OPPOSITION leader Bill Shorten’s inspiration and teacher, his mother Ann, died suddenly yesterday.

Mr Shorten today cancelled work engagements to notify family members and to mourn with his fraternal twin brother Robert, a financial consultant.

In a statement to the public, Mr Shorten expressed his grief over his mother’s passing and thanked the public for their support.

“Yesterday, my mother Ann passed away. I was very close to my Mum – and her passing has come as a shock to me and my family,” he wrote.

“My family and I have received many kind messages of support from friends, colleagues and members of the community for which we are very grateful.

“On behalf of Chloe and our children, my brother Rob and his family, I thank you for respecting our privacy while we grieve.

“I will be taking some leave and I thank my colleagues for their support during this time.”

Senator Penny Wong will be Acting Leader in Mr Shorten’s absence while Deputy Leader Tanya Plibersek is overseas.

Dr Ann Shorten (nee McGrath) named her twins after her husband William Robert Shorten when they were born in 1967.

She met Bill Shorten Sr while on a 1965 cruise to Japan. She was a hard-working history teacher in her mid-30s, he was the ship’s second engineer from Tyneside in Britain.

From Ann the boys received a trade union heritage. Her father had been a printer’s union official, an uncle was a shop steward in the railways and a cousin led the Seamen’s Union for 27 years.

Her commitment to education was another gift.

“Mum’s a giant influence on who I am and the value of education,’’ Mr Shorten told the Daily Telegraph last year.

“She’s taught me that teaching shouldn’t be denigrated; that we ask a lot of teachers and they give a lot back.’’

Ann Shorten kept teaching to earn enough to send her sons to Jesuits at Melbourne’s Xavier College.

She didn’t stint in her own education in a career which included a doctorate and mature-student studies in law which won her the Victorian Supreme Court Prize in 1985 -- her sons’ first year at Monash University.

Bill Shorten has called her “one of the smartest people I’ve ever met’’.