New Labor leader Bill Shorten tells the media that he will resist the Government's attempts to dismantle the carbon pricing scheme.
BILL Shorten has been elected as Labor's new leader, beating out former deputy prime minister Anthony Albanese.
News the former education minister was selected over Mr Albanese was announced by the Labor Party on Twitter and in an email to party faithful about 2.30pm.
It followed a 2pm Caucus meeting at Parliament House in which the results from the Caucus and rank-and-file votes were made known.
Governor-General Quentin Bryce, Mr Shorten's mother-in law, offered to resign her office to avoid any perceptions of bias but Prime Minister Tony Abbott has refused to accept her resignation.
Addressing the media after his win, Mr Shorten said he hoped Tanya Plibersek would be his deputy but that would be a matter for Caucus.
He paid tribute to Mr Albanese and said he had let no one down.
"He is a decent, determined, notable Labor warrior," he said.
Bill Shorten has been elected the new leader of Labor. Picture: Norm Oorloff
"He has the ferocious capacity to apply considerable intellect to holding the Coalition to account, both in government and I have no doubt going forward in opposition."
He said the result of the ballot showed there were still things for him to learn, having failed to win the majority of membership support.
"And I certainly look forward to working with Anthony Albanese to understand some of those lessons," he said.
Anthony Albanese congratulates Bill Shorten following the announcement of the Labor leadership ballot, and announces his resignation as deputy leader of the ALP.
"I'm confident that the Labor Party has the skills within its parliamentary ranks and also beyond its parliamentary ranks to be up to this task," he said.
"I believe that the best days of Labor are yet to come."
Questioned on environmental policy, he said he personally believed it was important to have a price on carbon.
Mr Shorten said he was not in a position to set out his policies today because he was interested in listening to his colleagues first.
But he still believed in the national broadband network, the national disability insurance scheme, putting a price on carbon and the importance of giving school children the best education, he said.
He said he did have the experience for the job, despite having been in parliament for a shorter time than Mr Albanese.
He said he would take some lessons from how Tony Abbott had conducted himself as opposition leader.
"I note that when he became leader of the opposition he won by one vote," he said.
"He still managed to go on and unite the party and indeed convince the majority of Australians to vote for him.
"What I would say about Mr Abbott's style is, I don't believe, as Opposition Leader, that I would be as relentlessly negative as him."
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Mr Albanese congratulated his winning colleague, and paid tribute to the overall spirit of the leadership contest as he thanked those who had cast their vote for him.
"Throughout all of it, it has been conducted in a spirit which shows that you can actually have a democratic process in this great Australian Labor Party without having personal rancour involved," he said.
He also hailed the job Chris Bowen had done as acting leader.
"I have no doubt that he will continue to serve very well indeed as the Shadow Treasurer," he said.
He said the party would now unite behind Mr Shorten between now and the 2016 election.
"I said at the outset of this campaign that it wasn't a lifetime ambition to lead the Australian Labor Party," Mr Albanese said.
"That it was something that I had only considered in recent times, that I had always thought I would be a team player - that was the contribution that I would make rather than be the leader.
"I will be back to being a team player again."
Today's announcement follows more than a month of cordial campaigning from the two men.
Anthony Albanese and Bill Shorten walkto the party room meeting in Parliament House in Canberra. Source: News Limited
In an email to party members, Mr Bowen revealed Mr Shorten had won 63.95 per cent of the Caucus vote and 40.08 per cent of the membership vote, meaning he had won 52.02 per cent of the total vote.
"Together we've chosen a new Labor leader," he wrote.
"This historic vote which combines the votes of Labor Caucus with the votes of 30,426 Labor Party members - a 74% turnout - has changed our great Party forever and is already making us stronger."
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He said more than 4500 people had made expressions of interest to join Labor since the leadership campaign started.
"Both Anthony Albanese and Bill Shorten campaigned hard and campaigned with respect for each other and a firm commitment to the Labor Party," Mr Bowen said.
"To those who cast their vote, thank you for your involvement.
"Today we start the work of holding the Abbott Government to account and showing we are a better and fairer alternative for Australia's future."
The new way of electing the leader - which takes in Caucus votes and the rank-and-file choice, weighted evenly - was brought in by former prime minister Kevin Rudd.
Senior Labor figures have said there will be no going back from the new election model, with Mr Bowen even predicting the Coalition will eventually adopt a similar model for the election of their leader.
Mr Bowen said the entire party had spoken, as he paid tribute to "great warrior" Mr Albanese.
"The entire Labor Party has elected an alternative prime minister and I believe the next Labor prime minister of Australia," he said.
"Bill Shorten is a man who has dedicated his working life to representing vulnerable people and to improving this nation, whether they be workers, people with a disability.
"People right across the country have a friend and supporter in Bill Shorten and they now have an alternative prime minister who is on their side."
He said Mr Albanese had also made a huge contribution to the part.
"Of course, I also want to pay tribute to Anthony Albanese, a great warrior for our cause."
Mr Bowen said despite being a tight result, it was a solid one.
"Never again can the branch members of our great party be taken for granted or ignored," he said.
"Anybody who seeks to lead the Labor Party will need to pay them due deference and respect going forward."
Mr Bowen said former prime minister Kevin Rudd had expressed "no interest in returning to the front bench and that's perfectly understandable given his service as prime minister".
Labor national president Jenny McAllister said members had "enormous respect" for both candidates.
"The vast bulk of our members are in fact not factionally aligned," she said.
"I think many people would look at Anthony and his very long experience in advocating for members and their rights within our organisation and would have seen in Anthony a candidate they wish to support.
"In saying that, I don't think they are at all insensitive to the very great merits to Bill Shorten brought to the process and I spoke to many members who were really quite undecided about how they would cast this vote."
Mr Bowen said the party had a difficult decision to make, as evidenced by the close vote.
The former treasurer said he had ruled himself out of the race because of "unfinished business" in the treasury portfolio, indicating he hoped to hold that portfolio.
"I think that's the role where I can make the best contribution," he said.
"I've fulfilled the role of interim leader of the Opposition, holding the Government to account, and they've given us some grounds to hold them to account in the last month.
"But now that task falls to Bill and I will be supporting him in the capacity of holding (Treasurer) Joe Hockey to account."
Asked about the fact Mr Shorten had been the very man to have helped unseat two former sitting prime ministers, Mr Bowen said those issues were in the past.
"Well, it's true to say that we've had our issues over recent years when it has come to leadership," he said.
"We have bypassed that today by embarking on a whole new process.
"There is no better way of doing that than on the process we have embarked upon, opening up the decision for the entire party and providing that trip wire so that the leadership cannot be declared vacant lightly."
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