Julia Gillard stamped her prime ministerial footprint all over the government on Saturday, by shaking up her ministerial cabinet. For the full line up, check out Bernard Keane’s list on The Stump.
The PM busted out some killer moves. After much chatter pre-election, Kevin Rudd got his foreign ministry. Penny Wong moved from Climate Change to Finance Minister, while Greg Combet has been promoted to the Climate Change portfolio. Education was split into several departments, with Peter Garrett in charge of Schools, Early Childhood and Youth, while Chris Evans controls the Building the Education Revolution program. Simon Crean won the new Regional Affairs portfolio and is also Minister for Local Government and the Arts.
Several of the so-called faceless men of the Labor Party (who actually all have faces. You can see them here and here for starters) were awarded or rewarded, depending on your point of view, with various positions. Bill Shorten moved from working in the disabilities portfolio to Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Superannuation and Financial Services.
How does Gillard’s reshuffle stand up? Collectively the commentariat give a reluctant thumbs up to Gillard’s ministerial movings, with a few exceptions.
“Julia Gillard’s ministry looks sound, with a few oddities,” notes The Australian editorial.
“Gillard’s done well in the circumstances, cutting the suit to match the cloth. But she is under no illusions about the challenge she faces,” says Dennis Shanahan at The Australian.
“The new arrangement, yet to be tested, has the potential to be a slow, plodding beast, but whether it collapses rests with the players, none off whom have an interest in allowing that to happen. Abbott should bear that in mind as he mulls his frontbench options this week,” warns Phillip Coorey in the Sydney Morning Herald.
Laura Tingle in the Financial Review writes: “Designing a smart and effective ministry, at a pragmatic level, entails bringing together a group of people whose jobs reflect the government’s priorities and workload, rewarding good performers, removing the lesser lights and reflecting the internal balance of power within a government. So it is a stunning achievement by Prime Minister Julia Gillard to have done none of those things in the ministry she arranged on the weekend.”
Cutting out Education Minister and replacing it with several different cabinet positions has ruffled feathers. Peter van Onselen in The Oz calls it an “unbelievable error,” saying “for such a complex policy area to be left without one master — and by a PM who used to be an education minister herself — will stifle reforms.”
Van Onselen wasn’t alone in his condemnation. “Within a day of overhauling her frontbench, the Prime Minister drew a backlash from some of the nation’s leading university chiefs, who described the changes as disappointing, mortifying and bewildering,” reports Farrah Tomazin in The Age.
The biggest supporters of the mining tax, the two ministers in charge of the ETS and the biggest supporter of the Rudd government’s asylums seeker policy have either retained their jobs or moved on to bigger departments. “Gillard’s implicit conclusion? They are capable ministers who are blameless for the policies that she so urgently dumped,” notes Peter Hartcher in the Sydney Morning Herald.
This is a ministry that has much to prove. “Various other coup-makers who have been promoted have to demonstrate they can do more than put together a putsch,” says Michelle Grattan in The Age.
Greg Combet as Climate Change minister gets the A-OK from Dennis Shanahan in The Oz: “His comments yesterday show he hasn’t changed direction — and it’s a direction where the Coalition can ultimately be drawn in so that the radical measures of the Greens can be avoided and economic sense can prevail.”
Making the PM who you unceremoniously dumped the next foreign minister is a conflicted choice.
“…Rudd didn’t even have the people-skills to keep his job as PM, so what chance does he have of wooing foreign dignitaries? He is a poor candidate,” declares van Onselen in The Oz.
But Rudd is obviously rapt with the decision. “To announce he was back, and in a big way, Kevin Rudd strolled through crisp spring weather with United States Ambassador Jeffrey Bleich on the banks of Canberra’s Lake Burley Griffin. This was Kev rubbing it into the faces of certain ALP figures,” notes Malcolm Farr in the Daily Telegraph.
It’s going to be a tricky ride. “One of Kevin Rudd’s first tasks as Foreign Minister will be to negotiate with East Timor to establish a processing centre for asylum seekers there — a policy about which he had deep misgivings when prime minister,” says Phillip Coorey in the Sydney Morning Herald.
Dennis Atkins brings up Gareth Evans old “…no crack of light between foreign minister and prime minister on international policy” line in The Courier Mail, saying:
To rebuild trust and respect in the Labor Caucus, Rudd will have to make sure that crack of light does not emerge, let alone shine through. His future in the Labor Party is in his hands being safe and strife free.
Let the sunshine in one week, no crack of light the next. Go figure.
Interesting that Gillard has no Minister with Education in their portfolio name.
Is this because she knows that she does not have the numbers to stop a HoR review of the BER fiasco and when the report comes down, she wont have an Education Minister to be the fall guy.
Last week on Sky News Agenda, former Labor MP and powerbroker said that the BER has cost 3 times what it should have. Cats out of the bag.
Can’t believe Rudd wanted foreign affairs, he know that having been sacked as Prime Minister has has lost face in Asia and other countries, they will snigger behind his back, he know that. Cant understand him
Surely, Julia would have seen the anger in the public and dumped Shorten, combet et al, even if only for this reshuffle. They weren’t that good as ministers anyway. Penny wong should have been dropped: she struggled in Environment. Conroy won’t last if Turnbull gets communications; Conroy’s been plagued with good luck so far.
Splitting Education: what a tool. To be honest, splitting unis and schools was not bad. But spillting the universities: as one who works in academia, now having to deal with 2 separate departments: one for my undergrads, one for my post-grads, and presumably both for my work. Idiocy on a grand scale.
Julia can’t last. Shame. But she had a disaster of a promotion, a disaster of an election campaign, and a disaster of a ministry.
Lucky for the ALP, I guess, that the other side is so bad.
@Astro: the BER was not a disaster: they already had that inquiry. In my local school, you see 25 guys working for a much needed hall. This is true the whole way around. Only in 2.7% of cases was there a problem, and 50% of those were political stirring in any case.
The problem with not having an Eduaction minister is that Education is the biggest part fo the economy: they’ve essentially neutered the biggest part of the economy. When they tried to make mining pay, the party was rolled. It’s now time for the NTEU to get radical!
The new ministry shows we can’t expect the people in government to actually think about education, let alone implement good policies.
It’s almost a given that every country in the world has an Education Minister (or corresponding title) in charge of all things education.
Guess we will be in line for more dreadful funding arrangements for state/public schools, TAFEs and unis.
And Astro, perhaps Rudd has other ambitions? Or Gillard has decided to shift foreign poicy focus to Europe and the US (where the concept of losing face is not as important). Although, I wonder, if he manages to oust Gillard like she ousted him will he regain face in Asia? Guess we can only wait and see…
http://currentglobalperceptions.blogspot.com/
@sickof it all
2.7% of the BER cases investigated. Dont forget the Public school Principals wont report waste cause it will impact on their careers. Only a full enquiry will reveal all.
Even Richo said it cost triple what it should have. Thats 4.5 billion by his reckoning