In an amazing revelation, Labor has discovered - yet again - that Turnbull made millions of dollars in business before being elected to Parliament. While a small target strategy may have worked against Tony Abbott, Bill Shorten needs a new approach against Malcolm Turnbull. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen He has a nice house or two. A not-insignificant investment portfolio partly based in a Cayman Island tax haven (which, to be fair, a few Australians could similarly claim). And, apparently, questions to answer about his tax affairs. Except, of course, that as political attack dog Senator Sam "Dasher" Dastyari conceded on Wednesday when firing the initial salvo, the investments are "all legal and disclosed". The elevation of Turnbull to the prime ministership had, most Australians hoped, offered a moment when after eight long years of Rudd-Gillard-Abbott politics as trench war, there could be a reset of the political debate.

Maybe ideas will matter again, politicians from all sides muttered out of the sides of their mouths; maybe we can put the last few years behind us. Sadly, it appears not. Those polls show nothing more than Labor and the Coalition neck-and-neck, an improvement in the Coalition's standing, but hardly a cause for panic; Turnbull is more popular than Shorten by quite a margin, but that is to be expected during the honeymoon any new prime minister enjoys. But Labor strategists, after releasing four actual policies in the last four weeks and a just a handful more in a so-called "year of ideas" that has mostly been anything but, appear to have lost their nerve. At one level, the strategy makes sense. Though it's debateable how closely people have engaged with it, Shorten has taken a hit during trade union royal commission hearings this week, with evidence from former Thiess John Holland executives that he did a deal while leading the Australian Workers Union that "sold out" the 36-hour week and, more significantly, that he was part of early discussions about the deal and $100,000 so-called side payments.

Six more days of hearings remain and there's a possibility that Shorten will be recalled. A cynic might conclude it could be part of the "hey, look at that Rich Guy, he's different to us" attack on Turnbull. In launching its attack on Turnbull, Labor may find that it has traded short term gain for longer term pain. The questions about Turnbull's wealth certainly played well on the TV news bulletins on Wednesday evening. But there is a bigger question that remains unanswered. While Australians don't like tall poppies (so the truism goes), nor people born with a silver spoon in their mouth, do we actually begrudge a (mostly self-made) man or woman their success?

One of the lessons of the Howard years was that we actually don't - the former prime minister pitched his political messaging squarely at aspirational voters, did not engage in class warfare and for 11 and a bit years prospered, thank you very much. In contrast, Julia Gillard and Wayne Swan's class warfare rhetoric fell flat (remember those polls?) and Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey's actual class warfare (also known as their first budget) became a political suicide note. Shorten, aware of the fine line he must walk, tied himself in rhetorical knots as he sort-of but not-quite attacked Turnbull on Thursday before question time - though he asked no questions in the parliament. "Is the Liberal Party of Australia really expecting us to say Malcolm Turnbull buying into a million dollar investment fund in the Cayman Islands is the same as you and millions of other Australians who pay your ordinary superannuation every day?" he asked. And: "Theoretically on paper everyone could put $1 million into the Cayman Islands. The issue is most people don't have that".

As a political message, it was as clear as Shorten's March response about what he believed in. "What I fundamentally believe and I think it was Martin Luther King who said this best, but it's, I think true then and it's true now, is everybody is somebody". As a Liberal strategist remarked on Thursday: "If they keep this up we'll just do deals with the Greens, who are looking much more sensible than Labor at the moment". In question time, the opposition pressed its attack on Turnbull's personal wealth but even as the frontbench probed, Labor's backbench sagged as the attack on the Prime Minister landed flat. While Labor could have been asking about the economy, Turnbull noted, instead they were focused on "just another shabby smear campaign".

"Lucy and I have been very fortunate in our lives. We have more wealth than most Australians, that is true...we've worked hard, we've paid our taxes, we've given back," he replied to Labor's Tony Burke. "If the honourable member wants to go round wearing a sandwich board saying, 'Malcolm Turnbull's got a lot of money', feel free." With the political ground shifting and Australians seemingly welcoming a reset political debate, Labor may well find that pursuing the political high road reaps longer term benefits. The low road may lead to nothing more than perdition. Follow us on Twitter