Bill Shorten says his position is definitely against Adani

The Opposition leader says he is not playing both sides of the fence on the issue of the Adani coalmine.

Bill Shorten wants to go on the record as saying he doesn’t believe in the Adani project. Picture: AAP

Opposition leader Bill Shorten has strenuously denied he has been promoting two positions on Queensland’s Adani mine, one supporting it and jobs for Queenslanders and another opposing it for inner-city Greens in Sydney and Melbourne, insisting he is an Adani “sceptic”.

Interviewed on the ABC’s 7.30 program for the first time this year — on the day marking 30 negative Newspoll results for Malcolm Turnbull’s government — the Labor leader said it was “nonsense” that he puts forward two views.

“In the digital age everything gets reported and presented everywhere else,” Mr Shorten said.

“For the sake of clarity, let me say to your viewers tonight: I am a sceptic of the project. I am not a fan of the project. I am happy to tell people my personal opinion, and under my government it will receive not one dollar of taxpayer money through the front door or back doctor or any side windows that the government is thinking of.”

Mr Shorten denied he told businessman and environmentalist Geoff Cousins he would revoke the Adani mine license if Labor wins government, instead repeating his promise not to contribute money to the project.

“First of all, I am not going to expose this country to legal compensation claims to a project that I don’t think will go ahead. What sort of leader would I be if I just exposed the Australian taxpayer to billions of dollars of compensation claim?” he said. “By the way, this project in my opinion shows little sign of ever materialising.”

What does @billshortenmp say to the suggestion he has one message on #Adani for Queenslanders & another for inner-city Greens in Sydney & Melbourne? #abc730 #auspol @leighsales pic.twitter.com/s2BNVUxGpe

— abc730 (@abc730) April 9, 2018

Mr Cousins, former president of the Australian Conservation Foundation, told 7.30 in February Mr Shorten made the statement to him privately earlier this year.

“The key statement was that, ‘When we are in government, if the evidence is as compelling as we presently believe it to be regarding the approval of the Adani mine, we will revoke the licence, as allowed in the act. That’s a clear policy’,” Mr Cousins said.

“He told me he intended to speak to his colleagues.”

In a wideranging interview tonight, Mr Shorten also promised to “protect pensioners” after criticisms his proposal to abolish cash refunds for excess imputation credits would hurt low-income retirees.

“I believe we will protect pensioners and if you are receiving a pension now you won’t be worse off,” he said. “I don’t think our country should be a country that spends $8 billion on this and spends less on public school funding in Australia. It is a matter of priorities.”