MORRISON, SHORTEN INSIST SPILL ERA

SCOTT Morrison and Bill Shorten have squared off for the third and final leaders’ debate, a week and a half from election day.

Going head-to-head in a live prime-time debate in Canberra, both leaders were grilled about the leadership spills that have plagued Australian politics for a decade and whether they were sorry for them.

Mr Shorten admitted he regretted the instability of the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd era, in which he was a pivotal player in both coups, backing first one leader and then the other.

“Well, I think we need one more change of PM and then we can finish it for a while,” the Labor leader quipped when asked if the era of spills was over.

“I know the Labor Party’s learned,” he said, saying the party had demonstrated it could be a united force in opposition.

Prime Minister Morrison also acknowledged there had been a “toxicity” in politics but vowed he had put an end to leadership spills after Malcolm Turnbull was rolled in August.

He also promised he would not allow the conservative wing of the Liberal Party to continue the disunity.

“I will lead, as I always have, from the middle,” he