The SMH argues in its recent editorial that while few voters believe Labor will win this election, most would give Mr Shorten credit for putting up a strong and constructive fight.
Replete with messages of hope and party unity, Bill Shorten delivered a rousing speech for the Labor faithful on the campaign launch in Penrith.
He highlighted the clear policy distinctions between Labor and the Coalition, while zeroing in on Malcolm Turnbull's flip-flopping on social and economic issues.
But perhaps the biggest challenge for Mr Shorten is to energise voters who have turned off, especially during the past six weeks.
"I can give you a one-word reason that politics matters: Medicare," he told the gathering in Penrith.
Labor's scare campaign has emerged from a government-ordered Productivity Commission examination of alternative methods of funding publicly run health care systems. The focus on Medicare is a risk for Labor because all sides have explored similar efficiencies to the way governments deliver payments to clients. Mr Turnbull quickly insisted on Sunday that any efficiencies would be within government and not rely on outsourcing.
Labor is on much stronger ground with its plans to boost funding for hospitals, reverse the Coalition's cuts to pathology and spend many billions more on needs-based school funding.
Labor still struggles, though, to counter voter views that the Coalition is stronger on economic management. As
Polling suggests Mr Shorten will struggle to gain the 19 seats required under electoral boundary changes for Labor to form government. Labor's primary vote fell 3 percentage points to 33 per cent in the latest Fairfax-Ipsos poll which showed rising support for the Greens and the Nick Xenophon Team. Other polls point to Labor doing well in its safe seats but falling short in key marginals.
