Labor critic gets visit from Shorten

A manufacturing firm visited by Bill Shorten on Monday is a past critic of the approach to business Labor practised in government.

The Labor leader visited the Moe-based business Safetech, where he said such firms needed "a government in Canberra that is willing to back Australia as these people are".

However, in 2013 the then director of Safetech, David Wakefield, told The Latrobe Valley Express newspaper business conditions had been exacerbated by the former federal Labor government's "complete ineptitude in terms of providing a workable environment for small and medium businesses".

The company turned to the local city council to save jobs.

Mr Shorten was employment minister from December 2011 to July 2013.