Federal election 2016: Shorten’s campaign bus bottoms out

A steep driveway did what the Coalition campaign machine has been unable to do — it stopped Bill Shorten’s campaign bus.

A steep driveway did yesterday what the Coalition campaign ­machine has been unable to do so far. It stopped the Bill Shorten election bus dead in its tracks in Port Macquarie.

The bus, with an outsized picture of the Opposition Leader’s head and featuring Labor’s campaign slogan “Bill Shorten and Labor, We’ll Put People First”, bottomed out as it attempted to enter a hotel driveway.

Port Macquarie’s Hastings River Drive was banked up for a couple of kilometres as mid-afternoon commuters waited for a truck to pull the bus free.

The bus was unveiled in Cairns on the first day of the election campaign and has been part of Mr Shorten’s travelling pitch through north Queensland.

He has since been campaigning in Brisbane, Sydney and Geelong while the bus made its way south.

NSW senator Sam Dastyari has been using the bus while it has been in his state.

According to observers, the bus caused confusion when it pulled up at a bus stop in front of Grafton Shopping World; some public transport users tried to jump aboard.

“People have been trying to stop us and hail us down, so I think we might have to start giving people free rides,” Senator Dastyari joked to the Clarence Valley Daily Examiner, as disappointed passengers resumed their wait.

Labor campaign headquarters said the bus was not damaged in yesterday’s incident and would continue on its way.

Its ultimate destination is ­Canberra.