Bill Shorten ‘may not be ready for the prime time,’ says Terry McCrann

Bill Shorten is beginning to look a lot like John Hewson and “may not be ready for the prime time”, according to Herald Sun commentator Terry McCrann.

The first week of the election campaign hasn’t gone well for the Labor leader.

On Tuesday, he ‘forgot’ about $34 billion of new taxes he has announced on superannuation.

His attempt to backtrack yesterday wasn’t well received.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison labelled the Labor leader as “sneaky” and “tricky” following the gaffe.

Terry McCrann told 3AW’s Tony Jones that Bill Shorten’s performance in the first week of the election campaign will be worrying the backroom hierarchy.

“You can’t really develop a strategy of trying to hide your leader from the media for the next four weeks,” he said.

McCrann said Shorten’s well publicised gaffe on superannuation taxes wasn’t his only show of incompetence this week.

“He refused point blank to answer any questions about climate policy,”

“You sort of saw him there desperately searching, hoping that somebody else, somebody more important, a real leader, would bail him out,” he said.

The Herald Sun commentator said Bill Shorten has had a dream run in politics up until now.

“He’s been able to glide through as opposition leader because the government is the one that has been making all the stuff ups,” he said.

“But now he’s in the limelight. He can’t hide,”

He needs to take the hard questions … and not try to hide.”

But McCrann said the gaffes are unlikely to have cost Shorten the election.

“This is not the end of the election by any means,” he said.

“But it’s not the way you want to start the election.”