ALP review didn't blame Shorten: president

ALP national president Mark Butler says a secret "nuts and bolts" review of the 2016 election did not find leader Bill Shorten hindered the party's campaign.

Labor won't release a report into last year's federal election where Bill Shorten just fell short. (AAP)

Labor's federal president says the review of the party's 2016 election campaign did not make a finding Bill Shorten's unpopularity hindered the opposition from winning.

"As the person who chaired that review ... I can say categorically that that was not a conclusion of the review," Mark Butler, also a frontbench federal MP, told ABC TV on Sunday.

He said the type of "nuts and bolts review of the machinery of the campaign" would never usually be released, and the campaign, while falling short, had nearly kept the coalition to a one-term government.