Bill Shorten is having an absolute shocker on the campaign trail

After a nightmare 24 hours where Bill Shorten was labelled “shifty”, the Labor leader has now claimed he just misunderstood the question.

Bill Shorten says he “should have picked my words better” when he was asked about Labor’s superannuation policies.

Yesterday Prime Minister Scott Morrison vowed he would never tinker with superannuation. Under questioning from Sky News reporter James O’Doherty in Adelaide, Mr Shorten matched that commitment.

“We have no plans to increase taxes on superannuation. We have no plans to introduce any new taxes on superannuation,” Mr Shorten said.

He seemed to be ignoring, or to have forgotten, a suite of policies Labor had already announced, which the government estimates will add $34 billion in revenue to the budget over the next decade.

Speaking during a press conference at Midland Hospital in Perth this morning, Mr Shorten claimed he had misunderstood O’Doherty’s question.

“I thought I was being asked do we have any unannounced changes to superannuation, and we’ve already made the announcements of the changes we’re going to make,” Mr Shorten said.

That excuse did not satisfy the media pack.

“Mr Shorten, the question on superannuation yesterday was very clear. It’s hard to believe that you misunderstood it. You could easily have specified that you only meant you would add no more policies on top of the ones already announced,” news.com.au said.

“Does it not look dishonest, like you’re trying to hide something, when you don’t mention that?”

“Obviously, going back and reading it, and re-reading what James asked me, you’re right. I was answering a question which I thought I’d been asked. And I accept that it was a different question than asked,” Mr Shorten said.

“But you’re all formidable journalists. You know that our policies have been out there for three years. I’m sure that you’re all probably aware of them. And of course, today’s been an opportunity to remind people of them.”

“You do have an opportunity today to clear the record and to be up front with the Australian people about how much you will raise off raising taxes on superannuation. How much is it?” news.com.au asked.

“Well I don’t accept your characterisation that it’s raising taxes,” Mr Shorten replied.

“When you wind back a concession, that’s stopping a tax expenditure, it’s not raising it. But let’s be clear. We’re not going to take a lecture from the government who retrospectively ambushed people with superannuation by creating a retrospective timetable for them to pay more taxes.”

“How much revenue are your policies going to raise?” news.com.au asked.

Mr Shorten handed off to Shadow Treasurer Chris Bowen, who eventually specified the measures would raise $30 billion over the medium term.

SHORTEN’S NIGHTMATE 24 HOURS

Mr Shorten has not fared well on the election campaign trail over the past 24 hours.

The Labor leader has been described as “shifty” for refusing to answer key policy questions, deleting reams of information from his website, being caught in a fib and bickering with media.

It emerged yesterday dozens of pages of detail about Mr Shorten’s negative gearing policy had suddenly disappeared from Labor’s website.

Overnight, an entire section outlining the party’s plan for superannuation also disappeared, which Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has seized upon.

“What is Labor trying to hide?” Mr Frydenberg said. “Which one of Labor’s taxes is next?”

Bill Shorten’s press conference yesterday was heated when he refused to answer policy questions. Picture: AAP

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has accused Bill Shorten of being a liar. Picture: AAP

During a heated press conference in Adelaide yesterday, Mr Shorten pledged there would be no new or higher taxes on superannuation should Labor win government.

The reluctant commitment, which he gave after being asked to three times, came after a similar commitment from Mr Morrison earlier in the day.

But today Mr Shorten faced questions after his campaign spokesman admitted several policies would increase super taxes for a number of Australians.

Labor plans to abolish a number of concessions, thresholds and deductions, which will increase costs, but Labor MP Jim Chalmers insists his the Opposition Leader didn’t lie.

“I think that Bill was referring to additional changes beyond what we’ve already announced and had on the table for some time now,” Mr Chalmers told the ABC.

Why are @billshortenmp & @Bowenchris scrambling to hide detail on Labor’s $387bn tax bomb? Last night they deleted 13 pages from their Housing Tax policy. Tonight they deleted their entire superannuation policy. What is Labor trying to hide? Which one of Labor’s taxes is next? pic.twitter.com/gh91mV9bOF

— Josh Frydenberg (@JoshFrydenberg) April 16, 2019

Mr Chalmers conceded the policies do involve a cost slug for older Australians.

The inconsistencies led the Prime Minister to level his strongest attack yet on the man who wants his job, accusing Mr Shorten of being “a liar”.

And Finance Minister Mathias Cormann backed it up this morning, saying Labor had been caught in a lie.

“Labor is planning $34 billion in higher taxes on superannuation, which of course comes on top of $54 billion in taxes on retirees,” Mr Cormann said on Sky News.

Speaking to reporters in Perth today, Mr Shorten admitted he made a mistake yesterday.

“I thought I was being asked if there were unannounced changes to superannuation and we’ve already made the announcements of the changes we’re going to make,” Mr Shorten said.

“But obviously we have changes which we outlined three years ago I should have picked the words better, no question.

“We have no proposals other than what we’ve already announced previously, no changes to the general taxation treatment other than what we announced recently.”

Mr Shorten is facing intense criticism he’s light on policy detail and being “snarky” to reporters when they ask for it.

Yesterday, he was taken to task by a reporter during a press conference for sidestepping questions on the cost his renewable energy target will have on the economy.

LIVE BLOG: The latest news from Day Seven of the election campaign

Jonathan Lea from 10 News got into a heated exchange with Bill Shorten.

Mr Shorten bickered with the reporter and tried to move on to someone else.

“He should expect to face this kind of scrutiny,” Sky News political reporter Kieran Gilbert said this morning.

“He needs to not be narky with reporters — he needs to be factual, he needs to respond and move on. There needs to be more detail on a range of policies.”

Gilbert’s colleague Laura Jayes agreed and said Mr Shorten appeared “shifty” by dodging the question.

“We love our jobs as political reporters, but we’re not on the (campaign) bus for fun. We’re there to get the answers out of political leaders,” she said.

“What leaders need to realise is they can only control this campaign (so much) … but there are plenty of things out of their control.”