Bill Shorten could be Australia’s next prime minister. He once described Donald Trump as ‘barking mad’

Shorten’s party goes into the 2019 election campaign as a firm favourite, having led the conservative coalition in most opinion polls in past three years

He described Trump’s popularity as the ‘ultimate protest vote’ and warned that Australia should pursue policies of fairness and equality

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Opposition leader Bill Shorten. Photo: EPA

Published: 11:06am, 11 Apr 2019Updated: 4:03pm, 25 Apr 2019

If Australian opposition leader Bill Shorten becomes prime minister and visits the US, he can expect questions about a radio interview he gave three years ago in which he said some of then-presumptive Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s views were “barking mad”.

Trump seemed a long shot for the White House when Shorten gave the interview on May 27, 2016, during Australia’s last election campaign.

And Shorten, who leads the centre-left Labor party, seemed a long shot to become Australia’s prime minister.

He was trying to become the first Australian opposition leader to oust a prime minister after a single three-year term since 1931, when the Great Depression helped scuttle a Labor government.

But Shorten came closer than many had expected.

Conservative Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull scraped back into power with a single-seat majority in the House of Representatives, where parties need a majority of seats to form a government. Turnbull’s conservative coalition had lost 14 lawmakers.

Turnbull pounced on Shorten’s swipe at Trump as evidence that the Labor leader wasn’t fit to lead Australia.