Federal election 2019: Labor leader Bill Shorten bypasses Gold Coast for Logan

Bill Shorten has been slammed for snubbing the Gold Coast on day one of his contiki tour of Queensland and trying to buy votes in marginal seats north of the city.

BILL Shorten has been slammed for snubbing the Gold Coast on day one of his contiki tour of Queensland and trying to buy votes in marginal seats north of the city.

The Labor leader yesterday sidestepped the Glitter Strip, where he wants to slug thousands of pensioners as part of his “retiree tax”, to instead pledge $33 million for the hospital at Logan.

“He utterly treated the city and its 660,000 residents with complete contempt,” Fadden MP Stuart Robert said last night.

“This is Bill’s first big foray into the election campaign and he’s ignored our city. How about he turns up and treats our city with respect?”

Federal Opposition Leader Bill Shorten in Beenleigh yesterday. (AAP Image/Dan Peled)

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The Bill Bus is expected to travel more than 1400km on a nine-day trek visiting 16 of Queensland’s 30 federal electorates. It will only travel northwards towards Cairns.

Mr Robert said Mr Shorten’s decision to ignore the Gold Coast made it very clear he was “not interested” in the city.

“He made it very clear that … by actually starting in Beenleigh, he just sent a message saying Gold Coast, I’m not interested, I’m not here to serve,” he said.

Mr Robert said if the Prime Minister could show up on the Gold Coast, then Mr Shorten could have made the effort to visit.

Assistant Treasurer Stuart Robert said Mr Shorten’s absence showed he wasn’t interested in the Gold Coast (AAP Image/Mick Tsikas)

He said Mr Morrison had visited the city in some of his very first engagements as Prime Minister, demonstrating his commitment to the Gold Coast.

Mr Robert also touched on negative gearing, which he said would leave everyone on the Gold Coast worse off.

“A third of all Gold Coasters rent, a third have got a mortgage, a third own their own homes,” he said.

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“Two thirds who own their own homes will have …. their house prices go down and the (remaining) third who rent, their house prices will go up. Everyone will lose.

Federal Opposition Leader Bill Shorten's Queensland Jobs Not Cuts bus (AAP Image/Dan Peled)

“The vast bulk of people who negatively gear have got an after-tax income below 87,000, these aren’t wealthy people.”

But yesterday Mr Shorten claimed the economy wasn’t working for working and middle-class people, with costs rising faster than wages.

He told supporters were over the shambles and circus of the coalition government.

“Australians would come up to me on the beach and say ‘Bill, can we just have one prime minister for three years?’,” the Labor leader said of the key messages from his Christmas break.

“They’ve had enough of the cuts. They’re over this government.”

Senator Murray Watt could not be reached for comment.

It is understood he is currently in Europe.