Bill Shorten has been re-elected unopposed as leader of the ALP.
The announcement was made tonight by Chris Hayes, the member for Fowler and Returning Officer for the Federal Parliamentary Labor Party.
As required by the party’s rules, the leadership of the ALP fell vacant following the party’s defeat in the federal election. Nominations were opened at last Friday’s (8/7/16) Caucus meeting and closed at 6pm today. Shorten was the only nomination.
The Caucus will meet again next Friday, July 22, to elect the deputy leader (currently Tanya Plibersek, the Senate leaders (currently Penny Wong and Stephen Conroy) and the shadow ministry.
The ALP went into the federal election with 55 members in the House of Representatives and has returned with 68. It lost one seat (Charlton) in the NSW redistribution. It has won 15 seats from the Liberal Party and lost one (Chisholm). The undecided seat of Herbert could yet be a Labor gain.
In the Senate, the ALP had 25 seats. Counting still has several weeks to go but there seems to be general agreement that the ALP will probably have 27 senators.
Letter from Chris Hayes, member for Fowler, Returning Officer for the Federal Parliamentary Labor Party. Click to enlarge.
