Bill Shorten

Bill Shorten in the Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation in the Gillard Labor Government. He was re-elected as the Member for Maribyrnong at the 2010 Federal Election held on 21 August 2010 and sworn in to the Ministry on 14 September 2010.

Bill Shorten was first elected as the Member of the House of Representatives for the Federal seat of Maribyrnong at the Federal election held on 24 November 2007.

On 3 December 2007, Mr Shorten was sworn in as the Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Children’s Services in the current Labor Government. On 25 February 2009, Bill was appointed as Parliamentary Secretary for Victorian Bushfire Reconstruction in addition to his existing duties.

Labor Party Involvement:

Bill is currently a member of the ALP National Executive and a former member of the Victorian ALP Administrative Committee. He has previously held other leadership positions within the party, including Victorian ALP President from 2005 to 2008.

Education:

Bill holds degrees in Arts and Law from Monash University, as well as a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) from Melbourne Business School. Bill completed his secondary education at Xavier College in Melbourne.

Professional History:

Bill began work as a solicitor for Maurice Blackburn Cashman, before entering the union movement in 1994 as an organiser with the Australian Workers’ Union (AWU). During his time at the union, Bill held key leadership positions including State Secretary of the AWU Victoria Branch from 1997 to 2006 and the National Secretary from 2001 to 2007.

The AWU is Australia’s oldest general union and largest blue-collar union. Today, the AWU represents more than 130,000 members across Australia in a diverse range of industries such as pastoral and agricultural, aluminium, aviation, oil and gas, mining, construction and steel.

Bill has also been a director of AustralianSuper, Australia’s largest superannuation fund and a director of the Victorian Funds Management Corporation.

As he said in his first speech to parliament: “I am excited by this opportunity to help empower another section of the community... I hope to be a consistent and persistent Labor Parliamentarian. I shall apply the lessons of my first four decades: the lessons of my family, the lessons of my education, the lessons of business, and the lessons of my union days. All of these lessons, I believe, can be distilled into one phrase: never give up.”