Abbott and Howard unite to sway wavering voters

Former prime minister John Howard launched a searing political attack on the Opposition Leader in Warringah yesterday.

Former prime ministers Tony Abbott and John Howard hit the hustings at Warringah Mall in Sydney yesterday. Picture: AAP

John Howard has accused a “sneering’’ Bill Shorten of coming after ordinary, hardworking people with tax increases on their ­retirement income and housing, saying there is a growing community view “he’s after your savings”.

The former prime minister launched a searing attack on the Opposition Leader when he joined Tony Abbott on the campaign trail in his Sydney seat of Warringah yesterday.

During a campaign walk at a Westfield mall in Brookvale, where he was greeted enthusiastically by shoppers, Mr Howard predicted a tough election for the Coalition.

But he said he was becoming more confident as polling day neared and put faith in Mr ­Abbott’s campaigning abilities to fend off a challenge from independent candidate Zali Steggall in the Sydney’s northern beaches seat.

“I detect in the community a lot of growing suspicion that Bill Shorten is after your savings,” Mr Howard said. “Warringah is full of people who’ve worked hard, they’ve done a bit better, they’ve accumulated a bit, and they don’t want it taken away by higher taxes from Mr Shorten.

“And anybody in this electorate who is in that category, they’re not the big end of town. I mean, that is an insult to every successful small businessman who’s worked hard, accumulated a bit and wants to leave it to his kids.

“That’s what this country is all about, and that’s what people ­aspire to do, and this fellow Shorten, he’s after those people. And he sneers at them, says, ‘you’re the big end of town’, and his punitive treasurer Chris Bowen says ‘if you don’t like it, don’t vote for us’. Well, I hope that people don’t like it, and don’t vote for them.”

While Mr Abbott admitted he had the fight of his political life in the seat he has held for 25 years, Mr Howard dismissed suggestions his presence was a sign that the Liberal Party was worried. “No, I’m always asked to help,” he said, adding that he campaigned in the recent NSW election and had joined Mr Abbott previously.

Mr Howard will today campaign with Liberal Ken Wyatt in his West Australian seat of Hasluck, and could swing through Cowan amid Liberal Party hopes of unseating Labor’s Anne Aly.

Mr Howard said: “I want to ­remind anybody in this electorate who might be cranky about this or that, things that the government’s done, or Tony’s done. In the end you’ve got to make a choice, and as we saw with people like Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott — even though they represented overwhelmingly non-Labor electorates — they were prepared to support a Labor government in power.”

Ms Steggall said during a debate with Mr Abbott she was inclined to support the Coalition on no-confidence and budget supply votes, if the election resulted in a hung parliament. But Ms Steggall, backed by anti-Abbott groups and GetUp, also said her minimum position on climate change was Labor’s 45 per cent reduction in carbon emissions by 2030, a higher target than the Coalition’s.