Labor MPs are closely monitoring the performance of Bill Shorten, with the Opposition Leader's pending appearance before the trade union royal commission and a series of Fairfax Media reports on deals the former Australian Workers Union leader struck making some nervous.
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The federal ALP's decision to block the government's changes to the pensions asset test - which opened the way to a Coalition-Greens deal to save $2.4 billion and left Labor isolated - and a drop in Mr Shorten's personal standing in the Fairfax Ipsos poll this week has also caused jitters among some in the caucus.
Fairfax Media revealed on Wednesday that Mr Shorten's old union was paid nearly $300,000 after he struck a workplace deal that cut conditions and saved the company, Thiess John Holland, as much as $100 million on the $2.5 billion East Link tollway in Melbourne, back in 2005. It was one of a series of controversial deals struck on Mr Shorten's watch.
A Labor MP, who asked not to be named, neatly summarised the view of several caucus members contacted by Fairfax Media when he said most MPs doubted Mr Shorten's pending royal commission appearance would throw up a specific "gotcha moment".
But the question Labor MPs were pondering on Thursday was "could this be death by a thousands cuts?" for Mr Shorten, the MP said.
Another Labor source said that former leader Kevin Rudd's revamped Labor Party rules, which require 60 per cent of MPs to sign a petition requesting a leadership ballot, had changed the dynamic in the caucus.
While there are "some nervous people, it's not the central point of conversation" and "people aren't rushing to judgment" of Mr Shorten, the source said.
But many other Labor MPs contacted by Fairfax Media regard the royal commission as a political witch-hunt.
Mr Shorten has asked for his apperance before the royal commission to be brought forward to July.
Labor frontbencher Richard Marles delivered a robust defence of Mr Shorten over the deal with Thiess John Holland and dismissed suggestions the leadership could be in peril, declaring "I have heard none of that".
Mr Marles said he was completely confident Mr Shorten had done nothing wrong and declared the deal was "exactly how enterprise bargaining was supposed to work".
"This was an agreement which paid record rates, record rates for an urban construction project in Australia. This was an agreement which had an impeccable safety record and no industrial action. This was an agreement which delivered a fundamental piece of infrastructure to the Victorian people ahead of time. This was an agreement where everyone won," he said.
Mr Marles seized on businessman Tony Shepherd's stout defence of Mr Shorten and the East Link deal on Thursday in an interview with the Australian Financial Review . Mr Shepherd declared it was "one of the best projects I have even been involved in".
And influential NSW Labor senator Sam Dastyari also defended Mr Shorten, declaring "it is disappointing that we are heading to Americanisation of politics, where a royal commission is being used to smear political opponents by the government".
"The whole process has been a farce," he added.
The June Fairfax Ipsos poll published on Monday showed Labor led the Coalition 53-47 in the two party-preferred vote, but Mr Shorten was just one point ahead of Mr Abbott as preferred prime minister, leading 42 per cent to 41 per cent. He lagged behind Mr Abbott by 39 per cent to 44 per cent immediately after the second Coalition budget last month.
In June last year, Mr Shorten enjoyed a 47 per cent to 40 per cent lead over Mr Abbott and immediately after the first budget his lead was a whopping 51 per cent to 40 per cent.
