Gillard was 'warned not to trust Shorten'

An adviser to Julia Gillard says the former prime minister was warned against promoting Bill Shorten to a senior post before Mr Shorten eventually joined the push to depose her.

Ms Gillard's adviser Gerry Kitchener has told the ABC's Killing Season program that then-Labor senator and right-wing powerbroker Mark Arbib had warned her in June 2010 that Mr Shorten couldn't be trusted and should never be given the industrial relations portfolio if she became prime minister.

Ms Gillard did promote Mr Shorten to the portfolio, before he helped topple her by backing Kevin Rudd in a 2013 leadership spill.