[4] In 1996, he and two friends from his university debating society established Atticus Pty Ltd., a business that provides training for "clients from the corporate and education sectors in advocacy and communication skills".

[1] He resigned his directorship of the company the following year to join the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees' Association (SDA) as a union organiser.

He was promoted to Shadow Minister for Immigration in June 2005, by which time Kim Beazley had replaced Latham as leader.

After the 2006 leadership spill, the new leader Kevin Rudd expanded Burke's portfolio to Immigration, Integration and Citizenship.

[4] Burke oversaw the abolition of the Australian bulk wheat export monopoly after the AWB oil-for-wheat scandal.

[13] Burke often cites Labor's environmental credentials and the campaign to protect the Daintree Rainforest as the reason he got involved in politics.

[1] In government, Burke pushed to protect large areas of the Tasmanian Wilderness and the Ningaloo Reef by having them listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

[14] In early 2011, Burke gave approval for the 100 per cent plantation timber Bell Bay Pulp Mill in the Tamar Valley after imposing stricter environmental conditions on the applicant Gunns Limited.

[16] On 22 November 2012, Burke developed, negotiated and signed into law the Murray Darling Basin Plan, a process more than 100 years in the making, after extensive consultation with irrigators, environmental groups and state governments.

[4] Burke took over the implementation of the Gillard government's Creative Australia policy after the former Minister for the Arts, Simon Crean, was sacked for his involvement in a failed attempt to return Kevin Rudd to the prime ministership.

In this role he oversaw Rudd's resettlement plans with Papua New Guinea and Nauru, which saw an immediate and dramatic reduction in the number of people arriving by boat.

[20] Following Labor's 2013 election loss, Burke was appointed Shadow Finance Minister and Manager of Opposition Business.

[4] In 2019, he became Shadow Minister for Industrial Relations, ending his roles in Environment and Water, and Citizenship and Multicultural Australia, but retaining the Arts.

[22] While in opposition, Burke led an unsuccessful bipartisan appeal for clemency to the Singapore High Commissioner to stop the execution of convicted Australian drug smuggler, Van Tuong Nguyen.

[23] Burke has been a vocal opponent of the Liberal National government's attempts to repeal Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act.

[24] The "Walk for Respect" was held again in 2017 in Lakemba when the Turnbull government again sought to remove certain protections against speech potentially considered to be racially offensive.

In February 2014, The Australian reported that Burke had recently commenced a relationship with Skye Laris, his former chief of staff.