BILL Shorten never wanted to be Opposition Leader, he really wanted to be prime minister.
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He was a pivotal player in the rise and fall and rise again of former prime ministers Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard and it was all about his grand plan.
Mr Shorten may be many things but he is not a fool and he can read the political tea leaves.
What those tea leaves are telling him, and many of the state Labor governments that have been recently turfed out of government, is that Labor needs to change if it is going to regain power.
If you did a quick straw poll most people could define what the Greens and Liberals stand for, but the Labor message has become blurred.
Labor was founded as the party for trade unionists. The workers' party.
In recent years it tried to compete with the Liberals' expertise in business and finance with spectacular disasters - most recently Wayne Swan's repeated promises of a budget surplus.
The ALP tried to be all things to all people and then struggled to stand for anything.
Unfortunately less that 18 per cent of Australians are members of a union for their primary job, which is being reflected in the polls - mid to low 20s in both the recent West Australian and Tasmanian elections.
Mr Shorten wants to reform the party and grow its membership from 44,000 to more than 100,000 which is essential if he is ever going to be prime minister.
To achieve this he wants to ditch the long-held requirement of candidates and members to be a registered unionist.
That will cut to the core of Labor, especially with the powerful unions who control the party and anoint candidates.
Mr Shorten's cause has been helped by the recent corruption scandals that have rocked several powerful unions.
All of a sudden the stereotype greedy boss has been replaced by the corrupt and greedy union official in the eyes of many workers and future membership numbers are likely to take a hit.
Mr Shorten is right that the ALP needs to change, but are the unions ready to let go?