Party Games: Bill Shorten tackles his greatest weakness

IN the politics business they call it hanging a lantern on your problem - identifying what could be a big negative and highlighting it in a context that you control.

IN the politics business they call it hanging a lantern on your problem - identifying what could be a big negative and highlighting it in a context that you control.

This means that you have the chance of having more control over how the issue is depicted and blunting attacks from your opponents.

The latest example of this is Labor leader Bill Shorten’s release of a book, The Common Good, which is a mix of autobiography, policy and political texts and general observations.

Shorten takes head-on what many - especially his opponents - regard as his greatest weakness.

This is his background as a trade union leader and activist, which has already been controversial during Shorten’s time as Opposition leader.

His time as a unionist - an organiser and later a state and nation secretary of the Australian Workers Union - is portrayed as both helping workers and working with bosses.

More than 35 years ago, another trade unionist hung a lantern on his problems before making a run for the prime ministership.

Bob Hawke, while shifting from the ACTU president to Labor leader, had an authorised biography published which detailed his time as a heavy drinker and womaniser.

Hawke pulled it off - helped by his swearing off the grog in the lead-up to and during his time as prime minister and ostensibly behaving. He was also assisted by a less intrusive media culture.

Of course, Hawke’s career as a trade unionist was well known and regarded while Shorten’s good work is not so understood and his role in so-called “dirty deals” is very much public.

Whether Shorten can blunt the expected attacks that will come during the campaign - he can’t hope to neutralise them completely - will be one of the stories to watch during the coming two months.

The Labor leader got a taste of what to expect in Question Time today when Malcolm Turnbull and senior ministers threw the allegations and question marks about Shorten’s time in the AWU across the table in Parliament.

The Prime Minister went to his favourite destination when this is raised - the claims Shorten did a backroom deal with the cleaning company Clean Event which took benefits off low-paid workers.

“He sold them down the river,” shouted Turnbull.