Pressure of being frontrunner starts to tell on Shorten

Bill Shorten’s refusal to face the Prime Minister for two more televised debates looked arrogant and dismissive Picture Kym Smith

Bill Shorten’s campaign is starting to falter under the pressure of his being the frontrunner to become the next prime minister.

Labor is still heavily favoured to win the election and the Coalition still has to win a net five seats just to retain government.

But for the second week in a row, truncated as it was by the Easter and Anzac Day holidays, the Opposition Leader has gifted Scott Morrison vital opportunities to deflect from Labor’s positive messages and question Shorten’s competence.

The Labor leader’s refusal to face the Prime Minister for two more televised debates looked arrogant and dismissive; his accusations of the Coalition cozying up to Clive Palmer for preferences was disingenuous; and his earlier assurance that he would “look at” tax relief for those earning more than $180,000 was misleading.

In the first days of the campaign, Labor conceded Shorten had gone badly: he fumbled details over electric cars, couldn’t explain the removal of Labor’s negative gearing policy and airily ruled out any changes to superannuation despite plans for $34 billion in changes.

Shorten admitted his error, copped the blame and “took it on the chin”, while Labor said there would be a “reset” during the extended campaign breaks over Easter and Anzac Day.

Labor’s campaign fundamentals remain sound: big-spending, positive promises such as $2.3bn on cancer care and $600 million to combat domestic violence, while promoting a living wage and promising better economic management than the ­Coalition.

ALP frontbenchers are promising targeted spending as small as level crossings and bike paths, while unions and GetUp fight below the radar helping Labor. But, during an election campaign, the leaders do have to sell the big message to voters and set the political tone.

After telling a coal port worker on $250,000 a year he’d “look at” getting a tax cut for him, Shorten refused to “take it on the chin” and argued that the worker would be better off under Labor after a couple of elections.

After denying there were any “formal” negotiations with Palmer to swap preferences with the United Australia Party, Shorten blackened the Liberals’ deal as a link with “extremists”.

Then Palmer blew the whistle on Labor’s attempts to do the same deal with him.

Shorten also denied that he’d refused requests for two televised debates with the ABC and Nine despite definitive public statements from the two broadcasters.

There’s always an ego fight during an election campaign over leaders’ debates, but normally it’s the opposition leader demanding more exposure.

The refusal gave Morrison the chance to declare Shorten was treating the election like a foregone conclusion and “some sort of coronation for him”.

“Every time it sort of doesn’t go that way and he gets asked difficult questions, he turns into the cranky bear,” Morrison said yesterday. “He gets very upset. I don’t know what he expected this campaign to be, but it’s actually a choice that Australians are seeking to make about who they think should be the prime minister.”

Shorten’s backdown on the debate only compounded his earlier error and continued to give Morrison a campaigning ascendancy.

The real danger for Shorten is that too many mistakes, throw­away lines or arrogant gestures can start to look like a dangerous cocktail of incompetence and taking people for granted.

Labor now hopes the beginning of the last three weeks of the ­“intensive” campaign will provide another “reset” for the Opposition Leader.

The problem is there are only so many times you can you make a mistake, apologise and press the reset button before voters stop ­forgiving and believing.