The opposition leader, Bill Shorten, sideswiped two parked cars at the weekend, apparently after spilling scalding coffee in his lap.
Shorten had been driving down Pigdon Street in the Melbourne suburb of Carlton about 10.30am on Sunday when the mishap occurred.
Melbourne talkback radio suggested hot coffee was the reason the opposition leader crashed his Mitsubishi Colt.
Shorten’s office said two cars had sustained scrapes and dents. No one had been injured and police had been notified.
A Victoria police spokeswoman told Guardian Australia: “We cannot locate any record of police attending this crash. It may not have been reported to police.”
“We were in touch with police,” a spokesman for Shorten told Guardian Australia, adding it was now a matter for insurance companies to resolve.
The small car driven by Shorten was left to him by his mother, Ann, who died in April last year. It was not a government-issued or owned vehicle.
The crash happened close to a corner store at which Shorten allegedly swore at the owner, Annie Huang, in 2012 after a misunderstanding over Huang’s comments about then prime minister, Julia Gillard, and a microwaved pie. The then workplace relations minister had visited the shop for a meat pie for his son.
