First names revealed in Albo’s reshuffle

Northern Territory Senator Malarndirri McCarthy and NSW Senator Jenny McAllister are expected to become ministers when Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announces his first Cabinet reshuffle later on Sunday.

The big change was triggered after Labor stalwarts Brendan O’Connor and Linda Burney announced they would retire at the next election.

Sky News reports Senator McCarthy will likely become the new Indigenous Australians Minister.

The reshuffle is tipped to be a minimalist one, with the major portfolios remaining in the same hands; Defence will likely stay with Richard Marles, Jim Chalmers will remain the Treasurer and the Energy portfolio will likely stay with Chris Bowen, Sky News reports.

But it is believed Immigration Minister Andrew Giles and Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil could be moved from their ministerial roles in the reshuffle, into new portfolios.

Mr Marles, speaking with Sky News on Sunday morning, refused to rule out a potential refit of the department.

“All will be revealed, I’m not going to pre empt any of that,” he said.

Ms O’Neil and Mr Giles have confronted months of criticism after a series of failures in their portfolios, including the NZYQ high court decision that forced the release of immigration detainees, some of whom went on to commit crimes against Australians.

The reshuffle comes as the government prepares for an expected early election.

“There is a opportunity to refresh the front bench, the Prime Minister is taking that opportunity,” Mr Marles said.

“This comes after a remarkably stable ministry in the first term of the Albanese government.”

On ABC’s Insiders, news.com.au political editor Samantha Maiden suggested current Industrial Relations Minister Tony Burke could become the new Home Affairs minister, with current Agriculture Minister Murray Watt moving from Agriculture to take over industrial relations.

“The big moving part in this reshuffle is who goes into the home affairs portfolio and I’m told the answer to that question is Tony Burke,” she said on Sunday morning.

“The suggestion is what the Prime Minister is looking at and he hasn’t announced it yet, is doing a bit of a job-swap if you like, where you put Murray Watt into industrial relations and you give industrial relations – take from Tony Burke and put Tony Burke into home affairs.

“If that is the case, Tony Burke has already done immigration before. He’s from the Labor right and we want to make sure all the national security type of portfolios are held by someone from Labor right.”

Sky News speculated Mr Watt could be also be considered for elevation to Home Affairs.

Liberal Senator James Paterson, responding to the suggestion on Agenda, said he feared Mr Watt would be “even worse” than Ms O’Neil in the role.

Senator Paterson said Mr Watt had opposed offshore processing, referencing a motion the Queensland Senator moved at a 2015 Labor conference opposing the policy.

Ms McAllister has served as a senator since 2015. She served as national president of the Labor Party between 2011 and 2015.

Ms McCarthy is a Yanyuwa woman from the Gulf country in the Northern Territory.

She was elected a senator in 2016 and then again in 2019. Before politics, she worked as a journalist with the ABC and then SBS and NITV.

Mr O’Connor, who served as both immigration and home affairs minister in previous Labor governments, suggested border control was key to securing government and maintaining the confidence of the electorate.

“Over time, and certainly being in the two very significantly-challenging portfolios of Home Affairs and Immigration, I realised we had to really consider our policies and I’m very proud of the fact that I helped change the platform and the policies of the Australian Labor Party,” he said.

“Well it took a number of national conferences but I really believe if we did not change considerably, we would not have been an electable political party and to the great credit of the Australian Labor Party, those changes were made, but it was not easy.”

He also said the Party had been scarred by its post 2001 election history and senior leaders were focused on maintaining unity and stability in government.

“The one thing the current government understands is we do not want to and we will not return to that conduct,” he said.

“And, in fact, the Cabinet is replete with ministers who had endured an experience some of those tumultuous times and that really informs our current behaviour – unified, cohesive and ordered chaired in the Cabinet by the Prime Minister.”

Sunday’s reshuffle comes as a new RedBridge poll shows the Coalition has pulled ahead of the government on a two-party preferred basis.

Peter Dutton’s LNP now leads Labor 51.5 per cent to 48.5 per cent.

In April, the same polling company showed the government was ahead on 52 per cent to 48 per cent.

The shift has come from low and middle income voters moving to the Coalition camp, the company said.