E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP
MELBOURNE
SUNDAY, 27 MARCH 2016
SUBJECT/S: Easter; Chaos and division in the Turnbull Liberal Government.
SHORTEN: [inaudible] Easter's a time that families get to catch up, you get to share time with the people you love. We also need to remember that there's over a hundred thousand of our fellow Australians, on any night, who are homeless. There are many more who have insecure accommodation, there are many Australians, two and a half million, who live at or below the poverty line. It is very important to understand that if we want to have economic growth in this country, we've got to have equality too. We can't actually hope to succeed as a nation when you have so many Australians missing out on the basics. Labor is very committed to not just looking after our economic growth, but to making sure that we have economic growth for all people. That's why doing more on homelessness is a fundamental plank of the Labor platform at the next election. Happy to take any questions.
JOURNALIST: Tony Abbott's planning to campaign in marginal seats, does that remind you of Kevin Rudd?
SHORTEN: The problem for Malcolm Turnbull is that Tony Abbott's still there. The truth of the matter is that Malcolm Turnbull's campaigning for many of Tony Abbott's policies. That's why Tony Abbott's out there campaigning for his own policies. We see chaos and division at the heart of the Turnbull Government. We see Tony Abbott clearly campaigning, something Malcolm Turnbull doesn't want him to do. The truth is, if you don't want Tony Abbott's policies of cuts to Medicare, cuts to education, cuts to hospitals, cuts to the pensions, then vote Labor at the next election. The only way you don't get Tony Abbott is by voting Labor, because Mr Turnbull can't stop Tony Abbott.
JOURNALIST: What do you think Malcolm Turnbull should do about that?
SHORTEN: I think that it's very important that we repudiate the Abbott policies that we saw in the 2014 Budget. The Liberal Party under Tony Abbott and disappointingly still under Malcolm Turnbull have got a platform of cuts to hospitals, cuts to schools, cuts to Medicare. We see a lack of attention on issues such as homelessness. If we want to see a genuinely more equal Australia, then we need to make sure at the next election that Tony Abbott and his party are not in power.
ENDS
