In For the Common Good, Bill Shorten reflects on the values that led him to devote himself to the labour movement. He looks back on the emphasis on education and social justice in his childhood in Melbourne, and the rewarding years of hard slog as he organised and represented many of Australia's lowest paid workers - including fruit pickers, forklift drivers, furnace operators and strappers - as a union official.

In this thoughtful and inspiring narrative, Shorten offers readers an Australia that always cares for those who are in need, is a responsible corporate citizen, and steadfastly focuses on both the local and the global realities.