Bill Shorten, Australian politician
William Richard Shorten (born 12 May 1967) is an Australian politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labor Party from 2013 to 2019. Shorten was first elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Maribyrnong in 2007, and was a Cabinet Minister in the Gillard and Rudd Governments from 2010 to 2013.
Born in Melbourne, Shorten studied law at Monash University. He worked in politics and in law before becoming an organiser with the Australian Workers' Union (AWU) in 1994. He was elected State Secretary of the Victorian Branch of the AWU in 1998 before becoming AWU National Secretary in 2001. In this role, Shorten played a prominent role as a negotiator following the Beaconsfield Mine collapse in 2006, which first brought him to national prominence.
Shorten was elected to the House of Representatives in 2007 for the Division of Maribyrnong and was immediately 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 the Gillard Government. In 2013, he was briefly Minister for Education until the defeat of the Rudd Government that year.
Shorten stood in the subsequent leadership election against Anthony Albanese, the first such election that allowed a vote of party members as well as Members of Parliament, and was declared the winner on 13 October 2013. Shorten led Labor to gain 14 seats at the 2016 election, with the Coalition retaining its majority by just one seat. Shorten later led Labor to an unexpected defeat at 2019 election, after which he announced he resigned from the leadership; Anthony Albanese was elected unopposed to replace him. Shorten is a senior figure within the right faction of the Labor Party.