Shorten fails character test on doctored TV transcript

There’s a reason Labor frontbenchers and backbenchers send out press releases and transcripts through Bill Shorten’s office — all except Anthony Albanese, who’s too independent to cop such nannying. The reason for the centralisation is to avoid pitfalls such as the falsification of the transcript of MP Linda Burney’s foolish comments about asylum-seeker policy on Sky News . A spokesman for the Opposition Leader blamed Ms Burney’s office yesterday, claiming the doctoring was a “mistake”. Ms Burney said the error was “unintentional”. Hardly. Hundreds of words, embarrassing to Mr Shorten on a touchy issue, were changed or deleted. Even the text of David Speers’s questions was altered. The rewrite, as Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton says, was deliberate fabrication.

However much Mr Shorten’s staff try to hide him behind the Sergeant Schultz “I know nothing” defence, it won’t wash after years of doublespeak and falsehoods. The gravest of these, which upset old people who received robocalls and texts, was the despicable “Mediscare” scam at the 2016 election. Mr Shorten claimed, dishonestly, that the government planned to privatise Medicare. It was a low blow. The Coalition was too slow hitting back and almost lost office over the issue.

More recently, Mr Shorten dug himself into a deep hole with his “rolled-gold guarantees” during the dual citizenship fiasco that he was “more than satisfied” all Labor MPs were eligible to sit in parliament because of the party’s superior vetting process. When that line was destroyed by the High Court he claimed the court had come up with a “new” and “stricter” test on judging the eligibility of MPs under section 44 of the Constitution. Not true. There was no legal change.

Mr Shorten’s credibility is also threadbare on company tax cuts, which he now dismisses as “handouts” to the “big end of town”. But in office in 2011, he told parliament cutting company taxes “increases domestic productivity and domestic investment … and leads to more jobs and higher wages”. Was he speaking with a forked tongue then? As Dennis Shanahan wrote last week, in 2005 Mr Shorten supported just three tiers of personal income tax with a top rate of 30 per cent. What does he believe? Or does he just spin out lines to suit the prevailing political winds? So much for conviction and principle.

Shifting sands are nothing new to Mr Shorten. His backflip over the Adani coalmine also was striking. In 2016 he branded the same-sex marriage postal vote “a taxpayer-funded platform for homophobia”. But Shanahan recalled a meeting in 2013 where Mr Shorten was “completely relaxed” about a plebiscite because “I would rather the people of Australia could make their view clear on this than leaving this issue to 150 people”.

Greater transparency about Mr Shorten’s doings as the Australian Workers Union’s national chief would help shine a light on his character. Last year, Brad Norington revealed the AWU, under his leadership, donated $100,000 or more in seed funding to GetUp! , where Mr Shorten served on the board. How many of its radical causes does he still support? He also arranged a $25,000 donation of AWU funds to his Maribyrnong campaign in 2007. Despite repeated requests, the union has not produced minutes to show the donations were approved by the AWU national executive. Doubts remain about whether required processes were followed.

The sore spot touched by Ms Burney, however, goes to an issue far more serious to the national interest. The opposition is in schism on border protection, with Ms Burney among those “very passionate”, she told Speers, about putting time limits on offshore detention on Manus Island and Nauru. That argument was cut from the transcript sent out by Mr Shorten’s office. The consequences of Labor going soft on Coalition border protection policies were made clear in the Rudd-Gillard years: 50,000 asylum-seekers arriving by boat; 1200 drownings; jam-packed detention centres. Labor activists will push for policy change at the party’s upcoming national conference. Mr Shorten will insist common sense will prevail. So did Kevin Rudd in 2007. Mr Shorten also showed bad judgment in November urging Malcolm Turnbull to consider accepting New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s offer to resettle 150 refugees. People-smugglers know that travellers who arrive in New Zealand qualify for Australian visas. It would be their strongest selling point for years. Altering a transcript will not alter Labor’s weaknesses on border protection policy. But it has put the focus on Mr Shorten’s trustworthiness.