Australia’s next governor general will be David Hurley, the New South Wales governor and former defence force chief.

On Sunday morning the prime minister, Scott Morrison, announced that Hurley will replace Peter Cosgrove in June 2019, unleashing a furious rebuke from the shadow treasurer, Chris Bowen, for failing to consult the opposition and timing the announcement to coincide with Labor’s 48th national conference.

Bowen said that he had no criticism of the appointment of Hurley, who served for 42 years in the Australian army and concluded his service as the chief of the defence force before being appointed NSW governor in October 2014. The appointment was “perfectly appropriate”, Bowen told reporters in Adelaide.

Hurley is a companion of the order of Australia and earned a distinguished service cross for leadership in Operation Solace in Somalia in 1993.

Although Bowen acknowledged there was no constitutional requirement to do so, he said it would have been appropriate for Morrison to “have had the good grace to consult the leader of the opposition” given Hurley’s term will begin after the 2019 election.

Bill Shorten had been “informed but not consulted”, he said, adding that “courtesy and good grace is not something we’ve come to expect from this prime minister”.

“Do we really believe that a governor general, who will be taking up his post in the middle of next year, had to be announced today while the leader of the opposition was making an important speech at the very same time? What a coincidence.”

In a separate statement on Sunday afternoon, Shorten said he was informed of Hurley’s appointment on Sunday morning.

“While I am pleased the prime minister received approval from the United Kingdom for this merited appointment, I hope this is the last time an Australian prime minister has to call Buckingham Palace for permission,” he said.

Earlier, Morrison told reporters in Canberra that Hurley had been his “first choice” and the responsibilities of “stability, continuity, certainty” were foremost in his mind when selecting a replacement for Cosgrove.

Cosgrove’s term is due to expire in March but Morrison said that would be pushed back to June to allow Hurley to remain in his role as NSW governor through the NSW election and for Cosgrove to remain in his until after the federal election was completed.

“Next year is an election year and it is very important that I think this appointment be seen well outside the context of any electoral issues,” Morrison said.

In selecting another governor general drawn from Australia’s military, the prime minister said he was “a bit of a traditionalist when it comes to these things” and had “always been impressed” by those who had been appointed from Australia’s military ranks.

In a statement released on Sunday, Morrison said: “He has been a very popular governor of NSW. From his weekly boxing workouts with Indigenous children as part of the Tribal Warriors program to his frequent regional trips, Governor Hurley is known for being generous and approachable to old and young alike.”

Hurley said he was surprised to have received the request and “humbled and proud to have accepted”.

He said working with communities in his role as NSW governor had allowed him to meet a “multitude of extraordinary Australians”.

“I have certainly confirmed in my own mind over the past four years, something that I had sensed about Australia, but really hadn’t had the opportunity before to witness on a day-to-day basis – that Australia is a very rich country in a nonmaterial sense,” Hurley said.

“Australians have an amazing and, indeed, an enormous capacity to contribute their time, their energy, their time, their efforts and indeed their money to assist others. I look forward to continuing to be involved with them in these pursuits.”

In September Cosgrove confirmed he would retire in March, explaining that the job “deserves and ­demands new vigour”.

At that time the Labor leader, Bill Shorten, asked Morrison to extend Cosgrove’s term to allow an incoming prime minister to make an appointment after the 2019 election, expected in May.

Morrison’s decision to make an early appointment ensures he has his pick of governor general while keeping options open for an early election after the summer break.

In his Labor party national conference speech on Sunday, Shorten promised Labor would build “a country that stands on its own two feet: an Australian republic with an Australian head of state”.

But despite that full-throated support, Shorten described that recognition of Indigenous Australians through a voice to parliament as his “first priority for constitutional change”, effectively putting the republic at the end of the queue.

Labor has promised a plebiscite to gauge support for a republic before settling on a specific model to put to the Australian people in a referendum.

The Australian Republican Movement released a statement criticising the fact that “three of the past four governors general have been men who are retired generals” and calling for a more consultative process.

“If Australians had been asked to nominate someone for consideration by the parliament, or if the prime minister had been asked to put names forward for approval in a vote of the people, we might have come up with a person who better represented the full diversity of our national life,” the statement said.

“Australians from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, Indigenous Australians, and leading contributors to every sector of our society ought to be considered for a role like this – and for the role of head of state of a future Australian republic.”