Labor leader Anthony Albanese has vowed the Opposition will pursue five themes as it seeks to rebuild in the wake of what he's dubbed a "devastating" election loss.

Key points: Anthony Albanese says Labor needs to reconnect with voters after losing May's federal election

Anthony Albanese says Labor needs to reconnect with voters after losing May's federal election He says the ALP will focus on jobs, fairness, infrastructure, climate change and national security

He says the ALP will focus on jobs, fairness, infrastructure, climate change and national security The Opposition Leader says the ALP needs to be better at explaining its policies to voters

In his first comments since the release of an autopsy into Labor's shock federal election loss, he said his party needed to reconnect with the electorate having failed to win an election "we should have won".

The Opposition Leader, who replaced Bill Shorten after the election, listed jobs and a strong economy, fairness, greater infrastructure spending, action against climate change and a focus on national security as the five pillars that would shape Labor's future.

To achieve that, he said, the party needed to be honest with the situation it had found itself in.

"I'm not interested in excuses. We got it wrong," the Opposition Leader told the National Press Club.

"Not everything was wrong of course, but enough was.

"We lost an election, which given the chaos on the other side, we should have won."

Mr Albanese did not elaborate on new policies, but offered his strongest indication that Labor was unlikely to continue with the franking credits policy it took to the election.

Labor planned to allow shareholders to reduce their tax with franking credits, but said it would stop giving cash refunds for excess credits.

The Coalition dubbed the policy a "retiree tax" and older Australians mounted a high-profile campaign against it.

"That was the problem," Mr Albanese said of the policy's reputation with older Australians.

"When you've got to explain dividend imputation and franking credits from Opposition, [it's a] tough ask. And it was a tough ask.

"It's identified, I've spoken of it before [and] we'll make announcements at appropriate times."

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Watch Duration: 5 minutes 3 seconds 5 m Craig Emerson and Jay Weatherill release the ALP election autopsy.

The review found Labor lost the election thanks to an unpopular leader, a weak political strategy and a "cluttered policy agenda".

Mr Albanese said his party failed to explain to voters how Labor's policies would improve their standard of living, while also strengthening the economy.

He said Labor had to be better at explaining to people how policies affected them.

"If people feel unsure they're more likely to side with the status quo," the Opposition Leader said.

"We need to emphasise that Labor seeks government to increase the economic security of the vast majority."

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Watch Duration: 2 minutes 23 seconds 2 m 23 s Penny Wong on Labor's election review

Albanese commits to pursuing climate change policies

Labor's frontbench has been at odds about the party's approach to climate change, with resources and agriculture spokesman Joel Fitzgibbon keen for the Opposition to adopt the Coalition's emissions reduction policy.

There has been criticism within Labor ranks that the party's climate change policies meant voters thought the Opposition was more focused on the environment than jobs, particularly those in the resources sector.

The review found low-income workers had voted against Labor because "ambiguous language on Adani, combined with some anti-coal rhetoric, devastated its support in the coal mining communities of regional Queensland and the Hunter Valley".

But it also said Labor could not "neglect human-induced climate change" and called on the party to increase the public's awareness of the cost of inaction.

Mr Albanese told the Press Club he would take "strong climate change policies" to the next election, which is expected to be in 2022.

He said he wished Australia would follow other nations, including New Zealand and the United Kingdom, where climate change legislation did not split politicians down political lines.

"Margaret Thatcher was one of the first world leaders who spoke about climate change," Mr Albanese said.

"This shouldn't be a divisive issue. This should be something the entire Parliament is working towards, as is happening in other parts of the world."

Reconnecting with Labor's traditional support base

Clare O'Neil is worried at the trend of Labor losing around 1 per cent of its primary vote at each election since the 1970s.

Labor frontbencher Clare O'Neil has said Labor appeared sanctimonious at the last election, leaving voters to feel like "progressives were talking down to them".

She has also raised her concerns that the trend of Labor's primary vote since the 1970s had been "a slow persistent decline of almost 1 per cent per election".



The party lost the May election with a primary vote of 33 per cent.

Mr Albanese said centre-left parties were struggling to hold onto their bases globally, but added he was confident Labor could win back the voters, particularly blue-collar workers, who deserted the party in May.

"We can start a movement for change and reform that will return Labor as the party of aspiration, the party of the mainstream and the party of government," he said.

Speaking after the Opposition Leader's speech, Labor frontbencher Kristina Keneally said her party had to take bold policies to the next election.

Kristina Keneally joined Labor's frontbench after May's election loss. ( ABC News: Andrew Kennedy )

That is despite criticism within Labor's ranks that it was too ambitious with the platform it took to this year's poll.

"A bold agenda isn't necessarily a bad thing, and I think that's what we've heard from Anthony today," she told the ABC.

"A bold agenda is what you need. Seeking to take government and to govern in the national interest, and to the benefit of working people, is absolutely bold and it's what we should be doing as the Australian Labor Party."