CHRIS BOWEN, SHADOW TREASURER: Well just as the Turnbull Government's imploding, so does the Turnbull Government's economic agenda collapse. Malcolm Turnbull had a one point plan for the Australian economy, he had no plan B. The Parliament has today spoken and defeated his one point plan.

Is it any wonder that 35 of his colleagues had lost confidence in this Prime Minister? Now this is a Government at war with itself and has ceased to govern. Not providing any leadership when it comes to energy prices, not providing any leadership when it comes to economic reform. They had a bad idea and they have failed in implementing that bad idea.

Now the fact of the matter is, as they all position and jockey, as they all prepare and try and increase their chances of taking over the Prime Ministership over coming hours, every single member of the Turnbull Cabinet has voted and supported their $80 billion corporate tax cut. That's what they believe. Malcolm Turnbull, Scott Morrison, Julie Bishop, and even Peter Dutton all believe in this corporate tax cut. They've all argued for it. It's in their DNA. So no matter what they say next, we know what the Liberal Party wants to do. We know what they believe. They believe in trickledown economics and an $80 billion corporate tax cut.

Now I can't tell you who will lead the Liberal Party at the next election, I can't tell you their policies. They can't tell you their policies or who will lead them in fairness. I know who will lead the Labor Party and I know the policies we will take to the next election. Just on policies, I see the alternative Prime Minister, Peter Dutton, out there today saying that the GST should come off energy prices. Well, that's in one way unsurprising. The man who cut $50billion from health and hospitals funding, the man who believes in the GP $7 tax would deny the states funding of $30 billion over the next decade in the GST on energy prices. That will have only one possible result, cuts to essential services, primarily health. Cuts to hospitals. The states would have no choice. This is the thought bubble from a man desperate to become Prime Minister over the coming hours. These thought bubbles are dangerous because he is the alternative Prime Minister of Australia. This is a Government which has failed to produce a coherent energy plan for five years. The best they can do is this idea which would see health and hospitals funding as well as schoolsfunding under real threat with $30 billion worth of cuts to the states. Happy to take questions on those or other matters.

JOURNALIST: I don't think Bill Shorten's letter to the PM said it in so many words, is Labor calling for the Government to go into caretaker mode?

BOWEN: Well we have grave concern, of course, with the politicisation that the Government has embarked upon over senior opponents particularly in my portfolio over recent weeks and months. We have this chaos and dysfunction at the heart of the Government. We don't know who the Prime Minister will be tomorrow. I think Bill Shorten is correctly pointing out that the Government should be proceeding with extreme caution with appointments in particular where there could be a change of Prime Minister, there are could be an election imminent.We are prepared to be constructive on good bipartisan appointments. But Bill Shorten is right to say that under these extraordinary set of circumstances, where the Government is in such disarray, that they should be proceeding with extreme caution when it comes to important Government appointments.

JOURNALIST: So you are calling for them to go into caretaker mode?

BOWEN: Well caretaker mode is an entirely different construct in effect. It provides different connotations to all sorts of government decisions and Opposition access to public servants. What we are talking about is appointments.

JOURNALIST: Who would Labor prefer to face at the next election, Scott Morrison or Peter Dutton?

BOWEN: Let's be clear, Malcolm Turnbull has as much chance of being Prime Minister as Carlton has of winning the AFL grand final in 2018, that is the fact, thats what we know. Now weve got Peter Dutton out there running, weve got reports that Scott Morrison has offered him a ticket with a Morrison-Dutton ticket. There is other reports that Morrison is doing the numbers for Dutton, maybe Turnbull, nobody is quite sure, which is understandable given the role that Morrison played in the last leadership ballot when he supported both Abbott and Turnbull. And its understandable given that Greg Hunt told Malcolm Turnbull he was voting for him and then voted for Peter Dutton. I mean who could be forgiven for not being confused about this current set of arrangements?

It doesn't really matter at the end of the day. We are prepared to face any of them. We will fight this election on our policies. As I said, Bill Shorten will lead Labor to the next election and he will lead Labor to the election with a coherent set of already announced policies. We don't know who the Prime Minister will be, we dont know what policies they will have. We will fight it on policies. We will fight it on our agenda and I believe we can be very competitive at this election.

JOURNALIST: Given this GST rollback policy, taking the GST of power bills for low income earners, isnt that idea worth talking about? Isnt it kind of refreshing talk..

BOWEN: Refreshing?

JOURNALIST:you want to hear from backbenchers on the Governments side?

BOWEN: Nice try, Peter, I mean seriously, 17 years ago, the policy that the Labor Party has taken to the 2004, 2007, 2010, 2013 and 2016 elections has not contained that policy. It reminds me of the old Brendan Nelson take petrol tax off announcement, that didn't go too well either. This is just a thought bubble from a man desperate to get party room votes.

JOURNALIST: What statutory appointments are open at the moment

BOWEN: There would be a whole range of appointments, at any given point there is a whole range of appointments coming to the end of their terms, which would be dealt with in the normal course of events, and Bill Shorten is right to point that out.

JOURNALIST: So Labor is ready for a snap election?

BOWEN: We have been ready for an election for some time. We will be ready for an election if it is called on the weekend, we are ready at anytime. We are ready this year, we are ready next year, we are ready against Malcolm Turnbull, which I don't think is going to happen. We are ready against Peter Dutton, we are ready against Scott Morrison if we should be so lucky, we are ready against Julie Bishop for that matter - whoever it is, we will fight the election based on our policies and our agenda.

JOURNALIST: Okay guys, thanks very much.