But two days earlier, right in front of Media Diary’s eyes, the tension of that looming Labor verdict seemed to be already showing.
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All it took for Shorten to flush it out was the appearance of Scott Morrison’s political right-hand man in the media-heavy Tabcorp marquee in the VRC’s Birdcage on Melbourne Cup day.
Diary was having a quiet drink with Yaron Finkelstein, ScoMo’s principal private secretary and one of the key architects of his May election win, when who but Shorten materialised to join the conversation.
For Diary, in the box seat, it was then simply a case of grabbing the popcorn and watching the fireworks fly.
Finkelstein gave as good as he got with Shorten, in an extremely direct exchange that suggests the six months since the federal election have done little to dull the stinging disappointment for the ex-Labor leader of his election loss.
It went as follows:
Shorten: “You work for ScoMo? Yaron, isn’t it.”
Finkelstein: “Yeah.”
Shorten: “Yeah, f..k you. Just remember: the wheel always turns.”
Finkelstein: “Then let’s hope it’s a big wheel!”
It’s not the first time Shorten has used robust language on perceived enemies. Niki Savva’s book Plots and Prayers recalls that Shorten variously described ex-Ten reporter Jonathan Leaas a “c..t” and a “dickhead”.
Savva’s book reveals that Shorten at one point had asked a Ten executive, in relation to Lea, who was working at Ten at the time, “when he was going to get rid of that dickhead”.
Savva also recounts that after Shorten was told Lea had been assigned to cover him for the election campaign, “Shorten unwisely whispered in the ear of another journalist that Lea was a ‘c..t’.”
Lea, of course, was responsible for one of the campaign’s key “gotcha” moments, when Shorten was unable to answer his repeated questions about how much Labor’s climate change policies would cost.
Thankfully, a Cup day peacemaker was in the wings in the form of Shorten’s wife Chloe, who told Finkelstein, apologetically, with a big smile: “He can be very direct sometimes.”
Chloe’s intervention seemed to be an ice breaker, at least temporarily, between Shorten and Finkelstein, with the adversaries burying their differences to share tips on the Cup.
Both even claimed a betting win when Aussie horse Vow and Declare passed the winning post first.
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