Fairfax Media revealed on Tuesday Mr Feeney had not declared his property in Northcote in Parliament's Register of Members Interests, though he does declare the $2.8 million home he lives in - outside his seat - in East Melbourne, and an investment property in Seddon which he bought for $380,000 in 2004 from disgraced Health Services Union official Kathy Jackson and her ex-husband Jeff. David Feeney during question time in 2014 - after he bought the undeclared home. Credit:Andrew Meares Mr Feeney blamed a "maelstrom of events" for his failure to declare the property for nearly three years and admitted it was negatively geared, but dodged questions about whether he would stop negatively gearing it if Labor won the election. Campaigning in Sydney on Wednesday to announce a $175 million infrastructure commitment, Mr Shorten instead faced a barrage of questions about his senior factional ally and frontbencher and said he had contacted Mr Feeney and "expressed to him how displeased I am about this matter. It is unacceptable." Mr Feeney's omission - and his claim that he has not moved into his electorate as the house is being renovated when work has not yet started - have blunted Labor's political attack on the government over negative gearing.

The Opposition Leader said he would not sack Mr Feeney, dock his salary or put another sanction on him but added: "I think the attention he is getting is not the attention a candidate would want in an election campaign." Opposition Leader Bill Shorten lashed his party backer on Wednesday. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen "In terms of Mr Feeney's conduct, he's indicated to me that he's corrected the record, as I expect him to do, and I was very clear that this sort of behaviour is unacceptable." Mr Shorten dismissed suggestions that it was hypocritical for Labor to campaign to limit negative gearing to new dwellings when MPs such as Mr Feeney, who already hold negatively geared properties, would not be effected by the proposed law changes. The $2.3 million home in Mr Feeney's seat that wasn't declared. Credit:Penny Stephens

Mr Feeney tweets regularly about how negative gearing is a "scheme for rich investors that reduces housing affordability", how it costs all taxpayers an average of $310 per year and how Labor's policy to restrict the use of the tax break - which lets investors offset rental losses against their income - is a "good thing". This is despite the fact that both his Northcote and Seddon properties are negatively geared. David Feeney. Credit:Phil Hearne Mr Shorten declined to say if his frontbench MP - who owns more than $6 million in property - constituted a "rich investor". Senior Victorian Labor figures told Fairfax Media that Mr Feeney had treated the seat as safe and not worked to improve the party's primary vote, which has dropped from 57.2 per cent in 2007 to 41.3 per cent in 2013, which was Mr Feeney's first election.

The party is battling against a changing demographic in the electorate with well-off professionals moving into the electorate at the expense of traditional working classes and migrants. Preferences from Liberal voters in the seat, which stretches from Clifton Hill in the south to Thomastown in the north, will be critical. Victorian Liberal president Michael Kroger has flagged changing his party's policy and sending preferences to the Greens – although the move has infuriated the Liberal's membership. Labor strategists say Mr Feeney's primary vote is set to drop below 40 per cent, which will make the seat extremely hard to win. Across the Victorian party figures are unsurprised with the predicament. Several sources said his office has been more interested in internal Labor battles than working to firm up Labor support in seat that was home to Labor luminaries Martin Ferguson and Brian Howe.

Earlier on Wednesday, Mr Feeney said he had "racked my mind about how this omission came to be. I can only put it down to the fact that I was elected in September in 2013 and we bought the property in December of 2013, in that maelstrom of events I failed to update my register." Finance Minister Mathias Cormann said Mr Feeney had admitted a mistake and would correct it, but "the more important point is that this exposes Labor's hypocrisy". "Under their policy on negative gearing, all these current Labor MPs who are currently negatively gearing their investment property will be able to continue to do so," he said. Greens MP Adam Bandt, who holds the neighbouring seat of Melbourne where Mr Feeney actually lives, said the revelations meant voters faced a clear choice. "Voters in Batman need honesty, not David Feeney. Voters in Batman now have a very clear choice: the Greens [candidate] Alex Bhathal is a social worker who lives in the area with her husband and kids, or David Feeney, a factional warlord imposed over the will of the locals who doesn't even live in the seat," he said.