Federal election 2019 day 28: Bill Shorten holds back tears

From "scare campaigns" to "nasty jibes", Scott Morrison and Bill Shorten have faced off in a heated leaders' debate.  FOLLOW OUR ELECTION BLOG

Scott Morrison and Bill Shorten clashed over “scare campaigns”, “shifty” claims and “nasty” jibes in their third and final leaders’ debate, a week and a half from the election.

 

 There were no “space invader” moments in last night’s prime-time debate but tensions spilled over in the final ten minutes, with Prime Minister telling the Opposition Leader there was “no need to get nasty”.

Mr Shorten also confirmed Labor would release the full costings of its policies on Friday, which will finally the cost to the party’s promises including its climate change plan.

Their most heated clash came after a question on national security, where Mr Shorten took aim at the Coalition boasting of its record on protecting Australia’s borders.

“This Government wraps the flag around itself and says ‘Look at what we’ve done’ ... They’ve had five Defence Ministers in six years, that’s not exactly providing certainty in national security, is it,” he said.

It sparked a terse exchange, with Mr Morrison asking who Labor’s Home Affairs Minister would be if elected and Mr Shorten firing back by asking if the Prime Minister would “keep the same Environment Minister”.

“Where is she?” Mr Shorten asked about the rarely seen Environment Minister Melissa Price.

“If you win you’ll have more people to promote because so many of your current ministry is leaving,” Mr Shorten said.

“No need to get nasty,” Mr Morrison responded, adding: “Smile, it was a joke.”

“I’m sorry if you think that so many of your people leaving is the source of great amusement. I think it’s more a judgement on the Government,” Mr Shorten said.

It prompted Mr Morrison to defend his “dear friend” Kelly O’Dwyer, who was leaving parliament to spend more time with family.

Labor’s negative gearing policy sparked another verbal clash, with Mr Morrison questioning why Mr Shorten couldn’t guarantee house prices wouldn’t fall under his policy.

“I asked you a simple question: will you guarantee rents won’t go up and values won’t go down?” Mr Morrison said.

“You don’t like our policy but that doesn’t give you the right to scare Australians or ignore first-home buyers,” Mr Shorten replied, adding that modelling showed there would be no negative impact.

Both leaders were grilled over the economy, boat turnbacks, climate change and the leadership spills that have plagued Australian politics for a decade.

They were also asked about Wallabies star Israel Folau’s case and whether Australians should be allowed to express their fundamental beliefs of if free speech was being threatened.

Mr Shorten said he was “uneasy” that Folau could lose his job for suggesting gay people should go to hell.

Mr Shorten won the first two debates but under tonight’s format no winner was declared.

Originally published as Federal election 2019 day 28: Bill Shorten holds back tears