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July 28, 2024
Tony Burke will take on a super portfolio of home affairs and immigration in a ministerial reshuffle Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will use to build momentum against the Coalition heading into the next federal election.
Burke, the minister for employment and workplace relations, will take on the new portfolio which brings two of the most politically challenging areas under the control of one minister.
Albanese said Burke was “up for” the challenge of his new job and praised his performance in employment and workplace relations.
“Tony, of course, is a senior minister who’s been focused on a range of portfolios, has done a great job in employment and workplace relations. He has held similar portfolios in the past and he’s someone who will bring that experience to what remains a challenging portfolio,” Albanese said at a press conference in Parliament House in Canberra on Sunday.
Queensland Senator Murray Watt will take on employment and workplace relations, Tasmanian MP Julie Collins will move from housing to agriculture while Northern Territory senator Malarndirri McCarthy will replace outgoing NSW MP Linda Burney as Indigenous Australians minister.
Burke’s appointment confirms weeks of speculation that Clare O’Neil and Andrew Giles would be moved from home affairs and immigration. O’Neil will take on housing and Giles will stay in the ministry as skills and training minister.
NSW MP Pat Conroy has also been promoted into cabinet as minister for defence industry and capability delivery.
“This combination of changes represent a significant moving forward,” Albanese said.
He defended the performance of O’Neil and Giles saying the pair had worked hard to “repair the damage” the Coalition had done to the area when it was in government.
Albanese said they had been moved to different areas because of the retirements of Burney, Brendan O’Connor and Carol Brown.
“What you do when there’s a reshuffle is that there is a change that then has a knock-on effect. The fact is that we have been a very stable government,” Albanese said.
The new ministry will have its first full meeting on Monday morning after new members have been sworn in.
Opposition leader Peter Dutton derided the changes on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, as a “shuffling of deck chairs”.
“This is a significant reshuffle because the Albanese government is in all sorts of trouble,” Dutton posted.
“The prime minister has expressed no confidence in half his ministry. The problem for the prime minister is that it’s his constant lack of leadership, backbone and judgment which is now recognised by millions of Australians. It is nothing more than shuffling of deck chairs on the sinking Albanese government.”
Other changes include the elevation of NSW senator Jenny McAllister to the ministry as minister for cities and emergency management.
Sydney MP Matt Thistlethwaite will become the assistant minister for immigration. Thistlethwaite was previously responsible for the pathway to Australia becoming a republic. In the new line-up the republic no longer has a minister in a sign the government has little appetite for further constitutional change following the resounding defeat of the Voice referendum last year.
NSW senator Tim Ayres becomes the assistant minster for the government’s signature budget initiative, the billion dollar Future Made in Australia fund, while Queensland senator Anthony Chisholm becomes the junior education minister, Victorian MP Kate Thwaites becomes the assistant minister for social security and women, and energetic Melbourne backbencher Julian Hill will be sworn in as assistant minister for citizenship and multicultural affairs.
The changes in immigration and home affairs come after months of political controversy for the government after a High Court ruling late last year that ended indefinite detention and led to the release of about 150 former detainees. Some were later found to have committed serious crimes and the government endured months of ferocious media and opposition scrutiny and the speed and competence of their response to the case and its flow-on effects were questioned.
The opposition had 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.
The opposition’s home affairs spokesman, James Paterson, said a change in ministers in the home affairs and immigration portfolios would be an admission of failure by the government.
“When you think about it, they were two crazy decisions and it would be an admission of failure, an admission of fault by the prime minister if they are moved today. But I think a lot of Australians would be hoping for that, given the chaos that we’ve seen over the last two years,” Senator Paterson said.
