Former Labor leader Bill Shorten is retiring from politics.
The announcement was made at a press conference in Canberra on Thursday morning by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
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“My friend Bill Shorten has decided that he will not be contesting the next election,” he said.
“It’s a big decision for him … Bill and I have had a number of conversations over this, about this, over a period of time.
“It’s a credit to Bill that this news will come as a surprise, because at no point over the past two years would an observer of Australian politics think that Bill Shorten was taking it easy or slowing down.”
Albanese has asked Shorten to stay in cabinet until he leaves in February to continue his work overhauling the NDIS.
Shorten said he considered himself to be “one of the luckiest people in politics”.
“I have been the member for Maribyrnong, it is a community that I love so much. I’ve had the privilege to serve in portfolios that I care about,” he said.
“When I first became the junior minister for disabilities, and now the Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme for nearly six years, I had the very amazing privilege of serving as of our party and the movement which has been such an irreplaceable part of my life.”
Shorten added as of February, 2025, he would become the vice-chancellor of the University of Canberra.
“Education is the modern means of taking someone from disadvantage to advantage in a way that no other method can,” he said.
“Universities have a critical role to play.
“The hopes and dreams of Australians are lifted when they are able to fulfil their own potential and the hopes and dreams of our nation are lifted as well.”
Shorten was first elected as the member for the Victorian seat of Maribyrnong in 2007 and led the Labor Party between 2013 and 2019.
However he stepped down after the party was defeated by the Coalition in 2019 and was replaced by Albanese.
When Labor won government in 2022, Shorten became NDIS minister has focused on reforming the scheme that he championed and helped create when he was a parliamentary secretary and then a junior minister in the Gillard and Rudd Labor governments.
