Bill Shorten has set out his stall as an opposititon leader who will fight for Australian jobs.
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For the former union leader it's familiar terrain and with unemployment pushing up to 6 per cent for the first time in a decade - and forecast to go further – it's a sensible starting point for the new Opposition Leader's political strategy.
But arguing you are "for" Australia jobs is about as brave as boldly declaring you like puppy dogs, or making no apologies for being in favour of ice cream on a summer's day.
In the past month first the Australian Workers Union's Paul Howes and now Martin Ferguson have exposed the need for Labor to develop a more sophisticated argument in the battle for the workplace.
Ferguson's warning in a speech in Perth on Friday about high wages and his call for Labor to support the government's "modest" IR agenda, including the restoration of the construction watchdog, creates a political headache for Shorten that he could do without.
Similarly, Howes' of too-high wages in the offshore oil and gas sector, condemnation of criminals in the labour movement and call for a "grand compact" between business, unions and government left the Opposition Leader looking flat-footed and created disquiet on the opposition frontbench.
The Abbott government has launched a royal commission into union corruption, introduced laws to allow more flexibility in the workplace, is readying a Productivity Commission inquiry into the Fair Work laws and wants to restore the construction watchdog.
At the same time, thousands of jobs are being shed by iconic Australian companies and business is crying out about high costs and a lack of flexibility.
In government, Ferguson was close to the resources companies and now chairs an industry body; at times he looked a man alone in the cabinet as he tried to smooth relations between mining and resources companies and the former government.
Shorten, as workplace minister, introduced a raft of union (and family) friendly changes that had employers howling in frustration, particularly about rises in penalty rates.
Howes and Shorten appear to have not healed the rift that developed after the pair fell out during the final Rudd-Gillard leadership battle.
Meanwhile Tony Abbott and his Employment Minister Eric Abetz are ready to make industrial relations law reform one of the centre pieces of the government's first-term reform agenda.
On Friday, the Prime Minister praised Ferguson's "very important and valuable contribution to the debate" before quickly adding the Coalition was simply "implementing the policies that we took to the election".
Labor has opposed everything proposed by the Coalition to date, despite Abbott and Abetz spelling it out to voters in May 2013.
Shorten's gamble is that Australian workers – that is, most of us – will side with him, and with Labor as the political debate heats up.
But the ghost of WorkChoices has faded and in any event, the Coalition has been ultra careful not to over-reach on workplace reform.
In fact, sections of the business community have decried Abbott's lack of reform ambition – something which suits the Prime Minister just fine.
If, as expected, job losses mount in the months to come it will be harder and harder for Shorten to argue that everything is "just fine" in Australia's industrial relations landscape.
And as the royal commission plays out and the evidence of union malfeasance mounts, Shorten may come to rue his decision not to give bipartisan support to the judicial inquiry (if 99 per cent of union officials do the right thing, then what do they have to fear from the inquiry?)
The Opposition Leader can expect to hear his comrades' words and deeds quoted back to him time and again across the dispatch box in the months ahead.
It's time Shorten starts working on a sharper political and policy response – or events will overtake him.
