Batman win sets ALP agenda
OPPOSITION Leader Bill Shorten has used his party’s unexpected win in the Melbourne seat of Batman to set the platform for the next federal election, promising only Labor will tackle cost-of-living pressures.
Former ACTU president Ged Kearney unexpectedly fought off the challenge of the Greens in Saturday’s by-election with a swing towards Labor, a poll which was brought on by former Labor MP David Feeney having to step down over his citizenship status.
Ms Kearney is the first woman to win the electorate, and her success means nearly half of Labor’s federal MPs are women.
The former nurse believes she won by focusing on issues such as schools, healthcare and kids being able to get jobs.
“I did a lot of listening and that really is what focused our campaign on the issues that mattered and people really, incredibly well, responded to that,” she said yesterday.
Labor leader Bill Shorten was asked what the win meant for Labor with a federal election due next year.
“My aim is that by the time of the next federal election people will understand if they want to tackle costs of living, they vote Labor,” Mr Shorten said.
He promised to bring the price of health insurance premiums down while keeping energy bills down by backing a 50 per cent renewable energy target and restoring faith in the wages system. But Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull brushed off the result in a seat where the Liberals didn’t even stand.
“I guess it tells you a lot about Bill Shorten’s situation that he’s crowing about holding a seat that the Labor Party have had for 50 years,” he said.
Treasurer Scott Morrison said the Batman election was about a race to the left and the Labor Party won.
“They are the most left poli- tical party in the country,” he said. “I wouldn’t describe Batman as a mainstream electorate and if Bill Shorten wants to run the campaigning he ran in Batman around the rest of the country, I’d say ‘bring it on Bill’.”
With the Liberals not fielding a candidate in Batman, the by-election was a test of whether the Greens’ march into inner-metropolitan seats would continue or if Labor could win back those voters.