July 29, 2024
Anthony Albanese has put his reshuffled cabinet on an election footing with the demotion of two ministers overseeing the nation's immigration settings, appointing senior lieutenant Tony Burke in a gutted Home Affairs Department to fix the detainees crisis.
Mr Burke - one of the targets of a Muslim Vote campaign to punish Labor MPs over the government's response to the Israel-Hamas War - will also be responsible for the processing and integration of Palestinian refugees and overseeing policies for social cohesion.
The Prime Minister moved Andrew Giles from immigration and Clare O'Neil from home affairs, but denied they had mishandled the portfolios, despite a series of high-profile bungles, including the failure to prepare for the High Court's NZYQ ruling and the fallout from Direction 99.
Mr Burke has been put in charge of both portfolios, along with cyber security, multicultural-ism and the arts, shifting from his contentious but legislatively busy time as workplace relations and employment minister.
In a move that builds on Mr Albanese's hollowing out of the Home Affairs Department - a super ministry created by Malcolm Turnbull for Peter Dutton in 2017 - responsibility for ASIO has been moved to the Attorney-General's Department. Ms O'Neil will remain in cabinet as Housing Minister while Mr Giles is in the outer ministry as Skills and Training Minister.
Queensland Left senator Murray Watt will remain in cabinet but with the elevated role of workplace relations and employment, while Tasmanian Left MP Julie
Collins will shift out of housing and replace Senator Watt as Agriculture Minister. Ms Collins will remain Small Business Minister.
As expected, Mr Albanese confirmed Northern Territory senator Malarndirri McCarthy would replace Linda Burney as Indigenous Australians Minister.
But he gave no indication as to whether a new minister would see the government abandon the Uluru Statement from the Heart or revive plans for a Makarrata Commission or a legislated voice.
NSW Left MP Pat Conroy is the other elevation to cabinet, taking with him the defence industry and Pacific portfolios, while Jenny McAllister joined the outer ministry overseeing policy for cities and emergency management.
Mr Albanese said this was the team he expected to take to the election "at some time in the future", although he would not say whether he was considering going to voters this year.
"My government is a good government. It's orderly, we have proper cabinet processes, we have now had an opportunity as well for some refresh going forward with some entry of some new talent," he said.
With the timing of the next poll likely to be impacted by whether there is an interest rate rise in August or September, Jim Chalmers moved to get ahead of June inflation numbers, to be released this week, and warned the data would show prices growth is "persistent in our economy".
"But we are still confident that inflation will continue to moderate after that, partly because of the design of our cost-of-living policies but also because the shape of our inflation challenge has been really similar to around the world," the Treasurer told Sky News.
With economists warning this week's June inflation number would be crucial in determining the Reserve Bank's position on whether to raise the cash rate above 4.35 per cent, Dr Chalmers said the central bank "weighs up a whole bunch of factors in our economy".
"I think sometimes the commentary too easily forgets that at the start of this year, and the March quarter National Accounts, we saw the economy was very soft," he said.
Hitting out at the reshuffle, Peter Dutton said Mr Albanese has "expressed no confidence in half of his ministry".
"The problem for the Prime Minister is it's his constant lack of leadership, backbone and judgment, which is now recognised by millions of Australians," the Opposition Leader said. "It's nothing more than shuffling of deckchairs on the sinking HMAS Albanese."
Opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson said the gutting of department made "no sense".
"Home Affairs is supposed to be the lead national security portfolio. But it now has no operational agencies after the AFP, Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, Austrac and now ASIO were moved to Attorney-Generals," he tweeted.
"Tony Burke will be Minister for Home Affairs in name only. Labor has completed the destruction of the Home Affairs portfolio as they always secretly wanted to - but never bothered to tell the electorate."
Defending his shake-up of the home affairs portfolio, Mr Alba-nese said it was important ASIO was overseen by the same department that managed the Australian Federal Police, with Labor taking that agency out of home affairs soon after it won office in 2022.
Mr Albanese suggested the former Coalition government made a political decision by combining the domestic security agencies under the remit of home affairs, arguing the structure was failing. "What I'm doing is putting in place what I think are the appropriate structures for good governance," he said.
Mr Albanese said he expected the Coalition to run a negative campaign against the government's handling of immigration, but denied Ms O'Neil and Mr Giles had performed poorly.
"Peter Dutton will be negative, I'll give you that big tip. He will be destructive, he'll attack people, he'll engage in the sort of vilification which is his specialty," he said. "The fact is that Peter Dutton left a mess in the portfolios in which he held. Peter Dutton was one of the people in the former government who presided over the dysfunction that's been identified through the reviews that have taken place
"What Clare O'Neil and Andrew Giles have had to do is to repair the damage which has been done."
Business Council of Australia boss Bran Black has called on Labor to maintain priority of the skills and training portfolio despite it being dropped from cabinet, while the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry is ramping up pressure on Senator Watt to take further action against the CFMEU.
Labor MPs promoted to the frontbench as assistant ministers include Julian Hill, Kate Thwaites and Josh Wilson.
Matt Thistlethwaite remains on the frontbench but has lost the title of Assistant Minister for the Republic, with Mr Albanese ending the prospect of another referendum while Prime Minister.
A new Assistant Minister for a Future Made In Australia title has been created and will be held by NSW senator Tim Ayers.
Outside the frontbench, Victorian MP Peter Khalil has been appointed special envoy for social cohesion, Northern Territory MP Luke Gosling has become special envoy for defence, veterans' affairs and northern Australia, and NSW MP Andrew Charlton is the special envoy for cyber security and digital resilience.
Labor MPs broadly backed the reshuffle although some argued Mr Burke had been addled with too much. "I'm not sure how (Tony) Burke is going to manage all that," one MP said.
Another said it was a chance for the government to reset.
