Behind the scenes, Bill Shorten is not what you might expect

WHEN the cameras are off, it turns out Opposition Leader Bill Shorten is not exactly who many voters may think he is.

WHEREVER political leaders Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten travel during this marathon election, a chaotic mob of snap-happy photographers and TV crews follows them, but cameras can only capture so much.

While news bulletins are filled with policy announcements, candidates’ stuff-ups, and each leader’s latest backflips and disappointments, what’s really interesting is what goes on behind the scenes.

After 10 days on the road with the party leaders, news.com.au can reveal what the cameras don’t show.

Joining either leaders’ travelling media pack means being whisked off to marginal electorates on campaign media buses with no idea where you’re going or which city you’ll be in by the end of the day until the wheels start rolling.

It means flying across the country on chartered jets without being able to remember which day it is or where you’ve just left from — time becomes less about hours and days and more about the shelf-life of a news story, and how long a noteworthy interview or the latest scandal remains in the headlines.

All smiles on the hustings, Mr Shorten showed a different side behind the scenes. Picture Kym Smith

It means checking into hotels where you can’t honestly answer the reception staff when they ask you how long you’ll be staying; it would be easier to explain the complex policy proposal you had to get your head around in the 20 minutes between getting the briefing about it, and grilling the prime minister or opposition leader on it.

But it also means you get a rare insight into the types of blokes the otherwise distant leaders are.

Although his popularity appears to be rising, there are a few assumptions voters have been fed about the kind of bloke the Labor leader is.

But more than a week on the campaign trail with Bill Shorten reveals the Opposition Leader is not exactly who many Australians might think he is.

As a former union heavy, Mr Shorten’s reputation for being defensive — and occasionally losing his cool — goes way back.

After spending years shouting from the back of trailers while holding rallies as the Australian Workers’ Union’s tough-talking leader, Mr Shorten has been known to raise his voice and bite back at critics.

Mr Shorten, with stepson Rupert and daughter Clementine, during the Long Walk from Federation Square to the MCG. Picture: Jason Edwards

But on the road, he couldn’t appear less fazed by the haters who approach him on the street.

Mr Shorten is pretty good at talking to all sorts of people. He loves grassroots campaigning and is happy to hear peoples’ problems, and willing to take the time to figure out how to fix them.

During a street-walk in western Sydney last week, the Labor leader was confronted by a group of teenagers who attempted to derail the event; but, instead of arcing up, he brushed off their approaches, saying “OK, mate”, remaining calm and collected.

At another shopping centre walk-through in his own electorate of Moonee Ponds, after being avoided by a number of shoppers and finally finding some voters who would give him the time of day, Mr Shorten took the time to talk to a group of young men about their concerns over some health issues, and promised to set up a meetings with one of them.

A week on the road with Mr Shorten revealed a different side to the Labor leader. Picture: Kym Smith

He’s also whipped out surprisingly few zingers. There has been the odd pun, mainly at town hall style meetings where he appeals to voters and answers questions about issues that matter to the locals who turn up.

The Opposition Leader has had a couple of amicable encounters with media, hanging around for more than just one beer with the travelling press pack after a day of campaigning in Darwin, and hanging around for restaurant chats on other nights.

Without breaching the barriers or getting too close to the press, he’s engaged in some gentle ribbing, embarrassing one reporter by bringing to the attention of everyone at a Melbourne press conference during the week that it was his birthday, and teasing another for the number of questions he tended to ask during press conferences.

Mr Shorten spoke to voters during a street walk in Melbourne’s Moonee Ponds. Picture Kym Smith

Reporters also get to know how he likes to evade questions, and how skilfully you have to craft your queries to increase your chances of getting a real answer.

Malcolm Turnbull has also revealed some personality quirks to the media crews embedded with his campaign team.

Though news.com.au only spent one full day on the Turnbull bus, the Prime Minister showed he was happy to carry on with regular life as much as he could, even while in campaign mode.

This included catching public transport each day without alerting the media (who would have loved to get those shots) and carrying on with regular business, holding meetings in his Sydney offices whenever he had a spare moment in the city.

He’s also demonstrated a commitment to family, without parading his wife, children, and grandson in front of cameras. Rather, he’s spent each weekend since the campaign began in his own electorate, where he’s been able to spend some quality time with the family.

Mr Shorten met Moira Moore and granddaughter Mary Ramage, four, on a street walk in Melbourne’s Moonee Ponds. Picture: Kym Smith

Mr Shorten said at a town-hall meeting on the NSW central coast last Friday night that for the night to be an unmitigated success, all he hoped was that “you have a better sense of who I am”, he told voters gathers in the packed Robertson hall.

“I offer myself to the highest political office in this land, and you have a right to understand what we would do if we were to form a government,” he said.

Throughout the next five weeks the Prime Minister and Opposition Leader will continue campaigning, and the press, particularly those journalists and crews travelling with them, will keep reporting on what eventuates.

Whether the leaders like what’s produced from that coverage or not, the one thing that’s guaranteed to come of the rest of this marathon campaign, is that we’ll all have a better sense of who Mr Turnbull and Mr Shorten are.

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Originally published as Behind the scenes, Bill Shorten is not what you might expect