Strewth: Sirens’ call

Hats off to Bill Shorten and Susan Lamb for being brave enough to be photographed in an ambulance. With a paramedic.

Susan Lamb and Bill Shorten learning useful stuff, so we probably don’t have to fire up the visual metaphor klaxon.

As the by-elections draw nearer, Labor’s edging just a little closer to the precipice in the seat of Longman. At least one online bookie has been lengthening its odds on Susan Lamb overcoming her citizenship blip and getting back into parliament. And, of course, Bill Shorten’s fate is not entirely untethered to hers. So with all that in mind, hats off to the pair of them for being brave enough to be photographed on Bribie Island yesterday inside an ambulance. With a paramedic. This courageous image was all for a good cause, with Labor pledging to build an urgent care unit on Bribie. This wasn’t the only topic canvassed during Shorten’s press conference. Among them was the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission’s sulphurous damnation of the electricity market. From this (admittedly promising) base material, Shorten created gold.

Shorten: “The ACCC report has come out. It’s a valuable edition. It’s got to be studied very carefully.”

Journo: “Have you read the report?”

Shorten: “No, I haven’t yet read the report.”

Was this a fresh incarnation of his justly celebrated I-haven’t-seen-what-she-said-but-let-me-say-I-support-what-it-is-that-she’s-said moment* in 2012? Alas, not quite.

Journo: “Do you plan on reading it?”

Shorten: “Yes …”

(*As prophesied by US country singer Blaine Larsen in his 2006 song I Don’t Know What She Said: “I don’t know what she said / But I sure liked the way that she said it / A little voice in my head said/ Boy, you won’t ever forget it.”)

Nothing personal

Shorten also kept his vow from a few days ago: “If (Malcolm Turnbull) wants to play the personal insult game, he can. But he’ll be doing it on his own.” To wit: “We’ve got a debate which is about placating the knuckle draggers of the cave-dwelling Right of the Liberal Party.” It’s only personal when you use their names. He also offered this: “You don’t just go down to Kmart and just get a coal-fired power station off the shelf.” It sounds more an Aldi thing, somewhere between the yoghurt and the ski gear.

The others wot done it

Meanwhile on ABC radio in Brisbane, Malcolm Turnbull knew exactly what the ACCC report meant — that Labor, which hasn’t been in power at a federal level for nearly half a decade, were a pack of bums on energy policy and therefore to blame. Host Rebecca Levingston also touched on one of the PM’s cherished topics: “If your candidate wins in Longman will you call a general election?” For better or worse, Turnbull did not embark on another paean to his Big Man in Longman. (And we quote: “Big Trevor Ruthenberg. He is so big … He is a big unit.”)

Turnbull: “Well, there’ll be a general election next year. There will be a general election in the first half of next year.”

Levingston: “So you’re ruling out an election this year?”

Turnbull: “The election will be next year. Yes, the election will be next year, in the first half of next year, I get asked this every day.”

All good, except he then said something that sounded a bit like a door being nudged slightly ajar: “I don’t know, would you like to have a general election this year?”

Dress rehearsal

While Treasury secretary John Fraser was preparing to go down, Labor’s Chris Bowen briefly went up on ABC radio in Hobart.

Host Gary Magnussen: “We are joined in the studio by the federal treasurer Chris Bowen.”

Bowen: “Shadow treasurer, Gary. I have interest in being treasurer, but not quite yet.”

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