Representative Bill Shorten Contact information

William Richard Shorten is an Australian politician, trade unionist, and former leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP). He was born on May 12, 1967, at St Vincent’s Hospital in Melbourne, Australia, to Ann Rosemary and William Robert Shorten. He has a twin brother named Robert.

Shorten’s mother was a university academic and lawyer who completed her doctorate at Monash University and ended her career as a senior lecturer in education. She was originally from Ballarat, descended from a line of Irish Australians who arrived during the Victorian gold rush. Shorten’s father was a marine engineer born in Tyneside, England, who settled in Australia and worked as a manager at Duke and Orr Dry Docks on Melbourne’s Yarra River, where he frequently interacted with union leaders. After Shorten’s parents divorced in 1988, his father remarried a few years later. He subsequently became estranged from his father, who died in 2000.

Shorten grew up in Melbourne’s south-east and attended St Mary’s Catholic Primary School in Malvern East. He was later offered a scholarship to De La Salle College, but his mother chose to send him and his brother to Xavier College, Kew, instead. Shorten was chosen for the state debating team in 1984, his final year at the school, and excelled at fencing, becoming the state under-15 champion in the sabre division.

Shorten began studying at Monash University in 1985, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in 1989 and a Bachelor of Laws in 1992. He was involved in student politics, both in the university’s ALP Club and in Young Labor. He helped establish Network, a Labor Right-aligned faction of Young Labor, which took control of Young Labor from the Left for the first time. Shorten briefly worked in a butcher’s shop during his first years at university and was also a member of the Australian Army Reserve from 1985 to 1986, holding the rank of private. He volunteered in Senator Gareth Evans’ office and, after the 1988 Victorian state election, was employed as a youth affairs adviser to Neil Pope, a Victorian government minister. He took a gap year in 1990, travelling overseas for the first time and backpacking through Central Europe. He was subsequently involved in Network’s abortive attempt to take over the state branch of the Australian Theatrical and Amusement Employees’ Association.

After graduating, Shorten worked for twenty months as a lawyer for Maurice Blackburn Cashman. In 1994, he began his union career as a trainee organiser under the ACTU’s Organising Works program at the Australian Workers’ Union (AWU) and was elected Victorian state secretary in 1998. As secretary, Shorten introduced several reforms to the union’s structures.

Shorten was elected as the AWU national secretary in 2001 and played a significant role as a negotiator following the Beaconsfield Mine collapse in 2006. This tragedy brought him national attention and marked a turning point in his political career. In 2007, he was elected to the House of Representatives for the division of Maribyrnong and appointed a Parliamentary Secretary. Following the 2010 election, he was promoted to the cabinet, serving first as Assistant Treasurer, then as Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation, and Minister for Workplace Relations in Julia Gillard’s government. After Kevin Rudd replaced Gillard as Prime Minister in June 2013, Shorten was briefly Minister for Education until the Labor Party’s defeat at the 2013 election.

After Rudd retired from politics, Shorten won a leadership election in October 2013 against Anthony Albanese to become leader of the Labor Party. During his tenure as the leader of the Labor Party, Shorten was known for his advocacy for workers’ rights and progressive policies. He led the party into the 2016 federal election, where they narrowly lost to the incumbent Liberal-National Coalition government led by Malcolm Turnbull. Shorten continued to serve as the leader of the opposition until the 2019 federal election, where the Labor Party again suffered a defeat.

Following the 2019 election, Shorten announced that he would not seek re-election as leader of the Labor Party. He was succeeded by Anthony Albanese, who defeated Chris Bowen and Jim Chalmers in the leadership contest. Shorten continued to serve as the member for Maribyrnong until the 2019 election, where he retained his seat but did not contest the leadership of the party.

Since leaving politics, Shorten has remained involved in public life as a commentator and advocate for various causes. He has also served as a board member for several organizations, including Beyond Blue and the Australian Olympic Committee. In 2021, he was appointed as a member of the Order of Australia for his service to the Australian Parliament and to the trade union movement. Shorten continues to be a respected figure in Australian politics and is remembered for his contributions to workers’ rights and progressive policies.