A leadership election was held in May 2019 to determine the successor to Bill Shorten as leader of the Australian Labor Party and Leader of the Opposition. Shorten announced his pending resignation on 18 May, following Labor's surprise defeat in the 2019 federal election. The leadership was confirmed unopposed; Anthony Albanese was elected as Leader, with Richard Marles elected Deputy Leader. The day after the election, Albanese, a member of the party's left-faction, announced his candidacy for the leadership. He had run for the role in the party's previous leadership election in 2013 though was defeated by Shorten. On 21 MayChris Bowen announced he would also contest the ballot; however the next day he announced his withdrawal, citing lack of support among the party membership. Several other Labor MPs such as Tanya Plibersek and Jim Chalmers considered nominating for the leadership, though decided not to stand. Albanese was the only person to have declared his candidacy at the time when nominations closed on 27 May 2019. Consequently, he was formally appointed to the role when the Labor Partycaucus met later that week.
Process
Under party rules implemented by then-Prime Minister Kevin Rudd after the June 2013 leadership spill, candidates have one week to nominate after the formal declaration of the contest and must receive the support of 20% of the federal Labor caucus to be eligible for nomination, if the election is held as a result of a vacancy. After the declaration of nominations, ballot papers are issued to party members who have two weeks to return them, by which time Labor MPs and Senators cast their votes for the contested leadership positions. According to the party's rules the two voting blocs are weighted equally, with the parliamentary caucus and the party members each representing 50%. As Albanese was the only candidate to have declared when nominations closed at 10:00am on Monday, 27 May, he was formally elected to the leadership alongside deputy leader Richard Marles later that week when the party caucus met to confirm the new Shadow Ministry. Victorian MP Clare O'Neil considered running for the deputy leadership in competition with Marles, though later announced she would not run for the position.
