Q&A: Shorten makes no promise on ending indefinite detention

Bill Shorten has not promised to end indefinite detention of asylum-seekers, but says Labor would prioritise resettlement.

Bill Shorten on this week’s Q&A.

Bill Shorten has not promised to end the indefinite detention of asylum-seekers, but says a Labor government would prioritise the resettlement of refugees.

Mr Shorten told the ABC’s Q&A program last night that while he thought it was legitimate to seek asylum, he didn’t want to see “the boats start again” or hundreds of people drown at sea.

While the Labor leader said he supported a refugee intake and thought it was brave to “up sticks and come here”, he didn’t think people detained on Manus and Nauru should be used as political scoring points.

“I don’t believe the corollary of not having the people-smugglers back in business is that you keep people in indefinite detention.”

Mr Shorten also said medical treatment shouldn’t be used as a “political plaything,” referencing a mentally unwell refugee girl who was rushed from Nauru to Australia for urgent care after lawyers took court action when the government refused to transfer her.

When pressed to answer whether a Labor government would promise to end indefinite detention for those who tried to come to Australia illegally, Mr Shorten was unclear, but said he supported the controversial US resettlement deal and thought the government should take a deal with New Zealand.

“I do not believe in indefinite detention,” Mr Shorten said. “I believe a Labor government can actually make sure that we don’t have to have people in Manus and Nauru, because we’ll prioritise resettling people.”

Can you now, promise to end the indefinite detention of asylum seekers? @billshortenmp says it's legitimate to seek asylum but boats can't start again #QandA pic.twitter.com/WlALonGUl1

— ABC Q&A (@QandA) June 11, 2018

REPUBLIC

Mr Shorten also doubled down on his calls for an Australian republic, saying he didn’t believe the nation should keep “borrowing a monarch from another country”.

When asked if the millions of dollars needed to hold a referendum would be better spent on health and education, Mr Shorten said he didn’t accept the proposition an Australian republic would result in less money for the nation’s schools and hospitals.

“If we are to become a truly independent nation, we should at least have as our head of state someone who is an Australian citizen,” Mr Shorten said.

Mr Shorten also said he didn’t believe becoming a republic would compromise Australia’s relationship with the UK as both nations would maintain “perfectly close ties”.

“It wouldn’t damage our relations,” Mr Shorten said, citing examples of former British colonies that became republics and still competed in the Commonwealth Games. “We will just send a big message to the rest of the world that when you talk to Australia we’re an independent country.”

Mr Shorten said the potential republic referendum would involve two parts, first asking whether Australians wanted an Australian head of state followed by a question on how that representative should be selected.

CLIMATE CHANGE & ENERGY

When asked why Labor hadn’t presented any “real opposition” to the Adani coal mine, Mr Shorten said he “respectfully disagreed” with the questioner, but didn’t want to “create sovereign risk”.

Mr Shorten said his position was the mine didn’t stack up commercially and believed “not a single dollar of taxpayer money should be used directly or indirectly in that mine.”

The opposition leader said his party intended to make renewable energy a key issue at the federal election and Labor were “so much better than the Liberals on climate change it’s not funny.”

When pressed about Labor’s position on coal, Mr Shorten said he wasn’t going to dismiss the role of coal in Australia’s “energy mix going forward”.

While Mr Shorten said he did believe renewable energy was the future, he wasn’t going to leave Australia’s coal mining communities behind.

Responding to another questioner, who asked if Labor would take a stand against the privatisation of essential services such as electricity, Mr Shorten said he wouldn’t encourage a government buyback of privatised assets, but saw renewables as part of Australia’s future.

Mr Shorten also blamed soaring electricity prices in Australia on the “inability to form a sensible policy on climate change”. He said despite thinking the climate change wars would end under Malcolm Turnbull the debate had “actually got worse.”

Why haven’t you opposed the Adani coal mine? @billshortenmp doesn't want to create sovereign risk #QandA pic.twitter.com/AHdw3rFNxV

— ABC Q&A (@QandA) June 11, 2018

HOUSING

Mr Shorten said Labor’s negative gearing policy would help create a level playing field while helping young Australians step on to the property ladder.

The Labor leader told host Tony Jones he didn’t think it was fair that first-home buyers were being beaten at auction by property investors who are “outbidding you courtesy of the taxes you’re paying to Canberra,” Mr Shorten said.

“My concern with negative gearing is it takes a big lump of taxpayer money and it subsidises some people who have the opportunity to take advantage of it to make more money,” Mr Shorten said.

“I think there are better ways to help young people than give subsidies to property investors.”

When pressed how Labor would prevent a rental crisis, Mr Shorten promised to build more social housing.

Mr Shorten was also asked how he planned to win the votes of middle-income, mum and dad investors, who could currently only afford investment properties under the current negative gearing legislation.

Mr Shorten said current investors wouldn’t be affected under Labor’s proposed policy as it would only apply to new dwellings, not existing housing.

But the opposition leader said in the “beauty contest” between funding education and hospitals or giving property investors a tax subsidy, he would always pick the former.

How does abolishing negative gearing benefit the youth and vulnerable members of society? @billshortenmp says to solve homelessness we must build more homes #QandA pic.twitter.com/eTIt3y7ONs

— ABC Q&A (@QandA) June 11, 2018

CAR INDUSTRY

When asked by a former worker at the now-defunct Holden factory, in the outer northern Adelaide suburb of Elizabeth, what Labor would do to combat the casualisation of the workforce, Mr Shorten said he was “still angry” the government didn’t try to save Australia’s car industry.

In an impassioned speech, Mr Shorten said he was furious the former prime minister, Tony Abbott and former treasurer Joe Hockey “did nothing to save the car industry.”

“Before other people say that’s the way of the world, no it’s not,” Mr Shorten said. “Other countries still make a car from woe to go and pay good wages, and their government helps them.”

When pressed by Jones whether the Labor leader was “angry enough” to revitalise the car industry, Mr Shorten said he was “sick of blokes and women in their late forties and fifties who get thrown on the scrap heap because someone says its not economically rational”.

“I don’t think it’s rational to give the big banks a tax handout. I think it was irrational to let the car industry close.”

Mr Shorten said while he thought the “economic vandals in Canberra” had wrecked Australia’s ability to ever rebuild its car industry, Labor would propose an advance manufacturing fund to provide loans to manufacturing businesses.