Shorten’s job ‘safe’

By-election results take the heat off Labor Leader’s standing

LABOR Leader Bill Shorten wants to focus on ordinary people rather than “silly political games” after putting leadership speculation to bed with formidable wins in four byelections.

Mr Shorten was dogged by persistent questions about his position throughout the gruelling campaign, based largely on seat-by-seat polls that turned out to be wildly inaccurate.

His main leadership rival, Anthony Albanese, was also highly visible in the lead-up to Super Saturday, delivering a speech widely viewed as an effort to position himself for the top job in the event of poor results. Labor won four of five seats up for grabs, including contests in two crucial marginal electorates that were framed as litmus tests for Mr Shorten.

The Opposition Leader said the thousands of people he spoke to on the by-election campaign trail had no interest in politicians talking about themselves.

“What really matters to voters is how their family is going and how is their health,” Mr Shorten said yesterday. “If your family is OK and your health is OK then you can start to have dreams.”

He said Labor’s policies were focused on people’s lives.

“They want to know when the waiting list for their surgery will be reduced,” he said. “They want to know if we can improve the cancer treatment locally. They want to know if their local school can be properly funded.”

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull will “humbly” reexamine his government’s policies after the Coalition failed to win two key seats from Labor in the by-elections on Saturday. The Queensland seat of Longman and the Tasmanian seat of Braddon stayed in Labor hands, despite eight weeks of feverish campaigning.

“We will look very seriously and thoughtfully and humbly at the way in which voters have responded,” Mr Turnbull said yesterday.