Shorten ventures up Malcolm St

Bill Shorten and his campaign entourage had to travel up Malcolm Street in Perth to get to Kings Park for an announcement on cash for new train lines.

Leader of the Opposition Bill Shorten visits mum Natalie Clarke and her children at their home in Stratton

Leader of the Opposition Bill Shorten visits mum Natalie Clarke and her children at their home in Stratton Source: AAP

From the top of Kings Park overlooking the Perth cityscape and Swan River Bill Shorten appeared to be on top of the world.

Amusingly he had to drive up Malcolm Street to get to the scenic vantage point to announce a $1 billion federal contribution to WA state Labor's $2.5 billion plan to build more train lines, if they win the next state election in March.

The federal Labor leader expects the project to generate up to 4000 jobs at a time the state is struggling with the mining downturn.

"Congestion is one of the great frustrations that keeps people from spending more time with their families," Mr Shorten told reporters.

Earlier on Monday, Mr Shorten spruiked the pain relief Labor plans to prescribe to patients and doctors, while visiting a family in the Liberal marginal seat of Hasluck.

The Clarke family have had a bad health spell lately and want Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to keep his hands off Medicare and taxpayer subsidies for prescriptions.

But five-year-old Jacob was more interested in getting his hands on banana cake.

While mother-of-four Natalie was telling Bill Shorten about her ailments and fortnight in intensive care last year when her lungs failed, her son helped himself to a sneaky extra helping of morning tea, right under the spotlight of the national media.

The part-time aged care worker developed a rare condition called cryptogenic organising pneumonia which affects one in 200,000 people.

Her children have also had problems with tonsils, adenoids and grommets and are on antibiotics frequently which can strain the family budget.

"I'm in and out of doctors' surgeries regularly," she said.

"If three or four children get sick that's $300 or $400."

Federal Labor has so far dished up two big ticket multi-billion dollar health policies - lifting a controversial freeze on rebates to doctors and limiting increases in the cost of subsidised medication to inflation.


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Published 23 May 2016 5:34pm
Source: AAP


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