PETER VAN ONSELEN: Bill Shorten hasn’t just lost an unwinnable election – he’s now leaving parliament for a bizarre new role after losing all control of his one major legacy

The man who lost the unlosable election is retiring from federal politics. The man who narrowly became prime minister, Bill Shorten, now NDIS minister, will not run in the next election.

After almost 20 years in politics, he is leaving. He is not taking a major government position abroad, as so many former politicians do, but wants to become the next president of the University of Canberra.

It is such an unusual role for someone without postgraduate qualifications or experience within the higher education sector. But that is not to say that Shorten is unqualified to lead an institution like UC.

As a former Education Minister, Shorten has long been passionate about the sector, and his salary is likely to be double what he earns as a minister.

His first task when he takes office early next year will be to explain to the government how bad its changes to foreign student admissions are for both universities and the Australian economy.

It will be an early test of whether Shorten will continue to defend Labor’s bad policies even after he is out of parliament.

But Shorten’s new job is no substitute for his unfulfilled ambition to become prime minister.

The 2019 election defeat was unprecedented as an example of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Labor led in every poll from every polling station for the 18 months leading up to that election, yet lost.

The chances are that the polls weren’t wrong, they just reversed late in the election cycle. Although Labor had been in the lead for a long time, the trend lines narrowed as the election approached.

Bill Shorten (pictured with wife Chloe) came close to becoming Prime Minister and is now NDIS Minister, but will not run in the next election

If they had lost to someone like Scott Morrison, the defeat would have been even harder.

Shorten could take the pressure he put on both Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull and thus contribute to their downfall.

Both prime ministers were unceremoniously removed from their top positions by their parties.

Shorten’s greatest political legacy is the role he played in the development of the NDIS: he conceived the idea, helped design it and ultimately implemented it.

It is an achievement for which the sector will be eternally grateful. As a social policy, it is comparable to Gough Whitlam’s move towards free education and health care, the precursors to HECS and Medicare.

But the financial pressures of the NDIS are now abundantly clear, as is the need to reform how and to whom the NDIS applies, including a range of adjustments to what is and is not eligible for assistance.

When it comes to adapting the NDIS to make it fit for purpose again, the task facing Shorten at the end of his political career is still not complete.

His political legacy as a policymaker is therefore still uncertain.

Yet there are not many positive things to be heard about many politicians, on both sides of the political spectrum, and Shorten is one of them.

Liberals tell me that he reaches out when they are going through hard times, and that he does so sincerely.

Perhaps the 2019 defeat has given Shorten more empathy than most politicians.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will be glad to see Bill Shorten (pictured together) go

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will be glad to see Shorten go.

During the six years Shorten was leader of the opposition Labor Party, he largely undermined its work and criticized the decisions he made.

Of course, never officially.

When Albo’s position in the polls began to slip, he assumed Shorten would do the same.

I can at least say that despite endless attempts to get him to do so, he never told me about Albo.

The pair became their generation’s rivals for leadership: one from the Victorian right wing, the other from the New South Wales left wing.

It is unusual that the left emerged victorious in this confrontation between two Labour leaders who never managed to match the standards of the great Labour leaders of the past.