CANBERRA – Bill Shorten has been caught in a traffic bingle, side-swiping several parked cars while driving in inner-city Melbourne on Sunday.
And it wasn't the only car crash the Opposition Leader faced -- on Tuesday he suffered a wreck in the opinion polls.
A spokesman for Shorten said the Labor Leader was not injured in the incident and was able to attend a press conference a few hours later that day.
The Herald Sun reported the crash was prompted by Shorten spilling a short black coffee in his lap while driving.
The incident was first raised by a caller into radio presenter Neil Mitchell's show on 3AW.
Later on Sunday, Shorten conducted a doorstop where he talked about the Paris terror attack and Labor's migration policy.
The revelation comes as the latest Fairfax-Ipsos poll puts the Turnbull Government in a landslide election winning position over Labor.
The Coalition has opened an eight-point winning lead (56-to-44) over Labor in the two party-preferred stakes, while Malcolm Turnbull has lifted his standing as preferred Prime Minister to a Kevin Rudd-like high of 69 percent compared to Shorten’s dismal result of 18 percent.
The Fairfax-Ipsos poll also had good news for the Government’s tax reform agenda, finding more than half of Australian voters are prepared to back an increase in the 10 percent Goods and Services Tax (GST), but only if adequate compensation is provided.