Now we need to talk about Bill

摘要

Five weeks after it lost power to a conservative coalition under Tony Abbott, Australia's Labor Party has installed a new leader. Bill Shorten, 46, prevailed in a leadership contest that was, for the first time, thrown open to a vote by all party members. After six turbulent years in government under Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard, Mr Shorten must now reunite the party. It was Mr Rudd who pushed through the new rules. In the past, Labor parliamentarians had decided the leadership. Mr Rudd proposed giving equal weight to votes from ordinary party members, arguing that a Labor leader who wins an election should stay for a full term.