A Melbourne toddler with off-the-chart cuteness factor stuck a thermometer into Bill Shorten's ear during his visit to a children's hospital ward.
While the opposition leader chatted to Pakenham mother-of-five Kathleen Plowman about health costs and Medicare, her 20-month-old daughter Katie played doctor.
Katie insisted on a round of high-fives and knuckle fist bumps with Mr Shorten and then the reporters, photographers and camera men who had invaded her hospital room.
"She'll become the boss of the family," Mr Shorten joked.
"She's won over these hardened journalists."
"Boom baby" Katie said gleefully at her mother's prompting, in awe of the boom microphones overhead.
Katie is receiving treatment for a respiratory virus and her mum heaped praise on the nursing staff at Casey Hospital.
Mr Shorten sympathised with Mrs Plowman over the helplessness parents feel when their kids are struck down with illness.
The election was a referendum on Medicare, he said.
Katie blew Mr Shorten kisses as he moved on to visit eight-year-old Dimitri Vouronikos who is getting his tonsils removed.
He also met Mikayla Miller, 15, a work experience student on her first day, who is interested in a career as a nurse.
The Labor leader was campaigning in the southeast Melbourne suburb of Berwick in the Liberal marginal seat of La Trobe alongside ALP candidate Simon Curtis.
Earlier, Mr Shorten was chasing the youth vote at Swinburne TAFE's pre-apprenticeship training centre in Croydon in the marginal Liberal seat of Deakin.
In a chilly plumbing workshop shed, Mr Shorten was quick to track down a heat source, meeting aspiring tradesman George Curnow at a welding station.
The opposition leader praised his skilful demonstration under the spotlight of the national media.
"You did well mate. You're Australia's next top apprentice," he said.
Mr Shorten was campaigning alongside Labor's candidate Tony Clark who was diagnosed as legally blind at age 20 and his campaign slogan is "no sight, great vision".
Mr Shorten helped lead him around the work shed to meet youngsters learning a trade.
He told students Labor was committed to providing young Australians with a top quality higher education and would restore funding to TAFE.
Mr Shorten also braved an icy and wet Melbourne morning to hand out "save Medicare" flyers to commuters at Frankston train station in the Liberal seat of Dunkley.
Mr Shorten heads to Canberra before addressing the National Press Club on Tuesday.
Share
