Bob Hawke and Paul Keating have issued their first joint statement in 28 years to claim Labor's ownership of the economy and endorse Bill Shorten to run it. The two former Labor leaders last shared a platform on the same day in 1991, when Mr Keating resigned as treasurer to challenge Mr Hawke for the prime ministership. Former prime ministers Bob Hawke and Paul Keating reunite to endorse Bill Shorten's plan for the economy. Credit:Craig Emerson "The economy is Labor's," the pair told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age in a statement conceived some weeks ago as they met to overcome decades of bitterness in their relationship. The pair used their endorsement of Mr Shorten to claim sole credit for Labor in opening Australia's closed economy to become a modern, market economy.<doc-sep>Federal election campaign dominated by 'colourful' Paul Keating's 'nutters' comments Posted Former prime ministers have a way of making news, particularly when they're calling the nation's senior intelligence officials "nutters". The turn of phrase was enough for Paul Keating to return to the headlines, displacing the on-again, off-again, on-again relationship of Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard. But it wasn't just Mr Keating and the spy chiefs attracting all the attention on day 25 of the election campaign. Australia Votes hit peak Groundhog Day as the Prime Minister and Opposition Leader spent another day debating debates. 'Colourful' Keating condemns 'nutters' Not happy with just dubbing them nutters, Mr Keating also called on a future PM Bill Shorten to "clean out" the nation's security agencies. "For what the Labor Party calls a Labor legend, to go out there and attack the credibility of our security agencies that have been saving lives in this country is very disappointing," Prime Minister Scott Morrison said. "I think that should be disowned and the Labor leader Bill Shorten should have something to say about that." Deputy Labor leader Tanya Plibersek was in first to help with Labor's clean-up efforts, insisting that while Mr Keating had used a "colourful turn of phrase" he didn't "run our party's policy". Mr Shorten went further and rejected the former PM's comments. "Paul Keating's an elder statesman of Australian politics, he's never been shy in saying what he thinks," Mr Shorten said. Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese, though, didn't want to distance himself too far from Mr Keating, saying the former prime minister was reflecting broader concerns about attitudes towards China. "We need to be very careful that it is not in Australia's economic interests, essentially, to be xenophobic when it comes to China and the role of China in the region," he said. Debating the debate, again Mr Shorten and Mr Morrison agree there will be a third debate this week. Beyond that, though, there's little agreement. The major parties spent the day bickering over the format of the debate, which is expected to be at the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday. Earlier in the day, the Liberal Party put out a statement saying the parties had agreed for ABC presenter and National Press Club president Sabra Lane to host it in prime time. But Labor, in its statement, said it was keen for a panel of journalists from a range of media companies to grill the leaders. Candidate character assassinations continue The third week of the election campaign will be best remembered for the political careers it potentially ended even before polling day. Get a wrap of the key stories and analysis from the ABC's chief politics writer Annabel Crabb. Sign up View Privacy Policy More Newsletters Download the ABC News app Five major party candidates ended the week having lost their party's endorsement — thanks largely to their social media antics. The new week brought with it renewed nastiness that ranged from social media posts of old, to emails of today. The latest tweets to haunt a candidate came from former Labor president turned Liberal candidate Warren Mundine, who's contesting the ultra-marginal NSW electorate of Gilmore. As the Prime Minister rolled into town to support his captain's pick candidate, he was reminded that Mr Mundine had previously called him a "dodgy politician". The comments were made two years ago, when Mr Mundine was critical of the Coalition's handling of the dual-citizenship saga. At the time, Mr Mundine wasn't a Liberal Party member and it was only in January he was parachuted in as a candidate. "Gee I don't remember that — I thought it was a bit earlier than that," Mr Mundine said when asked about the comments today. "Scott Morrison is a very charismatic, incredible bloke." Mr Mundine faced a similarly awkward situation weeks ago when appearing alongside former prime minister John Howard, who he previously said he "hated". He's far from alone in having to explain old online posts. Labor's candidate in the WA seat of Durack has blamed battling cancer and being frustrated with the healthcare system for controversial comments she made on social media. After a riot at a Nauru detention centre in 2013, Sharyn Morrow urged authorities to send the asylum seekers back to where they came from. "Just because I was angry, I used an angry statement and an angry phrase out of anger and frustration," Ms Morrow told the ABC today. "You should never do that. I'm not a racist person." Back in Sydney, Wentworth independent MP Kerryn Phelps called in the Federal Police after another email attack on her surfaced. The latest accused her of being an Israeli citizen and unable to seek re-election. Sent yesterday to an unknown number of voters, the emails include incorrect voting information and several anti-Semitic remarks. They were the fifth round of vicious emails attacking her candidacy. Her Liberal opponent Dave Sharma condemned the emails, which he described as bigoted, inciteful and divisive. The seats shaping the election Palmer's day in court On election night, all eyes head towards the ABC's chief elections analyst Antony Green and the calculator he uses to call election results. But if businessman Clive Palmer has anything to do with it, Green won't be making calls until much later in the night. Mr Palmer's lawyers will tomorrow argue in the High Court that the Australian Electoral Commission should be banned from revealing preference results before all polls have closed. That would mean the nation would only have basic first preference results until voting ended in the Cocos Island at 9:30pm AEST. The Commonwealth rejects that the current systems are unconstitutional. The hearing will continue tomorrow. Irrespective of the outcome, Green has 12 days to go until his election calculator is again put to the test. Topics: government-and-politics, federal-elections, clive-palmer, federal-parliament, federal-government, elections, bill-shorten, scott-morrison, australia<doc-sep>
Former Labor prime ministers Bob Hawke and Paul Keating have reunited to write in support of Bill Shorten's economic credentials ahead of the May 18 election. In a rare show of unity, the pair who led the economic reform of the country in the 1980s, have slammed Liberal Prime Minister Scott Morrison for "the fallacious claim that Labor can't manage the economy". "It is a blatant denial of history for Scott Morrison to allege that the Labor Party cannot manage the economy when he knows the design and structure of the modern Australian economy was put in place exclusively by the Labor Party," they write in the Age and Sydney Morning Herald today. Former prime ministers Bob Hawke and Paul Keating at an event in 2016. (AAP) They wrote Mr Shorten and his team have a well thought out agenda of economic reform that will benefit Australia. "While we are proud of the achievements of our governments, the baton of reform is being grasped by the next generation of Labor leaders," the statement read. It was the former prime ministers' first joint statement since 1991, when Mr Keating challenged Mr Hawke for the prime ministership. Mr Morrison has claimed a Labor government under Mr Shorten would be at the mercy of unions. "I don't want to see the Labor party get to office where they tie businesses up with all sorts of union red tape and all sorts of the Greens' green tape, which would just cost people jobs," he told the Nine newspapers. "This election is very much about not allowing the Labor Party to basically give militant unions of this country a blank cheque and unhindered interference in the Australian economy." Mr Keating and Mr Hawke in 1988. (Getty) Labor's last three prime ministers at the party's campaign launch in Brisbane on Sunday. (AAP) Mr Hawke, 89, was too frail to travel to Brisbane for Labor's campaign launch on Sunday but sent a statement of support. Mr Keating attended alongside former prime ministers Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard, who put aside their personal feud to show support for Labor's campaign. With AAP.