Bill Shorten attacks newspaper over story about his mother

The Opposition Leader condemned the newspaper for claiming he had shown "slipperiness on detail" when talking about his mother, Ann, on the ABC's Q&A program on Monday night.

Mr Shorten's voice faltered at times as he told of his mother's ambition to become a lawyer and her decision to take up a teacher's scholarship instead because of her family's modest means.

He also declared that her story drove him to ensure all Australians had equal opportunity and to tackle age discrimination in the workplace, a factor that had worked against his mother in her early fifties.

Mr Shorten ended the Q&A program by telling the audience that his mother had wanted to be a lawyer but needed to take a teacher's scholarship when young because she was the eldest in her family.

"My mum was a brilliant woman. She wasn't bitter," he said. "But I also know that if she had had other opportunities, she could have done anything."

The front-page newspaper report, with the headline "mother of invention" and accompanied by two pages of coverage and an editorial, said Mr Shorten had omitted the fact that his mother had become a lawyer later in life.

"Far from being thwarted, she achieved her Australian dream," The Daily Telegraph said in its editorial.

Mr Shorten dismissed that claim by telling more of his mother's story during a press conference in Nowra on Wednesday morning, where he noted that his mother had gone back to university in her fifties but had struggled to get work as a barrister.

"She got about nine briefs in her time. It was actually a bit dispiriting," he said.

"She had wanted to do law when she was 17. She didn't get that chance. She raised kids. At 50, she backed herself. At 53, going to the bar, she got a barrister - that's the technical term, the apprenticeship. She did her best. She went down and did some Magistrates Court work.

"But she discovered in her mid-50s that sometimes, you're just too old, and you shouldn't be too old, but she discovered the discrimination against older women. And so, while she kept her name on the bar roll for a number of years, she came back and she did other things. Do you know that my mum wrote the book on education and law in Australia? Brilliant. She's brilliant.

"And that's what drives me."

Mr Shorten dismissed the "pretty bloody lazy editorial" in The Daily Telegraph and slammed the way the newspaper played "gotcha shit" with his mother's life story.

Earlier, in a post on Facebook, Mr Shorten had described the newspaper report as "a new low" and said the newspaper seemed to think it knew his mother's story better than he did.

Mr Shorten has clashed with The Daily Telegraph and its owner, News Corp, several times in the past and declined to meet the company's executive chairman, Rupert Murdoch, ahead of the election.

In the first weeks of the election campaign, Mr Shorten blasted the "climate change deniers" at News Corp who criticised action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and and backed their "ally" in Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

Labor finance spokesman Jim Chalmers said on Wednesday morning that the News Corp newspapers were trying to help the government.

"This is what they do - they go to any length to prop up the Liberals, to prop up a failing government which has spent six years rotating through three Prime Ministers, which has doubled debt in this country, which has presided over slowing growth and stagnant wages," Mr Chalmers told ABC TV.

In his Facebook post, Mr Shorten told the story of his mother's decision to become a lawyer decades after she had wanted to do so.

"First in her family to go to university. They weren't rich. She wanted to do law but had to take a teacher's scholarship to look after her younger siblings," he wrote.

"She loved being a teacher and she was very good at it. She later became a teacher of teachers. She worked at Monash University for over three decades, but she always wanted to be in the law.

"Much later in life, in her 50s, she did just that. When my twin brother and I went to university, she was enrolled at the same faculty. When I was in my first year of law school, she was in her final year. She was her brilliant self and won the Supreme Court prize.

"She finally realised her dream and qualified as a barrister in her late 50s.

"Mum was never bitter. She had a remarkable life and she felt very fortunate. But because of her financial circumstances, she didn't get all of the opportunities she deserved.

"I can't change what happened to my Mum. But I can change things for other people. And that's why I'm in politics. That's why I'm asking to be your Prime Minister."

Prime Minister Scott Morrison extended his "best wishes" to Mr Shorten on Wednesday morning when asked about the newspaper story, adding that he could understand the hurt it caused.

"This election is not about our families. It's not about Bill's mum. It's not about my mum," Mr Morrison said.

"Sadly, his mum's passed away. I'm thankful my mum's still with us. It's not about our mums or our dads or our kids or our wives, as great as they are, it's about the choice between Bill Shorten and myself as Prime Minister.

"And I know that Bill and I would very much want it to keep focused on that choice, not on our families."

Herald Sun columnist Andrew Bolt took issue with The Daily Telegraph's coverage and warned against interpreting one newspaper's story as the view of the "Murdoch media" in general.

"Shorten spoke truly when he said his mother sacrificed her dream to be a lawyer, taking up teaching to help her siblings. There is no invention here," Mr Bolt wrote.

"That she decades later, after a great career teaching, finally realised her dream has been well-reported and does not negate at all her admirable sacrifice.

"I note that the Herald Sun, my employer, chose not to run this story. I support that decision."

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- SMH/The Age