Labor cabinet announcement LIVE: Why Albo’s new job for frenemy Tanya Plibersek is a VERY clever insult to her – as result of Nationals leadership spill is revealed

The way the PM has carved up the roles is clever – once you get past the factional maliciousness of dumping Mark Dreyfus, the only Kings Counsel in the parliament from the Attorney General portfolio, alongside dumping Australia’s first Muslim cabinet minister Ed Husic.

Michelle Rowland is the new AG, and she was a serious lawyer before entering parliament.

Close Albo ally Murray Watt takes over environment from Tanya Plibersek now that the portfolio is about to gain teeth courtesy of election pledges in that space.

Giving Plibersek social security without responsibility for the NDIS is similar to having given her environment without climate change in the last parliament. It’s a snub, effectively limiting her responsibilities to pensioners and the unemployed.

It’s clever though, because it’s very hard to suggest the role of minister for social services is a nothing portfolio. It still includes a large chunk of recurrent government spending, just not spending the minister can do much to shape.

New ministerial entrant Dan Mulino becoming assistant treasurer is without doubt the best move Albo made. The Yale PhD graduate in economics is the soundest economic thinker in the government. Replacing outgoing minister Stephen Jones with someone of Mulino’s calibre is like trading your old fashion mini in for a Ferrari.

The only thing that remains to be seen is whether or not the Treasurer Jim Chalmers makes use of Mulino sufficiently within the Expenditure Review Committee process, or whether he gets sidelined.

One thing I can assure readers is that Mulino well knows how poorly designed the pending super tax on unrealised gains is. To date nobody in the executive has listened to his concerns. Let’s see if they do now that he’s second in line to the Treasurer.

Another good move was Andrew Charlton into the cabinet secretary role. It’s not a ministerial position, much less a cabinet one, which is because Charlton has little authority amongst factional hacks.

But the Oxford PhD in economics is second only to Mulino in economic know how in Labor’s caucus, and as cabinet secretary he gets to sit in on cabinet discussions. Albo appointing him to that role was a clever way to bypass the factional gate keepers on the right stifling Charlton’s promotion.

Another piece of cleverness was promoting left winger Anne Aly into cabinet. It means that dumping Husic doesn’t leave Albo’s Cabinet without a Muslim replacement in there.

But that doesn’t overcome the loss of Husic who was one of the few good performers in cabinet in Labor’s first term. Equally, it’s hard to know what Aly remotely knows about her new portfolio of small business.

Not that knowledge about one’s portfolio has ever been a barrier to ministerial promotions in the past.

David Littleproud has been confirmed as the leader of the Nationals following a secret ballot.

‘It’s a great honour to lead our great party,’ he told reporters after th announcement.

‘I’m proud of our achievements over the last three years where I think we set the policy agenda.’

While he acknowleged that the the party’s Deputy Leader Perin Davey had not been successful in her bid for re-election, he insisted he was ‘proud’ of how the Nationals had performed overall.

‘We are able to bring back all our lower house members and transition three new and in fact, in the seat of Bendigo, a seat held by the Labor Party for the last 27 years, with a margin of 11.2 per cent,’ he said.

‘We’ve had a 10 per cent swing, all because of the localised way in which we’ve run a campaign.’

Littleproud had been challenged for the leadership by Matt Canavan.

The PM was tight-lipped when asked whether he fought for Mark Dreyfus and Ed Husic, two senior minister to be booted from the cabinet due to Labor’s factional system.

On Sunday, Husic hit out at Deputy PM Richard Marles, who he descried as a ‘factional assassin’.

But Albanese insisted that he had a ‘constructive discussion’ with Husic.

‘What I have done is to allocate portfolios. That is the system that is there,’ he said.

‘It is one that Ed and others have supported for a long period of time.’

Matt Keogh, Minister for Veterans’ Affairs and Defence

Christie McBain, Minister for Regional Development, Local Government and Territories and Minister for Emergency Management

Andrew Giles, Minister for Skills and Training

Jenny Macalister, Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme

Dan Mulino, Assistant Treasurer and Financial Services

Jess Walsh, Minister for Early Childhood Education and Youth

Sam Rae, Minister for Aged Care and Seniors

Patrick Gorman, Assistant Minister for the Prime Minister and Assistant Minister for the Public Service, Employment and Workplace Relations

Matt Thistlethwaite, Minister for Immigration, Foreign Affairs and Trade

Andrew Leigh, Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury

Ged Kearney, Assistant Minister for Social Services and Assistant Minister for Prevention of Family Violence

Emma McBride, Assistant Minister for Suicide Prevention and Health

Senator Anthony Chisholm, Assistant Minister for Resources, Assistant Minister for Regional Development and for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry

Josh Wilson, Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy and Assistant Minister for Emergency Management

Julian Hill, Assistant Minister for Citizenship, Customs and Multicultural Affairs and Assistant Minister for International Education

Rebecca White, Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care and Assistant Minister for Indigenous Health and Assistant Minister for Women

Andrew Charlton, Cabinet Secretary and Assistant Minister for Science, Technology and the Digital Economy

Senator Nita Green, Assistant Minister for Northern Australia, Assistant Minister for Tourism and Assistant Minister for Pacific Island Affairs.

Peter Khalil, Assistant Minister for Defence

Luke Gosling, Defence, Veterans and Northern Australia

Dan Repacholi, Men’s Health

Kate Thwaites, Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience

Josh Burns, Social Housing and Homelessness

Marion Scrymgour, Remote Communities

Tim Watts, demoted from the assistant ministry to a special envoy for the Indian Ocean

Richard Marles, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence

Penny Wong, Foreign Affairs Minister

Katy Gallaher, Minister for Finance, Minister for the Public Service, Minister for Women, Minister for Government Services

Don Farrell, Minister for Trade and Tourism and Special Minister of State.

Tony Burke, Minister for Home Affairs, Immigration and Citizenship, Cyber Security as well as the Arts

Mark Butler, Minister for Health and Ageing, Disability and the NDIS

Chris Bowen, Minister for Climate Change and Energy

Catherine King, Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government

Amanda Rishworth, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations

Jason Clare, Minister for Education

Michelle Rowland, Attorney-General

Tanya Plibersek, Minister for Social Services

Julie Collins, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry

Clare O’Neil, Minister for Housing, Homelessness as well as Minister for Cities

Madeleine King, Minister for Resources and Northern Australia

Murray Watt, Minister for the Environment and Water

Malarndirri McCarthy, Minister for Indigenous Australians

Annika Wells, Minister for Communications and Minister for Sport

Pat Conroy, Minister for Defence Industry and Minister for Pacific Island Affairs

Anne Aly, Minister for Small Business, Minister for International Development and Multicultural Affairs

Tim Ayres, Minister for Industry and Innovation and Minister for Science

Liberal Party leadership candidate Angus Taylor has rejected claims from a party colleague that he was plotting to oust Peter Dutton before the election.

Senator Hollie Hughes made the astonishing claim without evidence in an interview on Sky News.

‘There are reports of a Liberal MP getting a phone call from a contender’s wife trying to garner support for him long before the election was even over,’ Senator Hughes told the program.

‘I’m talking a couple of weeks before election day. I am someone who was knifed… I believe Angus Taylor had a very big hand in that.’

But Taylor has hit back, describing the claims as ‘false and frankly false’.

‘Mr Taylor’s family has nothing to do with this,’ a spokesperson for the Shadow Treasurer added.

The Liberal Party leadership is a contest between Taylor alongside his running mate Jacinta Price and Sussan Ley.

Tim Wilson, who took back the seat of Goldstein from Teal MP Zoe Daniel, has considered throwing his own hat into the ring.

Teal challenger and self-styled ‘Shadow Member for Bradfield’ Nicolette Boele has lost out to Liberal Gisele Kapterian in Sydney’s north shore, according to an ABC projection.

Boele looked in prime position on election night but Kapterian now has an unassailable lead of 219 votes.

Greens MP Elizabeth Watson-Brown has been declared the winner of her inner-Brisbane seat of Ryan, the ABC has projected.

The LNP’s Maggie Forrest leads on first preferences with about 35 per cent of the vote but chief election analyst Antony Green has declared that a ‘three candidate preferred’ count means Labor will not catch up to the Greens.

Watson-Brown will be the only surviving Greens member in the House of Representatives.

Her old boss was humiliatingly booted from his seat of Melbourne.

Liberal senator Hollie Hughes has slammed Angus Taylor for recruiting Jacinta Nampijinpa Price as his running mate.

Senator Price defected from the Nationals party room to sit with the Liberal Party room.

As a member of the Country Liberal Party, she can choose between the two. But it was widely seen as a betrayal.

‘To me, it feels like turning up to an RSL club with a membership form and then saying by the way I’m going to run for the board and I want to be president,’ Senator Hughes told Sky News.

‘It just wouldn’t work that way.

‘Angus Taylor has insulted not only every Liberal woman but every Liberal Party member in the parliamentary team by saying, “Look, none of you were quite up to the job, I’ve had to go an recruit someone else”.’

The outrider for the Nationals leadership, which will be decided within hours, is pushing for the junior coalition party to dump the ‘ridiculous’ net zero emissions target.

Queensland Senator Matt Canavan (pictured, below) will challenge current party leader David Littleproud when Nationals politicians go to a vote on Monday afternoon.

He hopes to give the Coalition a ‘fighting chance’ at the next election after Australian voters delivered a bruising defeat at the most recent political contest.

‘I don’t think the Australian people were given enough of a choice at the last election,’ he told 2GB on Monday.

‘(At the election) we basically said, “look, things are bad but we’re not proposing any major radical changes to fix it”.

‘I have been an agent of change.’

Party leaders generally sit in the lower house, but having leaders in the Senate is not unprecedented, he said, pointing to the Greens who will soon appoint a leader from their upper chamber team.

‘It’s unconventional … (but) we are in unconventional times,’ Senator Canavan said.

‘The Liberal-National coalition has suffered the worst defeat since World War II and so I think it is time we perhaps look to unconventional responses to get ourselves back in the game.’

His opposition to cutting Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions to net-zero by 2050, and his outspoken nature, have given him recognition within the party and in the regions.

On Monday, he continued to label moves towards net-zero as ‘craziness’ and vowed to dump the policy if he wins the party leadership.

He has also urged his party to diversify from its usual rural and regional voter base and run more candidates in outer-suburban seats, noting many in these areas feel forgotten by ‘capital city-based media’.

Mr Littleproud is still tipped to re-take the Nationals crown, but while Senator Canavan says he has done an excellent job change is needed.

‘We didn’t win,’ he said, of the Coalition’s shattering federal election loss on May 3.

‘This job, like any major leadership role, is a performance-based job, and I think we do need a different strategy.’

The Nationals will have one less person in their partyroom meeting on Monday after Northern Territory Country Liberal Party senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price moved to the Liberal party room from the Nationals.

She’s now running for the deputy Liberal leadership under leader contender Angus Taylor ahead of a vote on Wednesday.

Nationals politicians, including Senator Canavan, have lashed Senator Price for the move, although she can choose which party room to sit in.

‘Jacinta, if she wanted to do this, she could have done it a different way,’ he said.

‘I also don’t think it’s fair for the Northern Territory people.

‘She was elected over a week ago on a platform that she would sit in the National party room.’

The Labor government is likely to have at least 92 seats in the lower house, and the coalition 40, out of 150 spots. Some eight seats are still in doubt.

Anthony Albanese is preparing to announce his senior team for Labor’s second term in office, with fresh faces poised to join the ministry.

The finalised ministerial line-up is anticipated on Monday after Labor locked down more than 90 seats in a convincing election victory.

Competition for leadership spots has been fierce following the influx of new talent and the usual factional carve-up between the states and the left and right factions.

Factional manoeuvring has already claimed two senior ministers, Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus and Industry Minister Ed Husic.

The latter used an appearance on ABC’s Insiders to slam the call endorsed by Deputy Prime Minister and right leader Richard Marles, with Husic labelling him a ‘factional assassin’.

Sam Rae, Daniel Mulino, Jess Walsh and Tim Ayres will be elevated to the frontbench.

Some cabinet appointees will be handed fresh portfolios but Treasurer Jim Chalmers, Finance Minister Katy Gallagher, Defence Minister Richard Marles and Trade Minister Don Farrell will remain in the same jobs.

The refreshed leadership team will sink its teeth into Labor’s second-term policy agenda, with Albanese nominating 20 per cent cuts to student debt as a top priority for the new parliament.

The PM has also declared a ‘clear mandate to build more housing’ to help address affordability woes.

Building 100,00 homes for first-time buyers featured in the party’s election pitch, along with five per cent deposits.

Labor has a few outstanding agenda items it hopes to knock over in its second term, including establishing a federal environment protection agency.

The Liberals, the Nationals and the Greens are all locked in leadership battles.

Liberals deputy leader Sussan Ley and shadow treasurer Angus Taylor are vying for the top spot, with Northern Territory senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price joining forces with Mr Taylor in a tilt for deputy leader.

A party room vote is scheduled for Tuesday.

In the Nationals’ party room, incumbent leader David Littleproud also faces a challenge from Queensland senator Matt Canavan.

The Greens are also without a leader after Adam Bandt lost his seat almost 15 years since he was first elected to parliament.

Senators Mehreen Faruqi and Sarah Hanson-Young are shaping up as frontrunners ahead of the party room vote on Thursday.

A third leadership contender has emerged in the race to take over the reigns of the Liberal Party.

Nat Barr is no stranger to addressing the elephant in the room.

The Sunrise host quizzed Tanya Plibersek about whether she would keep her Environment portfolio in the new Labor cabinet, set to be unveiled later today.

In comments last week, Treasurer Jim Chalmers described her as an ‘outstanding senior minister’ and said he expected her to be handed a senior portfolio.

But Plibersek did her best to be diplomatic, telling Barr that it was ‘completely a matter for the Prime Minister’.

That’s not strictly true: the PM is in hock to the powerful factions within the Labor party and they are really the ones who decide who is in and who is out.

‘I was very grateful last week that my colleagues named me as one of the people who will be on the frontbench,’ Plibersek said, insisting again that it was ‘100 per cent an issue for the PM’.

So Barr tried a different tack, asking the current Environment Minister what she would like, if it were up to her.

‘Oh, I am just…,’ she floundered.

‘Honestly, Nat, so grateful that we won the election, so grateful to be in such a large and diverse caucus, and thrilled to be selected to be on the frontbench again.

‘I just want to make a contribution to Australia. I just want to keep doing a good job for the government and for the people of Australia.’

Liberal Senator Dave Sharma, who was also appearing on the program, let out a wry chuckle.

Barr said ‘that’s a lovely answer’, before trying for a third time.

‘I did notice Jim Chalmers said you’re an outstanding senior minister and he expects you to have a senior portfolio. So, you know…if you were a betting woman, what would you say?’, she asked.

Plibersek dissembled for the third time, now quite adept at the humble team player act.

‘The first day that I walked into Parliament House, the first day I worked there, I just thought how amazing this country is,’ she gushed.

‘My parents came here as refugees in the 1950s after the Second World War. And I got elected to the Australian Parliament, and every day that I’m there, I consider just the most enormous privilege, and to actually be a member of the executive is beyond anything I ever anticipated in my life.

‘I genuinely am so grateful.’

Let’s see what she says if the PM decides to snub her once again.