Queensland first stop on Albo’s national talking, listening tour

Labor lost two seats and secured a 27 per cent primary vote in the Sunshine State.

Anthony Albanese and Bill Shorten in the Labor caucus meeting yesterday. Kym Smith

Anthony Albanese’s pitch to win back Queensland voters and the working class will be centred around “jobs, jobs, jobs” as he vows to travel across the nation talking to Australians about why they turned against Labor at the ­election.

The Opposition Leader said his new frontbench would have its first meeting next Tuesday in Brisbane and pledged to rectify Labor’s standing in Queensland, where the party lost two seats and secured a 27 per cent primary vote.

“One of the issues that we have to deal with is we received the support­ of just one in three Australians on May 18, but one in four Australians in Queensland,” Mr Albanese said, after his frontbench and leadership team was endorsed by caucus.

“I’m with Queenslanders. They’re known as straight talkers … I’m a straight talker. What you see is what you get.

“I intend to visit other parts of the country in the next couple of weeks, because I want to send a message — as I always have — that I’m open to discussion. I’m a good listener. But I want to listen to get together the right answers of how we can do better and then be in a position to better represent the interests of Australians.”

Mr Albanese yesterday unveile­d Labor’s new leadership team: deputy leader Richard Marles­, Senate leader Penny Wong and Senate deputy leader Kristina Keneally.

South Australian senator Don Farrell yesterday pulled out of the contest for Senate deputy at the urging of Mr Albanese, who wanted the leadership team to have a balance of men and women.

The caucus selected the oppos­ition’s 30 frontbenchers yesterday. Mr Albanese is to hand out portfolios by Monday.

Bill Shorten was confirmed as a member of the frontbench after receivin­g the support of the Labor Right.

Mr Albanese said he wanted his predecessor to have a “significant role to play” in the line-up, but would not name a portfolio.

“Bill Shorten’s given a lifetime to this movement — the industrial wing and the political wing — which go together, hand in hand, and we don’t shy away from our origins,” he said.

The new faces on the frontbench include Senator Keneally, from the NSW Right, and West Australian Right MP Matt Keogh, who joins Madeleine King as the WA representatives on the frontbench.

In the Labor Left, meanwhile, there will be four new faces in the ministry. Former ACT chief minister Katy Gallagher is expected to receive a role in either the finance or financial services portfolios.

Other additions to the frontbench from the Left are Victorian MP Andrew Giles, NSW MP Pat Conroy and Queensland senator Murray Watt.

NSW Right MP Ed Husic, Tasmanian Left senator Carol Brown and ACT MP Andrew Leigh have lost their frontbench positions.

Speaking to caucus yesterday, the Opposition Leader paid tribute to the legacy of Bob Hawke, who he declared showed the party it could govern over a long period and be electorally successful.

“And then of course along came Bob Hawke, who transformed the country just as largely and just as significantly as Gough Whitlam did, but he taught us something else,” Mr Albanese said.

“He and Paul Keating taught us that we need long-term Labor governme­nt to entrench our reform­ and change agenda.”