Bill Shorten, dressed in safety goggles and a high-visibility vest, has rubbed shoulders with tradies in a bid to bounce back from a blistering personal attack by the prime minister.
Malcolm Turnbull lambasted the Labor leader as a "social-climbing sycophant" who sold out workers during a scolding verbal assault in parliament.
Flanked by Labor colleagues Doug Cameron and Kate Ellis, Mr Shorten on Thursday toured a Canberra trade centre to spruik apprenticeships.
He and Senator Cameron - a mechanical fitter before entering politics - waxed lyrical about the trade as they watched a welder at work.
"I used to be able to do that," Senator Cameron said as the two watched on.
"I'm sure you still could," Mr Shorten said.
"It's been a few years now so I doubt it," Senator Cameron said.
Mr Turnbull had minutes earlier doubled down on his attack, accusing the Labor leader of being a fake and a hypocrite.
"He doesn't have a fair dinkum bone in him," the prime minister told reporters at Parliament House.
"He wants to play the man of envy but he's been a sycophant."
At a subsequent press conference, Mr Shorten said he wouldn't take Mr Turnbull's bait, saying he'd represented for workers for decades and felt genuinely sorry for the prime minister for sinking to personal attacks.
"I am relaxed in my own skin. I am relaxed with my record of representing people. I am consistent," he told reporters.
"The more he yells at me and calls me names, I think he is looking in the mirror and he is worried about the fact he has sold out."
Asked if he'd stop calling the prime minister Mr Harbourside Mansion in a bid to lift the tone of debate, Mr Shorten told reporters, "I will do my best."
Share
