Bill Shorten: I won’t be union handmaiden

Shorten promises to work co-operatively with business, pledging he will not be a ‘handmaiden’ for trade unions.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten in Melbourne yesterday. Picture: AAP

Bill Shorten has promised to work co-operatively and constructively with business, pledging that he will not be a “handmaiden” for trade unions if Labor wins the federal election in May.

In a rare sit-down newspaper interview, the Opposition Leader said he had strong pro-business policies and rejected criticism from lobby groups that he propagates class warfare or subscribes to the politics of envy.

“They’re wrong,” Mr Shorten told The Weekend Australian. “I talk to hundreds of businesses. I can’t open the door without business people wanting to come to talk to me, and they’re not all of that mind. We’ve got some very good initiatives for business.”

He outlined a range of policies that he said had attracted strong business support, especially from small and medium-sized enterprises, such as matching the government’s corporate tax cuts, boosting apprenticeships, accelerated tax deductions for investment, backing new mining exploration and providing certainty with a new energy and climate change policy.

“It’s an exciting time for business and we are going to work with them,” Mr Shorten said. “What I’m not going to do is say that when corporate profits have risen but wages have hardly moved that that is a satisfactory state of affairs.”

He made no apology for his union background and said he had been upfront with voters about his workplace policies, such as introducing a living wage, re­instating penalty rates, returning to limited pattern bargaining, cracking down on “dodgy” work visas and increasing penalties for wage theft.

“I’ve never hidden the fact that I’m a member of a trade union,” he said. “But I’ll be very clear because the government loves to muddy this water. To borrow from R.J. Hawke, I will work with all sectors, but I’ll be a handmaiden to none.”

Mr Shorten has opposed the ACTU’s push for union leaders to use their positions on industry superannuation fund boards to force companies to improve employee wages and conditions, insisting that trustees must act in the interests of fund members.

Mr Shorten said he wanted to be a prime minister who unified the nation, and that meant working with business, unions and community groups in the national interest. He added that he wanted to get employer and union representatives together to discuss how to lift wages and productivity.

“This nation works best when we work together,” he said. “My whole track record is to bring ­people together. I did it at the Australian Workers Union.

“I did it in my enterprise bargaining. I did it with the National Disability Insurance Scheme. I’ve done it with the Labor Party.”

While Labor has not outlined the finer details of its climate change or workplace relations policies, or the date its changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax will start, Mr Shorten said they would be provided before the election.

“Listen, I don’t accept that we are a blank sheet of paper,” he said. “To be fair, though, we’ve outlined more policies in more detail than anyone in a couple of generations.”

He did not support Kevin Rudd’s proposed royal commission into News Corporation, publisher of The Weekend Australian. He said there should be more competition in the media sector, strongly backed the ABC and did not rule out regulating Twitter and Facebook to curb hate speech.

Mr Shorten also spoke about what he had learned after 5½ years as Opposition Leader and how he would approach the prime ministership.

“I’ve learnt that the best training ground to become prime minister of Australia is to be leader of the opposition because it tests you. You get examined, you get scrutinised,” he said. “I’ve visited all parts of Australia from the Top End to the bottom, east to west, and everywhere in between just about. I’ve spoken to literally hundreds of thousands of people.

“What I discovered along the way is that you can concentrate on the destination but the journey is part of the lesson, it’s part of the experience. I’ve learnt a lot about myself. I’m an inclusive leader and respectful of my colleagues.

“These days I listen a lot more than I talk. When I make a decision, I stick to it.”