can all come together and bellow in unison. We may even succeed in raising the #ausvotes roof if we try hard enough, which is an aspiration worth shooting for. But if you are firmly in tribe B then I can take the hit of watching Q&A and keep you updated on your smart phone or your tablet or your laptop, and you can maintain your Q&A ban. Call it passive consumption. Win-win people. Who says there are no win-wins in Australian politics? A pessimist, that’s who, and that’s a self indulgence no-one can afford in an eight week campaign.
Anyway that’s the why of tonight. In the event you declined to consume the campaign today, opting instead to make a short investment in winter sunshine, loved ones, or, if you were in a state without a public holiday today, work, here’s the fastest means of catch up. My colleague Calla Wahlquist has documented the day on the hustings here. To summarise, the campaign day was Great Barrier Reef for the Coalition and the NBN for Labor.
Let’s crack on with tonight’s coverage. The comments thread is open for your business. If the thread’s too bracing for you, feel free to give me a shout on Twitter: I’m @murpharoo. If you only speak Facebook you can join my daily politics forum here. It’s very polite over there. And if you want a behind-the-scenes look at the day and the campaign as a whole, give Mike Bowers a follow on Instagram. You can find him here. Here’s a sample from today.
Now, lubricate the vocal cords. Here comes Monday night.
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