‘Pathetic’: Bill Shorten’s excuse for election loss slammed

The former opposition leader told Labor’s party room in Canberra that the odds were stacked against him because of “powerful vested interests”.

“I understand there are lessons to be learned from defeat,” he told the Labor Party room.

“We were up against corporate leviathans, a financial behemoth, spending hundreds of millions of dollars telling lies, spreading fear.

“Powerful vested interests campaigned against us. Through sections of the media itself, and they got what they wanted.

“And I understand that neither of these challenges disappeared on election night. They’re still out there for us to face. It is important we face them with courage and honesty, with principle, and unity.”

Speaking on Today this morning, new Labor leader Anthony Albanese was asked about Mr Shorten’s comments.

“We listened to the verdict of the people. The people always get it right. There’s no point complaining about what happened on the field,” he said.

“When you look at the scoreboard at the end of the day, we were defeated by about 77-68 will be the final score.

But he did say admit “there is no doubt that vested interests did play a role”.

Today host Deb Knight asked Mr Albanese about reports that Mr Shorten still wanted the Labor leadership.

“You better watch your back too because reports this morning that Bill Shorten has told allies he wants to return as Labor leader. You were there for the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd years. How you can lead effectively with a ghost of leaders past haunting you like this?”

Mr Albanese replied: “We will be a united team. I’ve been elected unanimously by the Labor Party to lead. We had a leadership team. We have gender balance. We have talent.”

Mr Shorten tweeted this morning to deny reports that he wanted to become Labor leader again.

“As I said yesterday, I have and will work hard every day to keep our party united and make the case for Labor under Albo’s leadership at the next election,” Mr Shorten tweeted.

However, the lengthy excuse for the election loss from Mr Shorten was slammed as “pathetic” by 2GB radio host Alan Jones, who even penned a speech he believed Mr Shorten should have read at last night’s meeting.

“Bill, sorry mate, if you really wanted to get people back on side you’d say a simple thing. You’d say: ‘Can’t argue with the electorate, they rejected us. They rejected me. So, this is what we’ve got to do. I think we have to change direction.

“‘I think the electorate said we’re going up the wrong road and I’ve taken us up the wrong road and I’m sorry about that.

“‘We’re going to turn back and change the road we’re travelling on’.

“People would have said: ‘How good is that?’”

Alan Jones blasted Mr Shorten’s excuse as ‘pathetic’. Picture: Jeremy PiperSource:News Corp Australia

Mr Jones also rattled a list of Labor’s policies off, saying each and every one of them was roundly rejected by the Australian public.

He admitted the media, including his own show, had played a role in Mr Shorten’s defeat, however he said it had just been doing its job in warning the public of the “risks” of a Labor government.

“Don’t blame others,” he said. “People were genuinely afraid about what would happen to this country and to them, if Bill Shorten became prime minister with those idiotic policies.

So in the end people voted for themselves and the Australian values they wanted to protected and you weren’t on that side, Bill.”

The comments made by Mr Shorten — who will remain on Labor’s frontbench in a yet-unknown position — appeared to be at odds with the tone used by the party’s new leader Mr Albanese.

Mr Shorten handed the Labor leadership over to Mr Albanese last night. Picture: Kym SmithSource:News Corp Australia

He told Caucus that he accepted his share of responsibility for Labor’s shock election loss.

“I think the senior members, all of us, have to accept responsibility, that those many millions of Australians who rely upon us and the tens of thousands of people who have worked on our campaigns, need us to do better next time,” he said. “And today, we resolve to do just that.’’

Now that the leadership is sorted, Albo can cast his mind to the next task at hand — which is allocating portfolios for the shadow ministry.

The shadow cabinet and outer shadow ministry has 16 members from the Right, and 14 from the Left.

Mr Albanese is expected to announce his team’s portfolios on either Sunday or Monday.

It comes as the final federal election results are about to be declared in 20 seats today.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who was sworn in on Wednesday along with his ministry, is on track to hold 77 lower house seats in the new parliament.

Only two seats remain close — Tasmania’s Bass and Macquarie in NSW. Labor is expected to have 68 seats, down one on the previous election, with six crossbenchers making up the 151-member House of Representatives. In Macquarie, Labor candidate Susan Templeman is 282 votes ahead of her Liberal rival Sarah Richards.

In the Tasmanian seat of Bass, the Liberals’ Bridget Archer is 584 votes ahead of Labor MP Ross Hart.

Today, the Australian Electoral Commission is set to formally declare the results in: Jagajaga, Corio, Fowler, Franklin, Braddon, Scullin, Solomon, Lingiari, Banks, Bendigo, Petrie, Bradfield, Fenner, Groom, Rankin, Chifley, Ballarat, Bruce, Longman and Maranoa.