The Hon Bill Shorten: Giving back a sense of agency
50 Years / 50 Voices: Learning law and changing lives is a commemorative volume marking the 50th anniversary of the ongoing Monash Law Clinical Program, a pioneering initiative in clinical legal education undertaken by the Faculty of Law at Monash University. 50 alumni of the Monash Law Clinical Program shared their story with 50 current students of the same program. This is an excerpt from the book.
Clinical program student identification, Monash Law Collection.
When I ask the Honourable Bill Shorten how he would describe his career, he pauses for a moment and then reflects: ‘I’ve been lucky to serve three great institutions: the Australian Workers’ Union, the Parliament of Australia, and I’ve had the chance to lead the Australian Labor Party.’
Now, in what feels like a full-circle moment, he’s leading a fourth, as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Canberra. Decades after his formative experience at Springvale Legal Service, he has returned to the university sector to help shape the next generation.
Shorten studied a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws at Monash University from 1985 to 1991, completing a clinical placement at Springvale Legal Service in 1991.
His time at the clinic coincided with the aftermath of the Vietnam War. Throughout the 1980s, many Vietnamese refugees had arrived in Australia, and a significant number had settled in hostels in Springvale and Clayton. These were the people he encountered most frequently at the clinic: clients who had limited English, often required an interpreter and carried layers of trauma.
This experience, he says, taught him one of the most enduring skills of his career: ‘Shut up and listen. Let people tell their story.’ Clients would come in with seemingly discrete legal problems – of workplace injury or marriage breakdowns – but beneath those problems were stories marked by trauma and resilience. He recalled hearing accounts of pirates at sea, harrowing conditions in refugee camps in Malaysia and Thailand, and the long-term psychological toll of displacement. Shorten remembers being struck by his clients’ resilience, but also by the accumulated pain many carried quietly. His experience exposed him to what he called the ‘real-world interventions of the legal service’. Here, the law was less about grand constitutional questions and more about car accidents and the everyday crises that pulled people into the legal system. ‘I was always waiting for an interstate trade case to come along,’ he jokes. Instead, what arrived were real people with urgent problems and real consequences. The clinic taught him that the law, at its best, isn’t theoretical; it’s a tool to give people back a sense of control.
Read more about 50 years of Monash Law Clinics and buy 50 Years / 50 Voices here
A previously unpublished photo of Bill Shorten as a young private rifleman in the Monash University Regiment, 1986.
Shorten fondly recalls the Springvale Legal Service manual – thick, familiar and full of hard-earned legal know-how. ‘It was like the Bible on how to empower people,’ he says. His supervisors, Adrian Evans and Roy Reekie, left a lasting impression.
They were, as he puts it, like ‘wicketkeepers from hell’, always on their toes, catching whatever missteps might have slipped past their students. He marvels at the fact that they willingly put their practising certificates on the line for a bunch of law students learning on the job. But it was that very willingness that allowed him to run real client matters and be trusted with genuine responsibility as a student. ‘I loved it,’ Shorten says. ‘It was the best subject I did.’ He said it was the first time that the law felt real, and the experience left a mark.
Since those early days at Springvale, Shorten has built a career shaped by the same values he first encountered in the clinic: listening, advocacy and a focus on people. He began his legal career at Maurice Blackburn, before stepping into union leadership with the Australian Workers’ Union. In politics, he led the design and delivery of the National Disability Insurance Scheme and played a key role in exposing the Robodebt scheme, helping launch the class action that led to Australia’s largest settlement and a Royal Commission. As leader of the Australian Labor Party from 2013 to 2019, he is proud to have returned it to a position of electability and shaped it into a party ready for government.
Since taking on the role of Vice-Chancellor at the University of Canberra, Shorten’s memories of Springvale have taken on new relevance, shaping his ambitions for the institution. He is committed to expanding work-integrated learning across the university. It is an option that he says should be available to all students from creative writing through to nursing, teaching, law and accounting. He aspires to make workintegrated learning available across all disciplines, emulating the transformative experience he had at Springvale, one that makes education feel real, relevant and deeply human.
Read more about 50 years of Monash Law Clinics and buy 50 Years / 50 Voices here
Get involved with Monash Law Clinics
Monash Law Clinics combine legal education with real-world impact, supporting access to justice while equipping students with practical, ethical and professional skills.
If you are a student interested in undertaking a clinical unit as part of your studies, explore the available clinical placements and elective options.
Whether you’re an alum, practitioner or organisation keen to support the clinics through hosting placements, partnerships, volunteering or funding, there’s a way to be involved. To learn more, contact Emily Collard, Industry & Alumni Engagement Manager, at emily.collard@monash.edu.