A fired-up Bill Shorten says Labor is ready to take on the Turnbull government at the Super Saturday by-elections and at the next federal election.
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"We will deal with these by-elections with the same fighting spirit, no matter what obstacles the government puts in our path, and after those by-elections, we will then be ready to fight the next general election", he told the Victorian state Labor conference on Sunday.
Labor has accused the government of deliberately picking the July 28 date of by-elections in Tasmania, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia to disrupt the ALP's national conference.
Mr Shorten blasted the timing of the by-elections, which has forced Labor to reschedule its national conference that was due to be held in Adelaide that weekend but said "our business now is by-elections".
"I have to say to people who have, perhaps frustrated by the other bloke's Deirdre Chamber's moment, 'Oh, goodness me, imagine having five by-elections at the time of your National Conference' ... just ignore it," he said.
Mr Shorten said the decision wasn't fair, but he would use the nine weeks of campaigning to present Labor's story to the electorate - and painting the Liberal/National coalition government of Malcolm Turnbull as locked in with big business and the well-to-do.
"We choose to fight for everyday people, working-class people, middle-class people, the people who want to work, who are working, who have worked in their life," he said.
"We stand for the people who don't have the vested interests, that is the people we choose."
The ALP will change the date of its conference to avoid a clash with the by-elections, but the prime minister says it's Labor's fault the polls will be held so late.
The polls in Longman, Braddon, Fremantle and Mayo were triggered by resignations of three Labor MPs and an independent this month due to their dual citizenship, while Perth Labor MP Tim Hammond resigned for family reasons.
Mr Turnbull blamed Labor for denying for months the legal reality the High Court would rule its MPs ineligible.
"If Bill Shorten had wanted to have the by-elections in these electorates earlier, his members should have done the right thing and resigned last year," he said.
Australian Associated Press
