Another Westie in charge of Federal Labor

Courtesy of SMH

Member of Parliament for Maribyrnong, Bill Shorten, has been elected as the new Labor leader. Mr Shorten is the first Labor leader elected to the post since the introduction of Kevin Rudd's reforms, where the result of a ballot of ALP members is weighted equally against a ballot of ALP MPs.

Mr Shorten narrowly beat his rival, Anthony Albanese, who polled better among ALP members. 55 of 86 votes in caucus went to Shorten while 40% of ALP members also supported him, giving him an overall vote of 52%.

The new voting rules have been designed to make Labor leadership choices more transparent and give more power to the rank and file of the party as well as restoring the trust of the public, after the backlash over the methods used to appoint Gillard as leader. Each vote in caucus is worth 354 votes from members.

Bill Shorten has been MP of Maribyrnong since 2007. He has served as Minister for Education and Minister for Workplace Relations. Prior to Parliament, Shorten served as secretary of the Australian Workers' Union for 6 years.

Maribyrnong covers the suburbs of Moonee Ponds, Essendon, Niddrie, Keilor East, Avondale Heights, Tullamarine, Airport West, Sunshine and Brooklyn and has been under Labor since 1969.

Shorten is the second Federal leader of Labor to be representing a seat in the western suburbs of Melbourne. Julia Gillard previously served as MP for Lalor.