Key Points
- Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil has been moved to housing and homelessness but remains in cabinet.
- Immigration Minister Andrew Giles has moved to skills and training in the outer ministry.
- The reshuffle was spurred by the retirement of cabinet ministers Linda Burney and Brendan O'Connor.
The second Albanese ministry has been sworn in following a slew of new ministers promoted in a cabinet reshuffle.
The home affairs and immigration ministers were moved from their portfolios after a political firestorm, while Senator Malarndirri McCarthy and Pat Conroy have ascended into the cabinet.
McCarthy has taken over the Indigenous Australians portfolio while Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil and Immigration Minister Andrew Giles were dumped from their portfolios.
O'Neil has moved to housing and homelessness but remains in cabinet.
Giles has been given skills and training in the outer ministry.
Tony Burke has taken up home affairs and immigration, with the latter being elevated into the cabinet from the outer ministry — as well as holding the cyber security and arts portfolios, and being Leader of the House.
Anthony Albanese speaks to the media during a press conference at the Parliament House in Canberra on Sunday. Source: AAP / Lukas Coch
Albanese distances reshuffle from immigration detention fallout
The two sackings followed a political headache for the government over the handling of a.
The Opposition has been calling for heads to roll over the handling of the saga, arguing more should have been done to keep the detainees locked up despite the highest court ruling indefinite detention was illegal.
But Albanese said the announcement was not related to the High Court ruling.
"There was a High Court decision, notwithstanding some of the commentary that has been made, which would have taken place, regardless of who was in government," he told reporters in Canberra on Sunday.
In other appointments:
- Murray Watt moves on from agriculture to take up Burke's old portfolio of employment and workplace relations.
- Julie Collins has become agriculture minister, moving back to the portfolio she held in Opposition.
- Conroy retains his defence industry and Pacific portfolios as he moves into cabinet.
- Jenny McAllister moves into the outer ministry, picking up the cities and emergency management portfolios after serving as an assistant minister.
- Kate Thwaites, Julian Hill, and Josh Wilson are elevated into the assistant ministry.
The reshuffle was spurred by and Brendan O'Connor, who won't recontest the next election, while assistant minister Carol Brown also stepped back from her role due to health reasons.
Albanese paid tribute to Burney and O'Connor for their "extraordinary contribution to our nation over a long period of time" and said McCarthy was the obvious choice for the Indigenous Australians portfolio.
"Malarndirri McCarthy was the obvious person to move into that portfolio, building on the legacy of Linda Burney, while bringing her own lived experience and advocacy to the Cabinet table," he said.
Labor Senator Malarndirri McCarthy is the new Minister for Indigenous Australians. Source: AAP / Lukas Coch
'A significant move forward'
Albanese said he was proud to have gone two years and two months "with precisely the same team in place".
"Good governments aim high, they work out of a drawer on a diversity of talent, and that certainly is what drives me, and that’s what drives the changes I’m announcing today."
He added that the combined changes "represent a significant move forward".
"I would expect that this is the team that I will take to the election when it is held sometime in the future."
A delicate factional balance needs to be maintained under internal Labor processes, with all retirements from the Left.
