Malcolm Turnbull has decided to play the man, not the ball.
Bill Shorten received a mention nine times in a 20-minute prime ministerial media conference dealing with new laws to crack down on unions doing secret deals with companies.
The laws were recommended by the Heydon royal commission - which exposed a number of examples of companies funding phantom "safety training schemes" run by unions - well over a year ago, but were not immediately acted on.
Shorten, as head of the Australian Workers' Union, was successful in negotiating deals with companies to keep the peace on worksites, deliver benefits to workers and reap funding for union activities. Many companies considered such deals well worth it and thrived from it.
However, the Liberal party has always seen Shorten's union links as a weak point, producing political attack ads in recent years hammering home this point.
Turnbull's main edge over Shorten since ousting Tony Abbott in September 2015 has been his preferred prime minister status.
The Newspoll released on Monday showed Labor ahead in two-party terms 52-48, but Turnbull extended his lead over Shorten as preferred prime minister to 43-29 per cent.
Such ratings may not directly point to winning seats and retaining government, but they boost confidence within Turnbull's coalition ranks which is important so far out from the next election.
Turnbull's focus on Shorten was also demonstrated in a trio of tweets on Sunday, the first two of which accused a reporter of writing a misleading story on pensions but ended with: "Sadly I can also assure you that you can always rely on Bill Shorten to lie."
Shorten described it as a "meltdown", a la Donald Trump's midnight social media musings, and a sign of the PM feeling the pressure - especially as Labor gains momentum on the penalty rates issue.
"In the last four days of question time, the Liberals mentioned Labor or myself 225 times," he said on Monday.
"This is not a strategy, this is an obsession."
Treasurer Scott Morrison told reporters just minutes before the PM's media conference the government's stocks were rising because it was focused on cost of living issues and bold plans such as Snowy Hydro 2.0.
That's playing the ball.
