Penny Wong to back Anthony Albanese for Labor leadership

Anthony Albanese has received the backing of South Australia’s most senior Labor figure for the party leadership.

• Day’s recap of election results: PM gets majority
• The bitter leadership fight engulfing Labor
• Bill Shorten concedes defeat and steps down as Labor leader

South Australia’s most senior Labor figure, Senator Penny Wong, will back frontbencher Anthony Albanese for the party leadership.

Senator Wong will on Wednesday announce her endorsement of the Opposition infrastructure spokesman, who will compete with Chris Bowen to become Labor’s next leader.

A good friend of Mr Albanese, Senator Wong said she “genuinely believes he is the best person to take them to government in the next election”.

The pair met in NSW in the 1990s, before working together when Senator Wong joined parliament in 2002.

Anthony Albanese has received Penny Wong's support for the Labor Party leadership.

Both Mr Albanese and Opposition treasury spokesman Chris Bowen have already begun laying out their plans for the party’s future after its shock federal election loss.

Both have conceded the party’s policy offerings need examining.

Mr Bowen, a member of the Labor right, formally announced his bid on Tuesday in front of the house where he grew up in Sydney’s west.

“I think the party does deserve a contest,” he said.

“ I think that the party deserves a choice.”

Mr Bowen took ownership of Labor’s franking credits policy, which the Coalition devastatingly described as a “retiree tax” during the campaign, but said the party would start with a blank policy slate for the coming term.

“No political party ever takes to the next election exactly the same policies they took to the last,” he said. “That would be dumb.”

Mr Albanese, from the party’s Left, indicated on Sunday he would make a second tilt for the leadership, which he lost to Bill Shorten in 2013.

He’s been campaigning strongly since, saying Labor needs to take a hard look at some of its policies.

“We fell short,” he said yesterday.

“We got the votes of one in three of every Australian on Saturday. We need to do much better.” He said many voters had contacted him about the franking credit overhaul and the party should consider whether it could be capped or grandfathered.

Nevertheless, he thought the Morrison Government would have to act on the issue because its near $8 billion a year cost to the Budget was unsustainable. Deputy leader Tanya Plibersek, also from the Left faction, ruled herself out on Monday, saying it was not her time. Mr Bowen said if she wanted to stay on as deputy and the caucus agreed, he would be happy to work with her. Other potential deputies he floated were Linda Burney and SA’s Mark Butler, though he won’t be running on a ticket with anyone.

The leadership will be decided by a vote of grassroots members and the federal parliamentary caucus, with each group given 50 per cent weight.

Mr Albanese won the grassroots vote in 2013 but did not get enough caucus votes to defeat Mr Shorten.

“I’m happy to concede that Albo probably goes in favourite,” Mr Bowen said.

“The Labor Party went in on Saturday as favourite, too. I’m a bit over ‘favourites’.”

Mr Shorten will continue as interim leader until the matter is decided. The party’s national executive will meet on Wednesday.