Shorten fields questions in Qld

Federal Opposition Leader Bill Shorten may have already caused one potential supporter's vote to go up in smoke during a central Queensland town hall meeting.

Following Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's threat of a July 2 double dissolution election, Mr Shorten on Tuesday kicked off his "103-day election campaign" in Queensland with a hospital visit in Brisbane before a community forum in Gladstone.

Questions about employment naturally dominated the forum in the resources-dependent town, which sits in the LNP-held federal seat of Flynn, and the pro-Labor crowd seemed happy with Mr Shorten's answers.

But he failed to win over Gladstone man Brendan Moore, who probed the Labor leader on the party's plan to increase the tobacco excise, asking him how he justifies "$45 a packet for cigarettes".

Mr Shorten replied by pointing out that his own parents' lives were cut short due to smoking and smoking-related cancers cost the economy $31 billion a year.

But Mr Moore, who conceded he was trying to quit smoking, wasn't satisfied, questioning why the government didn't just ban smoking altogether instead of collecting taxes from it if it was so against it.

"Whatever you say Bill, the government are still licensed drug dealers, face it," Mr Moore said.

But Mr Shorten hit back again insisting he wasn't a "prohibition personality" and an outright ban would create a black market.

He was far more successful answering other questions, including concerns about native title, disability services and 457 visa holders taking jobs from Australian workers in high-unemployment areas.

"A Labor government, a government that I lead, is going to make sure that Australians get first preference at work," he said.

However, Mr Shorten got off to a rocky start after confusing Gladstone's new mayor Matt Burnett with the region's former state MP Marty Hanson, who served from 1963 to 1976.

"It's great that you've got a progressive mayor Marty Hanson," he told the 150-strong crowd.

Earlier, Mr Shorten was in Brisbane campaigning against federal cuts to Medicare.

"I am here on day one of Malcolm Turnbull's 103-day election campaign," he said, specifically referencing the early election threat.

Mr Shorten insisted a Labor government would ensure Queensland got its fair share of Commonwealth funding.

"What we believe is that Mr Turnbull's taken Queensland for granted," he said.

Queensland's importance to his election chances wouldn't be lost on Mr Shorten.

Labor holds only six of Queensland's 30 federal seats and 12 of those seats are held by a margin of less than five per cent.