Labor gears up for 2016 federal election

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has asked Labor to fast-track preparations for next year's federal election.

Labor leader Bill Shorten has told the caucus the party needs to change the minds of one million Australians who didn't vote Labor last time.

And he has a grassroots plan to make voters see the light.

He's aiming to contact two million voters to spruik Labor's message before next year's election.

But two million phone calls is a lot for one man, so he's commissioned a national organising and voter contact program to do the leg work.

"We are not chasing an announcement for the end of the day or a list of promises for election eve," Mr Shorten said on Tuesday.

"We are drafting up a plan for the next decade - the Australia of 2025 and 2050."

Preselections have already opened for all sitting members in Victoria as well as marginal government seats La Trobe, Deakin and Corangamite, and the southeast seat of Bruce where Alan Griffin is retiring at the next election.

Preselections have been opened in marginal non-Labor seats in South Australia, Tasmania, Queensland and NSW.

In the Northern Territory, 2013 election candidate Luke Gosling will take a second tilt at the seat of Solomon.

Labor in Western Australia has program to identify and train potential candidates which is over-subscribed.

Party strategists have identified pension cuts, job losses in the solar and car industries, youth unemployment and family violence as issues resonating with voters in key seats.

It is understood Labor has had a number of policies costed by the Parliamentary Budget Office, which on Monday reported it had completed 405 requests from MPs and parties for costings in the second half of 2014.


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Source: AAP


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