Anthony Albanese says his unanimous election as Labor leader will deliver unity to the opposition, as the government seeks to make hay over him keeping Bill Shorten in the shadow cabinet.
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Mr Albanese is putting the final touches to his shadow cabinet which will be announced on Sunday and will include his predecessor.
Mr Shorten on Friday used Twitter to reject as "just wrong" claims made in The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age that he still harboured leadership ambitions.
"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," he said.
Mr Albanese said Mr Shorten harboured a "passion to get into government".
"And the entire team know that we must be united if that is going to be achieved," he told reporters in Canberra on Friday.
Finance Minister Mathias Cormann said he would be surprised if Mr Shorten was not still ambitious for the leadership.
"Do you think that a fish stuck on land wants to get back into water?" he told Sky News.
"I think that everyone in the parliament knows that if there was an opportunity for Bill Shorten to get the leadership back he would go for it.
"I don't even think that is particularly remarkable."
Mr Albanese was the only contender for the leadership, avoiding the need for a ballot involving grassroots and caucus members of the ALP.
"My colleagues are absolutely committed, and we saw that unity yesterday (at a caucus meeting). The fact that I've been elected unopposed as leader of the Labor Party, the fact that our entire leadership team were elected unopposed, that people put the needs of Labor before individual needs."
The shadow cabinet will meet in Brisbane on Tuesday, as Mr Albanese and colleagues engage in a post-election "listening tour" of the country.
One of those set for a frontbench role, Catherine King, said the party should take its time with the election post-mortem examination.
"We scared people, basically, I think," she told ABC radio.
"And particularly we scared people in our working class and lower-income areas and we have to understand what that was and ... why we weren't getting our message through."
Mr Albanese said the party's policies "didn't connect with enough people".
The latest election figures show Labor faced a 4.2 per cent swing against it in Queensland and a 4.3 per cent swing in Tasmania.
Australian Associated Press
