1. William Richard Shorten was born on 12 May 1967 and is an Australian former politician and trade unionist.
54 Facts About Bill Shorten
1. 2.
Bill Shorten was the leader of the Australian Labor Party and Leader of the Opposition from 2013 to 2019.
3.
Bill Shorten served as a cabinet minister in the Gillard, Rudd and Albanese governments.
4.
Bill Shorten worked in politics and in law before becoming an organiser with the Australian Workers' Union in 1994.
5.
Bill Shorten was elected state secretary of the Victorian Branch of the AWU in 1998 before becoming AWU national secretary in 2001.
6.
Bill Shorten was elected to the House of Representatives at the 2007 federal election, winning the seat of Maribyrnong, before being immediately appointed a Parliamentary Secretary.
7.
Bill Shorten led Labor to a narrow loss at the 2016 election and then led Labor to an unexpected defeat at the 2019 election, after which he announced his resignation as leader, with Albanese being elected unopposed to replace him.
8.
Bill Shorten is considered a moderate member of the Labor Party.
9.
Bill Shorten retired from politics in January 2025 in order to take up an appointment as vice-chancellor of the University of Canberra from February 2025.
10.
Bill Shorten was born on 12 May 1967 at St Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne, the son of Ann Rosemary and William Robert Bill Shorten.
11.
Bill Shorten's mother was a university academic and lawyer who completed a doctorate at Monash University and ended her career there as a senior lecturer in education.
12.
Bill Shorten completed a law degree later in life and practised as a barrister for six years.
13.
Bill Shorten was originally from Ballarat, descended from "a long line of Irish Australians" who arrived during the Victorian gold rush.
14.
Bill Shorten's father was a marine engineer born in Tyneside, England.
15.
Bill Shorten's parents divorced in 1988 and his father remarried a few years later.
16.
Bill Shorten subsequently became estranged from his father, who died in 2000.
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Bill Shorten attended St Mary's Catholic Primary School in Malvern East.
18.
Bill Shorten was chosen for the state debating team in 1984, his final year at the school.
19.
Bill Shorten excelled at fencing and was the state under-15 champion in the sabre division.
20.
In 1985, Bill Shorten began studying at Monash University and joined the Australian Army Reserve as a private, a position he held until 1986.
21.
Bill Shorten volunteered in Senator Gareth Evans' office around this time as well.
22.
Bill Shorten took a gap year in 1990, travelling overseas for the first time and backpacking through Central Europe.
23.
Bill Shorten was involved in Network's abortive attempt to take over the state branch of the Australian Theatrical and Amusement Employees' Association.
24.
Bill Shorten was elected as the AWU's national secretary in 2001 and was re-elected in 2005.
25.
Bill Shorten resigned as Victorian state secretary of the AWU in August 2007.
26.
Bill Shorten was an active member of the Labor Party and was a member of the party's national executive until 2011, as well as the administrative committee of the Victorian branch.
27.
Bill Shorten was director of the Superannuation Trust of Australia and the Victorian Funds Management Corporation.
28.
Bill Shorten was a member of the Australian Council of Trade Unions executive.
29.
Bill Shorten served on the advisory board of the Australian Cricketers' Association.
30.
Bill Shorten was defeated by Bob Sercombe, who went on to retain the seat for Labor at the election.
31.
In February 1998, Bill Shorten won preselection for the safe Labor seat of Melton at the 1999 state election.
32.
Bill Shorten subsequently resigned as a candidate in order to become state secretary of the AWU.
33.
In 2005, Bill Shorten announced that he would again seek preselection for the Division of Maribyrnong, challenging Sercombe.
34.
On 28 February 2006, Sercombe announced that he was withdrawing his candidacy for re-selection, a few days before the vote of local members in which Bill Shorten was expected to poll very strongly.
35.
At the 2007 federal election, Bill Shorten was elected to the House of Representatives as the Labor MP for Maribyrnong.
36.
Bill Shorten denied this speculation, and was promoted to the Cabinet as Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation.
37.
Bill Shorten subsequently announced his candidacy to be his successor, in a contest with Anthony Albanese that would be the first time party members would be eligible to vote.
38.
Bill Shorten distanced himself from Tony Abbott's social conservatism, saying "I reject the assumption that merit is more located in the brains of men than women" and highlighting the proportion of women in Labor's leadership, with Tanya Plibersek as Deputy Leader and Penny Wong as Senate Opposition Leader.
39.
Bill Shorten had been consistently polling better than Abbott and Labor better than the Abbott Coalition government from the July 2014 Australian federal budget until the September 2015 Liberal leadership ballot when Malcolm Turnbull succeeded Abbott as Prime Minister.
40.
In early 2015, leading up to Australia Day, Bill Shorten called for a new push for Australia to become a republic.
41.
In July 2017, Bill Shorten revealed that should the Labor Party be elected to government at the 2019 federal election, they would legislate for a compulsory plebiscite on the issue.
42.
In 2015, Bill Shorten said that the voting age should be lowered to 16.
43.
In 2016, Bill Shorten led Labor to gain 14 seats at the federal election when Malcolm Turnbull and the Liberal-National Coalition retained majority government by a single seat.
44.
Bill Shorten led Labor into the Australian federal election in 2019.
45.
Bill Shorten conceded defeat on election night and subsequently announced he would step down as the leader of the Labor Party.
46.
Bill Shorten announced his resignation as Leader of the Labor Party on 18 May 2019, following Labor's defeat in the 2019 election.
47.
In November 2022, Bill Shorten vowed to crack down on NDIS "rorts", with the scheme having become rife with fraud.
48.
Bill Shorten led the Albanese government's response to the Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme, including by moving a motion of apology to the victims of the illegal scheme in August 2023.
49.
Bill Shorten repeatedly lobbied for the names of the people who had been referred to other agencies for criminal or civil penalties to be made public, having been kept anonymous in the commission's final report.
50.
On 5 September 2024, Bill Shorten announced his retirement from politics prior to the 2025 federal election.
51.
On that date, Bill Shorten announced his appointment as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Canberra, commencing in February 2025.
52.
In March 2000, Bill Shorten married Debbie Beale, daughter of businessman and former Liberal MP Julian Beale.
53.
In 2009, Bill Shorten married Chloe Bryce, daughter of then Governor-General Quentin Bryce.
54.
Bill Shorten strongly denied the allegations in a statement, which was made after Victoria Police were advised from the Office of Public Prosecutions that there was no reasonable prospect of conviction.