It is not being suggested by this masthead that Tallal’s post was in fact about Shorten.

When this masthead initially contacted Tallal on Saturday morning, he denied police had questioned him on Friday night.

But he later said: “This is a bizarre response to an innocuous social media post about a popular song.”

“If Mr Shorten is offended by my poor music taste, then I apologise to him.”

Tallal had previously posted a similar story on Instagram about the same song in December 15.

The AFP said: “The AFP has no comment.”

Shorten’s office declined to comment.

Labor’s Victorian members have had their voting rights restored ahead of the party’s state conference in June.

The voting rights of branch members in the state were suspended when Labor’s national executive took control of the troubled state branch in June 2020, after The Age and 60 Minutes revealed Victorian Labor ministers, ministerial advisers and electorate officers were involved in “industrial-scale” branch-stacking.

Elections for internal party positions, including the powerful administrative committee, are scheduled to take place this month.

The upcoming elections have led to renewed tension between members linked to Shorten and those allied with Marles and Conroy, who are all both part of the broader Right faction.

Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis from Jacqueline Maley. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter here.