Shorten kicks off Labor leadership debate

Voters support Anthony Albanese (pic) over Bill Shorten as Labor leader, a new poll shows. Source: AAP

BILL Shorten has kicked off the Labor leadership debate, saying the big question is how Labor will remain relevant to the lives of Australians in the future.

He and Anthony Albanese are debating each other in Sydney as part of their nationwide campaign to sway rank and file members who will take part in an historic vote for Labor's parliamentary party leader under new Labor guidelines.

Mr Shorten said the party had to move on from the disappointing election loss and focus on its list of achievements and great history.

"It comes to a question of how will we help make Labor relevant to the lives of Australians in the future," he said.

"Not just in the next 24 hours or next week or next month. How does our Labor, as it has in the past and it should do in future, how do we make sure that our values and our ideas speak to the future lives of Australians?" he said.

In line with the pair's stated mission of keeping their campaigns civil, Mr Shorten said his rival would make a good Labor leader who would serve the party well.

Mr Shorten said Labor needed to be brave for people who needed a champion, such as victims of domestic violence.

Mr Albanese also praised his rival for the leadership before saying his objective was to lead a movement committed to a better Australia.

Mr Albanese said his vision for the party would simply be based upon what people were talking about around the kitchen table.

"They talk about simple things. How to get a better education for their kids. Is there good health care if someone in their family gets sick? Do they have adequate access to child care? Are their jobs secure with decent working conditions?" he said.

He added another priority if elected Labor leader would be sustainability.

"That is why the price on carbon is critical. Climate change didn't end when Tony Abbott became prime minister," he said.

"So that means enhancing our natural environment and it means clean energy and future jobs. It also means engagement in our cities."

A man in the audience received rousing applause after asking whether both leadership contenders were prepared to lose an election on a more humane refugee policy.

Mr Shorten and Mr Albanese both defended Labor's tough-love approach and spoke about the complexity of the issue.

"We do want an orderly migration program, but we also want to treat people with compassion and with respect and as people," Mr Albanese said.

"And that's something that during the last term the former government stopped doing."

Mr Shorten supports lifting the refugee intake and is pro-refugees, but is also concerned about lives lost at sea.

On the future of aged care, Mr Shorten flagged the need to look at financial instruments including Paul Keating's idea about a sovereign wealth fund for people to draw down on in their 80s or 90s.

"It's time for big thinking in aged care," he said.

When asked about the importance of Labor's legacy setting up the national disability insurance scheme, Mr Albanese shared a personal story about his single mum who suffered rheumatoid arthritis and was on an "invalid pension".

"My mum couldn't use a knife or fork... she was pretty crippled up," he said.

Eventually a friend helped arrange a surgeon to reconstruct her hands and feet.

"What that says to me is often in society people do get left behind," Mr Albanese said.

Labor needed to be both a constructive opposition and use its time to develop the next big ideas, such as the NBN, Mr Albanese said.

He said they needed to ensure sustainability was factored into Labor's big ideas and defended issues like carbon pricing.

Mr Shorten said the process of campaigning for leadership was strengthening for the party and if he won the vote the party would stand up for injustice and work as a team.

"The era of the messiah is over. No more messiahs," he roared to widespread applause.

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