Anthony Albanese has cleared out his entire home affairs ministry, replacing both Clare O’Neil and Andrew Giles with Tony Burke as he reset ahead of the coming election.
In making his announcement, Albanese stressed the “stability” of his cabinet, saying it had been “two years and two months with precisely the same team in place” before this reshuffle. He added when “team members step down … it does provide an opportunity for others to step up”.
Stepping up is Burke. After his success in the workplace relations portfolio, he will now take on home affairs, immigration and multicultural affairs, on top of his leader of the house and arts minister responsibilities.
“He is certainly up for it, and what it means is that in terms of a department, there will be one person who will be responsible for it,” Albanese said on Burke’s increased workload.
“I gave a lot of thought to the appropriate structure. That is one of the reasons the structure is there. One minister and then two junior assistants to them is, I think, the right structure.”
O’Neil and Giles had previously held the portfolios which had become a headache for the government. O’Neil has been moved into the housing portfolio, while Giles has been shifted into skills and training, which had been vacated by Brendan O’Connor who plans to retire at the next election. The portfolio has now been moved out of cabinet, to its traditional place in the ministry.
Questioned on the potential for gloating from the coalition, who had targeted both Giles and O’Neil as weak links, the prime minister was dismissive.
“Peter Dutton will be negative, I will give you that big tip,” he said.
“He will be destructive, he will attack people.
Northern Territory senator Malarndirri McCarthy has been promoted to the Indigenous affairs portfolio, while her senate colleague Jenny McAllister has been named the minister for Cities and minister for emergency management.
Queensland senator Murray Watt was another big winner in the reshuffle. He will take on employment and workplace relations following Burke’s move, while the former housing minister, Julie Collins, will step into his former portfolio of agriculture, along with fisheries and forestry and small business.
Albanese signalled this would be his last ministry reset until the next federal election, due to be held before May next year.
“These combined changes, I think, represent a significant move forward,” he said.
“I would expect that this is the team that I will take to the election when it is held sometime in the future.”
The Greens housing spokesperson, Max Chandler-Mather, who had been a thorn in the side of Collins as she attempted to push through the government’s housing agenda, very quickly turned his attention to O’Neil, calling on the incoming minister to re-open negotiations with the Greens.
If Labor wants their housing bills passed, I call on the new housing minister, Clare O’Neil to immediately reopen negotiations with the Greens on rent freeze/caps along with phasing out tax handouts for investors and real investment in public housing.
— Max Chandler-Mather (@MChandlerMather) July 28, 2024
“If all we see from the new housing minister is more of the same small target strategy, the reality is that Labor will be punished at the ballot box by the millions of people across the country right now who are getting smashed by the housing crisis,” he said on social media.
Asio will follow the Australian federal police to sit under the attorney-general’s department, reversing the move the Coalition made in placing both agencies in home affairs.
Three special envoys have been appointed; Peter Khalil will report to the prime minister on social cohesion, NT MP Luke Gosling will report on veterans affairs, defence and northern Australia issues and Andrew Charlton will have responsibilities in the cyber security and digital resilience space.
Envoys differ from assistant ministers as they will have no decision making powers. They instead report their findings to the prime minister and portfolio ministers.
Matt Thistlethwaite, who helmed the now-axed Republic assistant ministry, and Julian Hill have been named assistant ministers to Tony Burke covering immigration, citizenship and multicultural affairs.
Patrick Gorman, the existing assistant minister to the prime minister will now take on assistant ministry duties for the attorney-general as well.
The assistant minister for health and aged care, Ged Kearney, will add assistant minister for Indigenous health to her list of responsibilities. Tim Ayres gets a title change from assistant minister for manufacturing to assistant minister for future made in Australia as well as trade.
Josh Wilson will step in as the assistant minister for climate change and energy following McAllister’s step up. Kate Thwaites will be the assistant minister for social security, ageing and women, and Anthony Chisholm has agriculture, fisheries and forestry added to his education and regional development responsibilities.
The new ministry will be sworn in at government house on Monday.