"Dollar Bill" is the nickname endearingly bestowed upon Bill Shorten in the east Perth suburb of Midland.
It might be Liberal territory, but the Labor leader received a warm welcome as he walked through Centrepoint Shopping Centre on Wednesday.
"We love Bill," 45-year-old Wayne Farmer told AAP, after beckoning the Labor leader into Midland Chinese BBQ restaurant where he was eating lunch for a handshake and a photo.
"Dollar Bill we call him.
"We're Labor voters - it's always been Labor for us sort of people."
It's a sentiment echoed by 92-year-old Carlo Sabidini, who says he comes from a family of left-wing voters in his homeland of Italy.
Labor's promise to protect Medicare is important to him.
"When you get to this age, you need it," he told AAP.
Mr Shorten was showered with gifts as he went about meeting and greeting voters in the mall, with one man handing him a copy of the book Conscious Capitalism.
He was also handed a t-shirt commemorating the 1967 referendum.
"We want him to be prime minister," 17-year-old Isaiah Ward told AAP.
"The t-shirt represents when we got our rights, when Aboriginal people were counted as people and not as flora and fauna."
Midland sits in the marginal Liberal-held seat of Hasluck.
Liberal frontbencher Ken Wyatt won the seat from Labor in 2010 and holds it by a margin of six per cent.
Mr Shorten's visit to the seat marked the end of his second visit to Perth as he tries to woo voters in the west.
Flanked by his WA team, he released Labor's 100 positive policies for the state, including a plan to build the Perth Metronet.
"As Western Australian families feel the impact of the end of the mining investment boom, they deserve a federal government with a clear plan to transition the economy in a way that protects local jobs and improves living standards," he said.
Mr Shorten now heads to Adelaide.
Share
