Bill Shorten in fast retreat over Adani mine

Under pressure from the left, Bill Shorten gives his strongest indication yet that Labor will abandon support for Queensland mine.

Bill Shorten and Labor candidate for Batman, Ged Kearney, with anti-Adani protesters in Melbourne yesterday. Picture: Andrew Tauber

Bill Shorten has given his strongest indication that Labor will abandon support for the Adani mine in Queensland, as he was forced to hose down suggestions by former ACTU president and now Labor candidate Ged Kearney that private power assets could be returned to government ­ownership.

The Opposition Leader has ratcheted up pressure on the ­Indian mining giant in recent days and seized on claims — rejected by the company — that it had ­altered a scientific report while appealing against a fine for contamination of sensitive wetlands.

Mr Shorten is under strong internal pressure to shift further to the left in order to win the by-election for the Melbourne seat of Batman, which has a margin of just 1 per cent to the Greens, and has been vacated by former power­broker David Feeney amid uncertainty about his citizenship.

The attack on Adani and confusion over Labor’s position on ownership of power assets came as former Liberal federal director Brian Loughnane warns of the rise of a new socialism with dramatic consequences for Australia.

Mr Loughnane says the Opposition Leader’s inability to resist Labor’s “radical” shift to the left would have a profound impact on public policy, as divisions within society deepened over the country’s economic direction.

GRAPHIC: Batman booths

Surrounded by anti-Adani protesters at a press conference in Batman skewed to appeal to Greens voters, Mr Shorten yesterday unleashed his most serious criticism of the Adani project.

“So let’s be very clear: Labor is increasingly sceptical and today’s revelation, if true, is incredibly ­disturbing, and if Adani’s relying on false information, that mine does not deserve to go ahead,” he said.

The attack came after Mr Shorten contradicted suggestions by Ms Kearney that Labor ­consider backing Greens’ plans to nationalise key power distribution assets, just 10 minutes after she was unveiled as the ALP candidate for the Batman by-election.

Mr Loughnane, writing in The Weekend Australian today, says Labor has adopted the “activist campaign architecture” of radical US Democrat Bernie Sanders and British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. He also warns that ACTU secretary Sally McManus better represents the “true heart’’ of Labor rather than Mr Shorten.

“Although employed by the traditional union base of the party, McManus is an archetypical progressive left activist with a full, clear and very aggressive agenda to move Labor to the left,’’ writes Mr Loughnane, who served as the Coalition campaign director for 12 years.

“While Labor must contest this space with the Greens (and the ­revival of the Labor left represents a long-term threat to the Greens) the practical consequences for policy are that issues and debates which were long thought ­dormant or discredited are re-emerging. It is preventing Bill Shorten developing clear policy alternatives which resonate with mainstream Australia. In fact, it threatens to shackle him with the most left-wing manifesto since (Gough) Whitlam. His capacity to contain this push is a prerequisite to him winning the next election.”

Mr Loughnane’s comments come as Labor shows increasing signs of moving to the left to capitalise on voter dissatisfaction with the modern economy and as the ALP battles the headwinds of the citizenship crisis.

The Victorian Labor factions were bracing for war last night as the party’s right wing struggled to agree on a new power-sharing deal and the 10-year stability pact that kept relative peace in the organisations was in tatters.

Mr Shorten rebuffed Ms Kearney after she declared that Labor should consider a Greens plan to buy back key power assets.

Ms Kearney declared that renationalising the grid was “certainly worthy of consideration’’. She insisted there was a “growing understanding’’ that power privatisations hadn’t delivered the right outcomes.

“And I know that Bill is on the record saying that,’’ she added. “To renationalise the grid? It would be (an) aggressive process to go through. Certainly worthy of consideration.’’

Mr Shorten dismissed her comments and the Greens’ policy, declaring: “Let’s be realistic, that’s not going to happen.’’

The energy privatisation gaffe came after Greens energy spokesman Adam Bandt announced the party’s policy yesterday to seize private power assets and convert them to public ownership. He proposed using ­section 51 of the Constitution to acquire, on just terms, energy interconnectors that link state power grids.

The proposal stands no chance of being enacted without major party support. But it could attract support in Batman.

Mr Loughnane says the battle between Labor and the Greens provides an opportunity for the Turnbull government to fill a political void, if the Coalition can ­reconnect with mainstream Australia. Identifying wage growth as the new lightning rod issue, he says there are large groups of people, as in the US, who, despite the strength of the economy, feel they are slipping behind.

This would lead to a “rebellion at the ballot box”, as had occurred in other Western democracies.

“Scott Morrison, Mathias ­Cormann and the senior leadership of the Coalition are concerned about these trends and are clearly foreshadowing action in coming months, including in the budget, to improve the spread of growth. How effective this ­response is will be critical to the Coalition’s political fortunes,” Mr Loughnane says.