Chris Bowen: Admitted the interview was not his best performance. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen "You get a tax-free threshold. You get a low income earners' tax off-set," Mr Bowen responded. Not satisfied with the answer, Jones repeatedly asked: "What is it?" Jones eventually gave the shadow treasurer the answer, before berating his credentials as would-be treasurer. "This is a serious issue. The man wants to be the treasurer of Australia but he doesn't know the tax thresholds."

Alan Jones pushed Chris Bowen to identify Australia's tax-free threshold. Credit:Louise Kennerley Jones persisted with the issue, asking the NSW MP to identify the percentage of tax paid in the next bracket. Attempting to shut down the line of questioning, Mr Bowen said: "I'm not going to do a pop quiz with you, Alan." He then incorrectly nominated 15 per cent as his answer. "We don't pay 15, we pay 19 cents in the dollar," Jones said.

Mr Bowen said he had been referring to the superannuation tax rate, which is 15 per cent. On Wednesday morning, Mr Bowen conceded he made a "mistake" by not answering the question, but added that he "didn't see it being as relevant to the conversation at hand." "[T]here was a bit of confusion between Mr Jones and I about whether he was talking about superannuation tax or personal income tax." "I should have appropriately answered the question last night and if Mr Jones wanted to have time going through the tax-free threshold I should have engaged in that." Mr Bowen then drew a comparison between his comments and the series of gaffes made by Treasurer Joe Hockey following last year's budget.

"I tell you what you won't get from me: statements that poor people don't drive cars. You won't get statements that a GP tax is just as equivalent to a middy of beer and packet of cigarettes. You won't get statements about North Sydney doing it tough because they have high rates of bulk billing." Opposition Leader Bill Shorten conceded Mr Bowen had made a mistake but suggested it was the result of a late night interview at the end of a "long day". "Chris does know the tax free threshold of $18,200, he certainly at the end of a long day at 8.30 last night went into an interview with Alan Jones, I think that's a sign of his commitment, I probably think of other things he could do on a Tuesday night at 8.30 than be interviewed by Alan Jones but he did," he told reporters in Melbourne. It follows a similar gaffe made by the new Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk who couldn't name the rate of the GST. The State Labor leader later blamed the mistake on not having enough coffee that morning. "He's made a mistake, he's acknowledge that and when it comes to acknowledging mistakes when will Joe Hockey acknowledge their whole budget's unfair?" Mr Shorten said.

When asked if he still had confidence in Mr Bowen as shadow treasurer, Mr Shorten responded "absolutely" and added "the person I don't have confidence in is Joe Hockey". with Latika Bourke Follow us on Twitter