Federal election 2016: Bill Shorten calls on PM to quit over election result
OPPOSITION Leader Bill Shorten has denied he’s still campaigning for his job during a visit to Penrith today, but took the opportunity to call for the PM to quit following a hard fought election.
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OPPOSITION Leader Bill Shorten denied he was still campaigning for his job while doing a victory lap in Penrith with his successful candidates for the Western Sydney seats of Lindsay and Macquarie.
Mr Shorten ramped up the pressure on Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, saying he should quit after the shock results from the election.
He said he was in Penrith to thank people for voting for MP-elect Emma Husar over Liberal MP Fiona Scott who lost hear seat in the Western Sydney rout of Mr Turnbull’s campaign.
“I’m here because I’m saying thank you to people. At the end of the day all politicians only serve at the privilege and respect of the voters,” Mr Shorten said.
He snubbed a question on whether he was still on the campaign train to sure up his leadership of the Labor Party, and repeated that he had never been more confident of his position.
“I’m here because for me coming out to Western Sydney wasn’t to get their vote on Saturday. For me, representing Australians is a 365-day-a-year task and that’s what we are doing every day. We are not here because we want people’s votes but to say thank you for their support,” he said.
Mr Shorten denied he was worried about a potential challenge to his job from veteran MP Anthony Albanese, his spokesman on infrastructure, while Mr Albanese’s factional ally, Deputy party Leader Tanya Plibersek stood beside him.
“I’m very happy with all my team, very happy with Tanya and Albo, very happy with Chris Bowen and Tony Burke. My whole team has been doing an outstanding job and I’m grateful for the work that every one of them has done, but as I said yesterday, I haven’t felt more secure in my position as leader at any time in the last three years as I do today,” he said.
Mr Shorten made the extraordinary call to suggest Mr Turnbull should resign, because the election created an unstable political climate in Australia.
“Mr Turnbull clearly doesn’t know what he is doing. Frankly I think he should quit. He has taken this nation to an election on the basis of stability. He has delivered instability. His own party know he is not up to the job, the Australian people know he is out of touch,” Mr Shorten said.
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