Bill says ‘kiss climate action delay goodbye’

The Opposition Leader yesterday rallied supporters to use every minute of the remaining six days to win over voters.

Bill Shorten with wife Chloe and children Clementine, left, Gigi and Rupert in Moonee Ponds yesterday after the ALP’s final rally before the election.

Bill Shorten has positioned clim­ate change action at the centre of his 11th-hour pitch to undecided voters, as Labor appeals to more progressive constituents in Vic­toria­ by warning against the “damaging partnerships” between the Coalition, Pauline Hanson and Clive Palmer.

At a rival campaign event in the heart of the Opposition Leader’s Maribyrnong electorate, which took place at the same time as the Coalition’s campaign launch, Mr Shorten rallied supporter­s ahead of the “final sprint to the finish line” and encourage­d those at the Moonee Ponds Clocktower Centre to use every minute of the remaining six days to win over voters.

While he set out Labor’s ambitious vision for the next term of parliament, Mr Shorten also launched a strident attack against Scott Morrison and his government over climate change.

“Perhaps the clearest choice, the clearest impact of three more years of this current Coalition of chaos, the clearest choice in the closing week of the election, is it means three more years of delay and denial and dysfunction on ­climate change,” Mr Shorten said.

“Under this government, carbo­n pollution has gone up. If this government is re-elected, more carbon pollution will be produce­d and it will go up again. This will inflict damage on our environme­nt that cannot be undone­. The cost of inaction grows if you have more inaction.”

Apparently confident he has won the argument on climate change action, despite being unabl­e to detail the cost his 45 per cent emissions reduction target will have on business, Mr Shorten declared: “The only way the Lib­erals will learn to take climate change seriously is to lose this election.”

After six years in opposition and with his job as Labor leader under threat if he does not win on Saturday, Mr Shorten said his party understood there was no second prize.

“We all know that every vote is important, in every seat,” he said. “We understand the difference, we understand what is at stake. We know what is on the line for Australia.”

Victorian Labor Premier Daniel Andrews insisted there was a “real mood for change” but acknowledged the election would be competitive and close in the state, with more than a dozen electorates, mostly Liberal-held, in play.

He said the Prime Minister had vastly underestimated the dam­age­ his “partnerships” with One Nation and the United Aust­ralia Party would have in Victoria, after the Nationals and Liberals clinched respective preference deals with the minor parties.

“Victorians are really very concerned­ … particularly in multicultural communities … to think that a vote for Scott Morrison may well actually be a vote for Scott Morrison, Pauline Hanson and Clive Palmer,” Mr Andrews said.

After a weekend campaigning across Melbourne, including in Josh Frydenberg’s seat of Kooyong, which is held on a safe margin of 12.8 per cent but could be at risk from the Greens and independent candidate Oliver Yates, Mr Shorten­ focused on family values and women. He said if he won on Saturday, his would be the first federal government to have 50 per cent female representation.