You have to hand it to the Prime Minister — he sure likes making things complicated.
There’s no doubting talent won out in Saturday’s reshuffle of the lower depths of the ministry, even if factional allegiances don’t seem to have been entirely absent either. But it brings about some of the more peculiarly complex administrative arrangements seen in Canberra for a while.
For starters, Chris Bowen and Nick Sherry — both of whom were performing strongly — have more or less swapped jobs, with Bowen entering Cabinet and taking superannuation (an area that Sherry has made his own) and corporate law, as well as the entirely unrelated Ministry for Human Services, which Joe Ludwig gave up to move to John Faulkner’s previous role as Special Minister of State and Cabinet Secretary. Sherry takes Bowen’s spot as Assistant Treasurer. But Bowen’s area of competition policy — where he had aggressively pushed improvements to the TPA — has been given to Craig Emerson, who has acquired a good reputation among deregulatory types, but whose performances in Parliament don’t fill anyone with great confidence.
It gets more complicated. Brendan O’Connor, having avoided botching the controversial new employment services tender, gets a promotion to Bob Debus’s old job of Home Affairs. Debus has shown just how much of a team player he is, having moved into Federal Parliament and taken a fairly demanding ministry at the end of his career and then readily moved aside for The Kids to come up. Mark Arbib takes O’Connor’s employment role while keeping his current job of overseeing service delivery, meaning he now works under both Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard. Arbib will have western Sydney MP Jason Clare, rated as an up-and-comer (he hosted the one-year anniversary ALP fundraiser last November), for a Parliamentary Secretary.
Warren Snowdon comes out of Defence and moves to Health, kinda, as “Minister for Indigenous Health, Rural and Regional Health and Regional Services Delivery” (as opposed to Arbib, who is just “Government Service Delivery”. Ostensibly in Nicola Roxon’s portfolio, Snowdon will have to work closely with Jenny Macklin as well, since she has carriage of the Closing the Gap agenda, and it also seems like Snowdon will have some work to do for Anthony Albanese in the Infrastructure portfolio.
But wait, there’s more. Greg Combet enters the Ministry and returns to Defence, but he also stays with Penny Wong on Climate Change. This positions him perfectly for the crucial “War on Carbon” that Kevin Rudd will surely one day declare. Presumably the thinking there is that the CPRS negotiations will be finalised one way or another in the coming months.
And then there’s Kate Ellis, who keeps her current job, which is split between the Health and Education portfolios, but gets Maxine McKew’s early childhood stuff and childcare as well. McKew moves to become Albanese’s Parliamentary Secretary. As if in response to the success of Kate Ellis — from the SDA/Catholic wing of South Australian Labor — former SA Left leader Mark Butler also gets a Parliamentary Secretaryship, replacing Jan McLucas in Health.
Spare a thought for Jan McLucas. She and her staff crafted a very good aged care policy in the lead-up to the 2007 election and developed a good relationship with the sector, only for McLucas and her advisers to be moved aside for Justine Elliott once in Government. The possibility of more revelations about travel expenses, however, meant Rudd was in no mood to spare her.
As I noted last week, Bill Shorten seems to have been forgotten about. That could be why he’s joined the swelling chorus of former union leaders in the Parliament telling his erstwhile colleagues to pull their heads in. But he’s also got the bushfire recovery effort, which is not something Rudd will want to see attract bad headlines.
In the last days of the Keating Government, Laurie Brereton ran both Transport and Industrial Relations. The arrangement of splitting a minister between major departments was seen as odd at the time, and it was very much the exception, not the rule. Now half the ministry’s working to more than one department.
At least there won’t be much chance of bureaucratic capture…
And people in the know-no, not you Bernard-are dismissive of the politically unaware. For once in my life I tend to wonder why anyone after a day’s hard slog would want to study the politics of Oz. It’s just that they want to watch cr-p on the TV which bugs me. That and the legendary FOOTY.
Good article though.
Actually when I carefully watched the tv footage of the first party room meeting after the famous 2007 election victory Kevin Rudd waltzed in to general acclaim and went up to various people happily shaking hands.
Especially the winners of ministerial positions. Then he came to Bob Debus. Not a word. Didn’t meet his eyes. Can’t recall any handshake either or maybe a wet fish style.
Hang on I thought, that’s very cold. When did Debus get swine flu or the 2007 equivalent.
And for those not in NSW, just before Debus – a veteran and successful Attorney General and environment minister in NSW from the Left faction of the ALP – announced his retirement in NSW Parliament in order to run in a marginal federal seat, the Coalition attacked him with a vile claim of personal deviancy of some kind.
Indeed then leader of the NSW Coalition Peter Debnam was forced to resign for sliming and smearing Debus with not a skeric of evidence. Echoes of the High Court Judge smear by Heffernan which blew up in the Senator’s face.
Is Rudd really so ruthless and shallow to be so fearful of false scandal? So disloyal? So selfish? So self serving appeasing the NSW Right? Debus had alot of goodwill from the green side of things in NSW though definitely a Labor man who buckled down. Arguably Rudd is no Bonhoffer based on his shafting of Debus in his first ministry, and now again in this reshuffle, forced into retirement to appease the Right over Faulkner getting their Defence portfolio?
And the Right are stalking Debus seat in the Blue Mountains area previously held by Kerry Bartlett in the Howard Govt.
Tom McLoughlin. It is not my intention to rain on your parade. However, what would be your feelings when or if John Faulkner turns out to have been a brilliant choice for Defence? Isn’t it ever a correct decision in politics as opposed to being left-wing versus right-wing?
Certainly Rudd is ruthless-one has to be to be successful in politics-shallow? I’ll go along with that one-it’s his religious opinions which are so fatuous, disloyal and selfish for what? Wanting someone with balls for the job. Get a life Tom.
As I’ve written previously having met and lobbied John Faulkner in the 90ies, and indeed pictured with the guy in the SMH sucked into one of those PR picfacs back then, Faulkner was so ‘tough’ he was totally savaged by Keating in 1995-96 until the ALP forest policy was a disgrace.
Keating then went on to alienate his own trusty ACF green group and lose to Howard in 1996.
He knows it’s true too. And I have the files to prove it beyond doubt.
So my point is Faulkner may well be compassionate, intelligent, brilliant and tough, but the evidence remains that in his main gig at senior ministerial level he was concertinered like a Mack Truck making bingle with a suzuki. To the everlasting shame and political destruction of the ALP I might add. Not Faulkner’s fault but as ever politics is about delivering, not good intentions.
Sure he has some famous forensics in Estimate Committees. But that’s not a senior ministerial role. Apples with oranges. I hope he has every success in ripping the $billions of waste out of Defence, but I’m not an ALP groupie, so I guess that’s one definition of having a life, and being my own person, thanks Peanut!