I would argue Shorten stands to be a much more fiscally responsible leader than the Right-wing-shackled Turnbull, since Shorten has proposed a fair mix of savings and revenue raising measures rather than only savings and a recklessly unaffordable company tax cut.
The union connections are a side issue since they don't even have that big a pull in the economy now. The main issue is that Australia's tax base has been eviscerated since the height of the mining boom - and since the Australian people unambiguously rejected Abbott's poor-kicking budget measures, the democratic and sensible option is to broaden the tax base right now. That means superannuation, capital gains, negative gearing, land and carbon taxes - it all has to be looked at.
Shorten is the best option to get that done, since the Liberals are ideologically incapable at the moment.
