In his first comments since the disastrous 18 May election, former Labor leader Bill Shorten blasted the "corporate leviathans" who cost him victory.

"Rather than commentators' snap judgments, or hindsight masquerading as insight, we were up against corporate leviathans, spending hundreds of millions of dollars telling lies, spreading fear," Shorten said in a meeting with his Labor colleagues at Parliament House.  "Powerful vested interests campaigned against us.  Through sections of the media itself, and they got what they wanted."

Shorten thanked successful Labor candidates as well as those who "fought and fell short", party staffers and volunteers, and "true believers".  But this was not a pity party nor an airing of grievances.

"We in Labor are not going to waste time feeling sorry for ourselves because we are not in it for ourselves," Shorten said.  "We are the party of progress, we are the party of reform, we're the party of the big picture, the party that champions the big changes.  There are still big things for Labor to do.

"I love the Labor party, I love the Labor movement, always have and always will," Shorten continued, "What I love most about our movement are the ideas that we champion and the people we empower.  Our Labor mission goes on.  Our ideas, our values, endure."

And with that, the baton passed to Anthony Albanese who said he would take advice from his predecessors.  "You will have significant roles to play, not the least of which will be to give me advice about how my performance can be improved, and a way forward," Albanese said.  "You have been through the furnace that is a federal election campaign."