Bill Shorten explains his vision: “We’re pro small business”

Michelle Grattan: Just on science and research, what are your particular interests in these areas?

Bill Shorten: The greatest resource we have in Australia is not the minerals beneath the ground, it is in the minds and capacities of Australians. We need to get behind our scientific and research community.

We need to encourage careers in science, we need to make sure kids aren’t dropping out of maths and science in junior secondary school, right through to working with our PhD students to make sure they can go the distance, and then have the opportunities to apply the quality of their research in practical endeavours.

Today – and I’ve been the leader for a day – the way I work, I’m not going to outline all policies, what I will do, though, is work with my parliamentary team and people in the broader community. But people in the science, innovation and education community can be confident that with me as Labor leader, their issues are going to get debated in the national parliament and in the national political arena.

Michelle Grattan: The disability scheme is an example of where, despite everything, bipartisan support was reached for the common good, and this, of course, was a scheme in which you had a fundamental role right at the start. Do you think we should see more reaching across the political divide on big ideas? If so, where?

Bill Shorten: What I believe is that the role of Labor is to be a good conscientious opposition, which is to hold the government to account for their promises and for their actions. But it isn’t enough, I believe, for Labor to be simply negative about the Coalition. We need to have a positive agenda on which we judge the actions of the government.

How is what we are doing in politics and in public life assisting to develop the future lives of Australians, developing our nation, making sure Australians can have long lives full of quality and meaning? That’s the approach I believe we can take successfully.

In terms of developing policies, we have three years to do that, and that work starts now.

Michelle Grattan: Your roots are very strong in the trade union movement, but you have also had reasonable business contacts. How do you aim to restore business confidence in the Australian Labor Party?

Bill Shorten: Well, Labor needs to reach out to business, we need to make it clear that we’re pro small business, that we are pro the role of the creation of national wealth. That, in the Australian model, which is a Labour model – which is not just about a social wage and a proper safety net – is also about the creation of opportunity from small business start-ups to supporting Australian business to compete with the best in the world. That’s why the NBN [National Broadband Network] is so important, it’s an enabler.

But it is a priority for me to improve our links, not just with business generally, but with small businesses, [and] with businesses in regional Australia too.

Michelle Grattan: Governments usually seem to get a second go. Do you accept you can’t get back in three years, or do you think you can break the mould there?

Bill Shorten: I believe I, and the Labor team, can make Labor competitive. The challenge for Labor isn’t what the Coalition thinks of us, we know what they think of us. The challenge for us is to convince Australians that our ideas, the application of Labor values, is the best chance on which Australians can aspire to lives of quality and meaning in the future.

Michelle Grattan: But you do also concede that it could be a Gough Whitlam-like two-stage process?

Bill Shorten: I don’t think anyone is automatically guaranteed power. There’s not an inch of complacency in me, I don’t believe that, in some point in the future, it will simply be Labor’s turn.

What we have to do is demonstrate and satisfy Australians that our ideas are relevant to their futures.

Michelle Grattan: How will you plan to pace yourself in the coming three years? Will you load the policy development stage into the later part or spread it through the three years?

Bill Shorten: I’ll pace myself by not having all the answers today.

Michelle Grattan: Tony Abbott, in a speech to carers today, paid you some tribute in talking about the disability insurance scheme. Just putting aside the temptation to attack for a moment, what do you think of Tony Abbott as a politician and a person and an opponent?

Bill Shorten: I think he is a highly-educated, highly-determined person who has been strong in his advocacy for the Liberal cause. I don’t underestimate him at all. I believe that he has been able to connect with Australians and certainly Australians decided to give him a go beyond Labor.

And I think he was a successful opposition politician and he has the great privilege and gift that is to be prime minister of Australia.

But for me, it’s not just about the personalities, it’s got to be about who has the most relevant vision for the future of Australia for all Australians.

I know one thing – I hope as opposition leader that what I say in opposition will be what I do in government and I think that the Coalition has confected a budget emergency, and they are finding that’s not what they want to do in government, or they say they don’t. Saying they would simply stop the boats and now they’re not talking about even when the boats arrive.

I want to make sure that we don’t let him off the hook. He made some big promises in opposition and I’d expect him to honour them in government, or at least endeavour to honour them.

Michelle Grattan: So you think the carry-through of promises to performance is really important for a party and a leader?

Bill Shorten: Yes.

Michelle Grattan: I saw somewhere you were making the point that your parents had made big sacrifices to send you to Xavier College in Melbourne. Now for the first time we have two leaders educated by the Jesuits facing off. Does a Jesuit education give you any special skills for politics?

Bill Shorten: No, I think that what I’ve been able to add to the lives of people I’ve represented is due to a range of factors, including my schooling. But who we are as adults is made up in part by school, it’s made up in part by your parents, in part by your working experiences.

So I’m grateful for the effort my parents made for my education and that has no doubt had an influence on me, but I think I owe even more to my mother, and to the efforts that she and my family have made.

My mistakes are all my own, though. Any successes… and indeed now it’s my family who support me. None of us are an island and all of what we accomplish is done through the efforts of others and ourselves.

Michelle Grattan: Clearly in the globalised world, it is important to tune in to what is happening overseas, how much are you going to be looking to what’s happening in terms of social democratic movements overseas?

Bill Shorten: I’ve been travelling ever since I left school, not only to see family in Britain, but the rest of the world I find intensely interesting, so I’ve backpacked, hitchhiked and I’ve had the chance to represent Australia in global forums more recently. There are a lot of lessons everywhere else in the world, there is a distinctly Australian model in the world, of economy, of community, of society, blending fairness with prosperity.

There is a quote of Reg Ansett, said in the late 1960s, I think, and I want to paraphrase it correctly. When he bought a whole set of 727s he said, this is the best technology in the world, so it is only just good enough for Australia, or my airline.

I’m interested in the best ideas in the world because we always need to be comparing ourselves to the best in the world, but then we’ll see if they’re appropriate for Australia and good enough for us.

Michelle Grattan: Even politicians need their off time, what are your extra-curricular interests?

Bill Shorten: I run, my most important interest though is my family. I’m hoping, between now and when parliament resumes, to have a few days with my family. My work is my passion, my family, my children, I do like to run and I like to watch movies, I like to read books.

Michelle Grattan: What are some of the recent movies and books you’ve enjoyed?

Bill Shorten: I’m a devotee of Roman history, history is a genre of books I enjoy reading. It’s not always the absolute predictor of the future, but it certainly has some relevance.

Michelle Grattan: How did you come to Roman history?

Bill Shorten: I like all sorts of history, I like history.

Michelle Grattan: What about films, have you seen any that you’ve liked recently?

Bill Shorten: Oh my lord, I’d have to say, for the last three months, it has been pretty intense, I’ll have to take that on notice, until I remember what I’ve seen – on aeroplanes, as I haven’t been to a cinema in the last three months.

Michelle Grattan: Do you run everyday? Are you a Tony Abbott of the running track as opposed to the cycling track?

Bill Shorten: No, I would like to run more than I do. It’s a way of clearing my head, although I’m sometimes surprised when you’re running and people will still want to ask you questions. Anyway, that shows you how slow I run, that people think they can ask me questions.

Michelle Grattan is a Professorial Fellow at University of Canberra .

This piece was first published on The Conversation.