Shorten's long march to restore voters' trust in Labor BILL Shorten has a monumental task in front of him. There are hazards on all sides. With at least one of these problems - the carbon tax - he has opted for the route that will placate his base in the short term while making his overall task more difficult. The charitable way of looking at this is to say that he is a believer in climate change and will stand or fall on principle.