Bill Shorten say change to Labor's policy platform 'inevitable' after defeat
Bill Shorten says Labor will have to make “some change” to its policy platform in the wake of the party’s bruising election loss to prove to voters that it has learned the lessons of defeat.
The former opposition leader said he would not preempt the findings of a review being undertaken by Jay Weatherill and Craig Emerson into what went wrong with Labor’s campaign, but said he believed some policies would be junked.
“We didn’t get enough votes at the last election, so some change is inevitable,” Shorten said.
“And I think if Labor didn’t change some of its points of view then that would be showing we hadn’t learned the lessons from the election.”
Shorten, who has kept a low profile since the 18 May election, thanked the Australians who voted for Labor at the election, and said he shared “a lot of disappointment” at the result.
“I accept my part in the responsibility of it,” he told ABC.
But he said the opposition was now “trying to put its best foot forward” and he wanted to see party unity under new leader Anthony Albanese.
Shorten’s comments come after Albanese told MPs earlier on Tuesday the party will get “the same outcome” if it does not change policy direction, amid criticism that Labor has been too willing to capitulate since its May election defeat.
At a caucus meeting of MPs in Canberra on Tuesday, the opposition voted to support a government crackdown on animal rights protestors despite several MPs expressing concern about the bill.
The Victorian MP Kim Carr was the most vocal critic and said Labor was capitulating to the government, pointing to a Senate committee report which raised significant problems with the bill.
Ged Kearney also spoke out against the legislation, while frontbenchers Joel Fitzgibbon, Catherine King and Penny Wong spoke in favour.
While the vote was not unanimous, Labor resolved to make amendments to the legislation, but agreed to support it regardless of whether the proposed changes were adopted by the Coalition.When the bill is examined by the Senate, Labor members recommended the bill be “substantially amended to deal with the numerous significant unintended consequences that have been identified by submitters and outlined in this report”.
Wong hit back at suggestions the party had “capitulated” to the government, saying the suggestion the party was surrendering on major issues was “a Greens tactic and we must take it on”.
The Greens have been labelling themselves the “real opposition” in response to Labor’s support of multiple government bills since the May election, including on tax cuts and national security.
Albanese told MPs that “vegan terrorists” were not part of Labor’s constituency, but trade unions were.
He also used the meeting to make clear his views on the party’s direction in the wake of the election loss, weighing into the debate that has been aired this week between frontbencher Mark Butler and party president Wayne Swan.
Pointing to the election postmortem being undertaken by Jay Weatherill and Craig Emerson, Albanese said the Labor party had “put structures in place to regroup and review”.
But he echoed the arguments made by Butler, who said the review must be “ruthless and unsparing” and include all policies, including in his portfolio area of climate change and energy.
“If you do the same thing in politics you can expect the same outcome,” Albanese said.
He also defended supporting the government’s tax cut legislation, saying the party “voted the right way”.
“There is nothing Labor about voting against putting more money in the pockets of cleaners,” he said.
Albanese said that the party was also prepared to “cop some flak” for standing up on some issues, giving the example of the Biloela family and advocating for a Newstart increase.
At a meeting of Coalition MPs, the prime minister, Scott Morrison, spoke about Labor’s predicament, pointing to instability in the Western Australian and Queensland branches and the corruption hearings in New South Wales.
“They appear clueless and directionless across the country at present,” Morrison said.
He said the only consistent policy position in the Labor party was to “spend lots of money”, in both good and bad economic times.