Bill Shorten talked to Julia Banks on seat swap

Bill Shorten spoke to Liberal defector Julia ­Banks about running for Flinders instead of Chisholm.

Independent MP Julia Banks. Picture: Gary Ramage

Bill Shorten spoke to Liberal ­defector Julia Banks about running for Flinders instead of Chisholm prior to her abandoning the seat in which she was elected, ­according to a source told of the conversation by the independent MP.

Ms Banks’s decision to move from the marginal seat of Chisholm helped to ensure Labor is in the box seat to win the southeast Melbourne seat on Saturday — a critical gain in a tight election.

When the Opposition Leader was asked by The Australian yesterday about what discussions he or his office had had with Ms Banks about running for Flinders instead of Chisholm, Mr Shorten said: “We speak to independents, but Julia Banks makes her own ­decisions. Please don’t make the same mistake the Liberal Party men make that somehow women in politics are just being operated on and doing the bidding of other men.”

The Australian has been told Ms Banks told a former MP ­shortly before she announced she was running for Flinders that she had been shown CFMEU-Reachtel polling that showed she would be a good chance taking on Health Minister Greg Hunt in Flinders.

Ms Banks had said at the time that Mr Shorten had encouraged her to run for Flinders.

Chisholm was held by the Liberals by 2.9 per cent while Mr Hunt has a 7 per cent margin in Flinders.

Ms Banks’s candidature, and the preference flow from it, is tipped to give Labor a good chance to win Flinders and Ms Banks’s ­departure from Chisholm makes Labor confident in that seat.

Ms Banks did not return text messages or phone calls yesterday or the day before on the issue.

When The Australian ­approached Mr Shorten’s office on Monday as to whether he had ­encouraged Ms Banks to run for Flinders and whether she had been shown or told about polling, it ­responded: “We talk to independents periodically, in the same way the Liberals do.

“What Ms Banks does and where she runs is a matter for her. If you want to know why she chose to leave the Liberals in disgust at their dumping of Malcolm Turnbull, I’m sure she can tell you.”

In Burnie in Tasmania yesterday, Mr Shorten said: “My goodness me, the Liberal Party must be scared of Julia Banks, aren’t they?

“Julia Banks is the only Liberal politician who won a seat off Labor at the last election … She’s strong enough to run against a person who she thinks isn’t as good a candidate for Flinders as she is.

“Please don’t make the same mistake the Liberal Party men make that somehow women in politics are being operated on and doing the bidding of other men.

“I’d like you to vote for our candidate in Flinders, but I can understand that with the division and chaos in the Liberal Party, no wonder so many strong women are running as independents.

“The smear squad, the hit squad of the Liberal Party, rather than deal with Julia Banks’s policies, are trying to undermine her.

“(She) has touched a chord and represents a strand of Liberals who this extreme right-wing Liberal Party no longer represent.”