Anthony Albanese rules out leadership challenge while election result hangs in balance

ANTHONY Albanese has ruled out challenging Bill Shorten for the Labor leadership ... at least in the short term.

Anthony Albanese wouldn’t rule out leadership challenge on 7.30.

ANTHONY Albanese has ruled out challenging Bill Shorten for the Labor leadership while the election result hangs in the balance, using a football analogy to deflect a question about his intentions.

The Labor MP was asked about Mr Shorten’s future on 7.30 after Labor enjoyed a better than expected showing at the polls.

Despite the success, there is speculation Mr Albanese could challenge for the leadership, which will automatically be declared open if Labor loses the election.

Host Leigh Sales was blunt in asking Mr Albanese: “Do you have any intention of challenging Bill Shorten for the Labor leadership?”

But Mr Albanese compared the current state of limbo over the election outcome as a “footy game that’s gone into extra time”.

“Now you don’t even consider changing who the captain is during extra time,” he said.

“I’ve always been a team player, and always put the party first before my own interests and I certainly will be continuing to do that.”

When asked whether he thought Mr Shorten had done enough to remain as leader indefinitely, he said: “no one is leader indefinitely”, but added “Certainly, I think we will continue forward with Bill Shorten as the leader and I’ll be playing a role as part of the team”.

Earlier conservative Liberal senator Cory Bernardi talked down speculation over Malcolm Turnbull’s leadership saying “we cannot get caught up in these insider games anymore”.

Sales asked Senator Bernardi who he thought should be held accountable for the Coalition’s poor election result.

Senator Cory Bernardi has toned down leadership speculation. Picture: John Grainger

Senator Bernardi said the Government needed to have a “broad, introspective look” at why the Coalition’s vote had plunged and whether it had represented the aspirations and hopes of the Australian people.

But when asked whose fault he thought it was, he said he didn’t want to “play the personality game”.

“I don’t want to say it’s one simple thing,” he said on 7.30.

“We’ve got a crisis of confidence in politics in this country ... people don’t trust politicians. They are suspicious of us and now they’re starting to look at minor parties.”

There was a drop in the primary vote of both major parties and senator Bernardi said people probably did not think either of the parties was reflecting their concerns.

Sales said Mr Turnbull’s strategy to call a double dissolution had clearly not paid off and asked whether the conservative wing of the Liberal party would continue to support him in the leadership.

“I’m interested in Coalition government and if Malcolm Turnbull leads that Coalition government and we can act in the best interests of Australia and reflect their interests and values, then consider me absolutely on board,” Mr Bernardi said.

“It’s not about personalities anymore. This is about the national interest and ... we cannot get caught up in these insider games anymore.

“It’s just on in the interests of the country. If we don’t learn a lesson from that, then we will continue to pay a very heavy price, as will the Labor Party.”

He said the Australian people had rendered their verdict that both major parties were not adequately reflecting the things that mattered to them.

“(If) we talk about the specific issues that they are concerned about, such as immigration, such as our culture, such as preserving our way of life and making our economy strong, then people will respond to that,” he said.

”When we start to stray and to dally into fringe issues or issues that the Labor Party want us to get engaged in, we lose our base and we can’t afford to lose our base.”

‘MALCOLM’S NO JULIA GILLARD’

Whoever forms government will face passing legislation through a difficult Senate.

When asked whether Labor should form government if the Coalition is able to do so, Mr Albanese said he thought the composition of the new Senate would be easier for Labor to manage than the Coalition.

“Of course, we shouldn’t get ahead of ourselves,” he said.

Despite the probable challenges of dealing with so many independents, Mr Albanese said he believed Labor would be able to deliver on promises the party had made including full funding of Medicare and Gonski, and immediate action on same-sex marriage.

“We’ve put forward fully costed policies,” he said.

He also pointed to the success of the minority government led by Julia Gillard, which managed to get Gonski and NDIS reforms passed, as well introducing a price on carbon.

“Malcolm Turnbull is no Julia Gillard,” he said. “Julia Gillard was on top of the detail.”

Sales asked whether Bill Shorten was a Julia Gillard and could pull it off.

“I think Bill Shorten is a very strong negotiator,” Mr Albanese said.

“There’s no-one better in a small room than Bill Shorten.”

He said he thought the Senate was going to be particularly challenging and he would not be surprised if Australians were back at the polls well before the next three-year term was up.