[6] After high school, she joined the Sunday Mail in Brisbane as a copygirl, and started studying an online degree in communications, through Deakin University in Victoria.

[7] Recommencing her career in 2014, after a four year break due to rearing their first child together with Bill Shorten, she worked at engineering services company Calibre.

[13] In 2018, Shorten was appointed as an Ambassador for the Gidget Foundation, whose mission is to raise awareness of perinatal anxiety and depression.

[16][7] She met Bill Shorten in 2007, when she was working in corporate relations in the resource industry and he was the Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Children's Services in the Rudd Government.

[17] She moved to Melbourne and married Bill Shorten in November 2009, giving birth to their child in January 2010.