William Richard Shorten (born 12 May 1967) is an Australian politician who has been Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labor Party since October 2013.
Prior to entering Parliament, Shorten was the National Secretary of the Australian Workers' Union from 2001 to 2007. He was also the State President of the Victorian Labor Party.[2] Shorten was first elected to the House of Representatives in 2007 for the Division of Maribyrnong in Victoria, and was immediately appointed as a Parliamentary Secretary. Following the 2010 federal election, he was elevated to the Cabinet and served first as Assistant Treasurer and 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 later that year.
After the defeat, 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. Shorten went on to lead Labor to gain 14 seats at the 2016 federal election, when the Liberal/National Coalition retained majority government by one seat. ... Red more here ... Link
