Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has farewelled his mother, Ann Rosemary, at a moving private ceremony in Melbourne’s east.
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Held in the stunning sandstone structure that is the Xavier College Chapel, in Kew, Mr Shorten and his twin, Robert, delivered a joint emotional eulogy on Tuesday honouring their mother’s life-long commitment to the pursuit of education.
Among Mr Shorten’s federal Labor colleagues who attended were Anthony Albanese, Tony Burke, former Speaker Anna Burke, Kelvin Thomson, David Feeney, Mark Dreyfus and Warren Snowdon.
Mr Shorten’s mother-in-law, former governor-general Dame Quentin Bryce, did not attend the service.
A devastated Mr Shorten - shouldering the load as a pallbearer, along with his twin and other male relatives - was comforted by his wife Chloe, their daughter Clementine, and Ms Shorten’s two children Georgette and Rupert.
Leading names among Victoria’s political, academic, corporate and social circles gathered after the service on the chapel steps, its views of Melbourne soaring beyond the expansive grounds.
Ann Shorten, 79, died on Sunday, April 6, her loss described as "a shock to me and my family" by the Opposition Leader.
Xavier resonates with the Shorten family. Credited as the driving force behind her family’s academic and political success, Ann Shorten was determined her sons would receive an education under the guidance of the Jesuits. She was not religious, but as a cultural Catholic and an educator she respected Jesuit education. She sent her boys to Xavier and went back to work as a teacher to help pay the fees.
The predominantly Catholic service was also ministered by an Anglican reverend, a reflection of the family’s mixed faiths.
Ann Shorten - nee McGrath - was, by all accounts, an extraordinary woman.
The daughter of a Ballarat-born printer - and union leader - she tested the conventions of the day by putting her education and then career ahead of marriage and motherhood until she was in her 30s - a move almost unheard of for working-class young women at the time.
She was awarded a teaching scholarship after matriculation, received an arts and an education diploma in the 1950s,and then a doctorate from Melbourne University.
It was the first of many academic milestones.
Most notably, much later in her life, she won the Supreme Court prize in 1985. Her twin boys - Bill and Robert (both named for their late father, William Robert) were by then in their first year at the same university as their mother, Monash. ''I was a very embarrassing mother,'' she told Fairfax Media in a 2009 profile on her son, Bill.
Ann met her husband William Robert Shorten on a cruise to Japan in late 1965.
Bill snr, from Tyneside, was the ship's second engineer. After the church wedding in East Malvern, where her parents lived, the Shortens held the festivities on the ship.
Mr Shorten said in a statement his mother's death had come as a great shock to him and his family.
‘‘I was very close to my mum,” Mr Shorten said.
“My family and I have received many kind messages of support from friends, colleagues and members of the community for which we are very grateful.”
Mr Shorten has been on leave since receiving news of his mother’s unexpected death but is expected to return to official duties this week.
