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Wrecking ball tour, odds Shorten on fitting the Bill to lead LaborBy STEVE LEWIS

and LANAI SCARR

BILL Shorten will embark ona mini-campaign to win overdisillusioned Labor voters af-ter formally announcing heintends to take on the ‘‘wreck-er’’ of Australian politics,Tony Abbott.

Declaring that he wasready for the ‘‘big, dauntingjob’’ of Opposition leader, MrShorten has seized on strongbacking from Labor MPs toconfirm he wanted the tough-est job in politics.

Mr Shorten is preparing forAnthony Albanese to alsonominate when Labor MPs

meet in Canberra today —triggering a rank-and-file bal-lot that will take more than amonth to complete.

The former union leaderconfirmed he wanted seniorLeft MP Tanya Plibersek torun as his deputy. He alsoconceded Labor must put theRudd-Gillard years behind it

and focus on policies — rath-er than personalities — if itwants to be competitive.

In a signal that Labor plansto play tough on key Coalitionpolicies, Mr Shorten vowedno retreat from the carbon taxor the NBN.

Mr Albanese — the popularformer deputy prime minis-

ter — was keeping mum overhis intentions but Mr Shortenis anticipating his NSW col-league will declare his hand.

This would see the two can-didates embark on a mini-campaign across Australia towin over ALP members whowill be eligible to vote for theparliamentary leader under

rules pushed through byKevin Rudd.

Senior MPs said thechanges put the party in a dif-ficult position and feared thatMr Abbott — expected to besworn in early next week asprime minister — could recallParliament early to embarr-ass Labor.

The eight survivors of the PNG attack were relieved to be back on Australian soil yesterday Picture: TOM LEE

Attack was ‘butchery’By EOIN BLACKWELL

BUTCHERY and bravery arethe words Australian trekkersare using to describe a terrify-ing attack in Papua NewGuinea that left two men dead.

Guides Kuia Kerry andMatthew Lasong were killedwhen six bandits armed withmachetes, a rifle and a home-made gun attacked the groupas they camped along theBlack Cat Trail in PNG’sMorobe Province on Tuesday.

The seven Australians andone New Zealander wereflown from Port Moresby toCairns yesterday.

‘‘It’s not really about us,’’attack survivor Peter Stevenstold reporters after arrivingin Cairns.

‘‘We’re very concernedabout the porters and theirfamilies, the local economywhich they’ve probably lost.

‘‘We got off I think withfairly superficial injuries.’’

Mr Stevens was standing atthe edge of the camp whenthe armed bandits — knownlocally as raskols — attacked.

‘‘The first thing they didwas lay into the porters, bas-ically hacking and slashing,’’he said. ‘‘They killed one guyjust about outright.’’

In what Mr Stevens calledan act of butchery, six PNGporters were injured in the‘‘hacking and slashing’’ at-tack which left another of thePNG men critically injured.

Nick Bennett, from Mack-ay in central Queensland,said he witnessed a senselessact of murder and butchery.

‘‘That’s basically what hap-pened,’’ he said. ‘‘They camefor money, then they brutal-ised the porters, that’s reallywhat we’ve been witness toand experienced.’’

He said he stuck his headout of his tent and was hitwith the barrel of a gun.

‘‘I could see one of the guysjust attacking the porterswith a bush knife and it wasjust a butchery,’’ he said.

The group was forced tolie on the ground as the ar-med men ransacked theirpacks, stealing passports andother items. Mr Stevens saidtwo of their attackers wereobviously on drugs.

‘‘They then laid into uswith bush knives, hittingus with the flats of theknives,’’ he said.

When the attackers de-manded to speak to whoeverwas in charge, it fell to trekleader and the only woman in

the group, Christie King, toface the attackers.

‘‘Christie King, the tourguide, was amazing,’’ MrStevens said. ‘‘Very brave . . .When the raskols demandedto speak to the boss man, Chr-istie stood up.’’

Ms King decided those cap-able should walk to the townof Wau for help.

That meant walking fiveand a half hours in the samedirection their attackers hadtaken, a move local officialscalled ‘‘pretty gutsy’’.

‘‘We could smell the ras-kols’ marijuana ahead of us,’’Mr Stevens said.

NBNPETITIONSNUBCANBERRA: Incoming com-munications minister Mal-colm Turnbull is facing a soci-al media backlash after heseemingly brushed aside asnowballing online campaignto save Labor’s nationalbroadband network.An internet petition set upby a Liberal-voting studentsix days ago had more than200,000 online signaturesby yesterday afternoon,making it the largest everonline petition in Australia.When asked on Twitter to re-consider policy in light of thepetition, Mr Turnbull replied:‘‘Wasn’t there an election re-cently at which NBN policywas a key issue?’’

BASHER’S TERMCUTMELBOURNE: The man whobashed Ron Barassi as hecame to a woman’s aid hashad his jail sentence cut be-cause it was not proven thathis 2009 attack caused theAFL legendmemory loss.Travis Raymond Bowling, 30,had his original six-year jailterm reduced to four yearsand fourmonths.

SEX LAWS ‘FLAWED’ADELAIDE: A 13-year-old boywho took a photo of his geni-tals and sent it to his schoolmates could be placed on asex offenders’ register, theSouth Australian Parliamenthas been told.Independent MP Bob Suchsaid the case showed thatthe current laws, whichplaced sex offenders on aregister and restricted theirfuture work and activities,were flawed.

LODGEHANDOVERCANBERRA: A short chat be-tween fathers and the hand-over between prime minis-ters was complete.Kevin Rudd flew to Canberrayesterday to hand over thekeys to The Lodge and askedPrime Minister elect TonyAbbott if his daughters plan-ned to live at the official resi-dence. ‘‘The short answer isyes,’’ Mr Abbott replied.