Subjects: Changes to Federal Ministry
E&OE……………………………………………………………………………………
Well ladies and gentlemen I am releasing to you the details of the new ministerial arrangements. This is a new line-up for the new millennium. It displays the depth of talent, the reservoir of very able people within the Government that three very long-serving, senior and highly respected colleagues can be departing the ministry and I have immediately available at my disposal talented people in different areas of the Government to take their places.
I want to record my great gratitude and thanks and respect to Jocelyn Newman, John Moore and John Herron, all of whom have served this Government with immense distinction. They’ve all been members of the Government since its election almost five years ago in March of 1996 and in different ways they have each presided over great change, great reform, great improvement and have in their different styles and fashions displayed a very sure touch and great ability.
Jocelyn Newman of course has served in the social security/welfare area since March of 1996. She’s been responsible for many reforms. She has pioneered, authored the Government’s response to the McClure recommendations on welfare reform and the direction that those reforms will take was well established by Jocelyn Newman. And I want to thank her for the immense contribution that she has made to the Liberal Party and to the Government both as a minister and as a senator from Tasmania. She of course, along with her late husband Kevin shared with the late Jo and Dame Enid Lyons the rare distinction of being the only two husband and wife couples in the history of federation to both serve in a Federal Cabinet.
John Moore has been a member of Federal Parliament for twenty-five years. And not only has he been a minister in the Fraser Government and also held the Industry and Defence Portfolios in my Government, he’s also been a very significant figure in the Liberal Party in Queensland for three decades serving as State President on two occasions. His work in relation to the White Paper was quite extraordinary, without his energy it wouldn’t have been possible and I warmly thank him. I note of course that he was Minister for Defence during the East Timor deployment.
And John Herron has won respect and gratitude and trust wherever he’s gone in the very difficult portfolio of indigenous affairs. There is a new mood in indigenous policy in Australia at the present time and a lot of the credit for that new and more constructive mood is due to John Herron’s work. On occasions he was subjected to quite unreasonable personal attack, but he always responded in a very dignified fashion. And his tireless on the ground work and his very strong commitment has given real meaning to the expression ‘practical reconciliation’ and he has charted a new more realistic path in this whole area and I want to congratulate him.
As a result of those three departures from the ministry, a major restructuring is necessary. Mr Reith will become the new Defence Minister, he will replace Mr Moore. Mr Tony Abbott will be promoted from the outer ministry into Mr Reith’s vacated portfolio. And Senator Amanda Vanstone will replace Senator Newman as Minister for Family and Community Services and Minister assisting me in relation to the Status of Women. Philip Ruddock will retain his current portfolio of Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs. In addition he will take on the parallel portfolio within the Cabinet of Minister for Reconciliation and Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs. He is of course currently the Minister assisting me in relation to reconciliation so he is very familiar with the indigenous policy area and to assist him I will appoint a specially designated parliamentary secretary in relation to reconciliation and indigenous policy.
The new faces into the ministry will be Senator Eric Abetz from Tasmania who will become Special Minister of State. Mr Mal Brough, the member for … from Queensland, Mr Mal Brough will become the Minister for Employment Services. And Mr Ian Macfarlane also from Queensland will become the Minister for Small Business. The portfolio responsibility for Small Business will remain in the Cabinet with Mr Abbott as it was with Mr Reith, but to provide an additional focus in that area I’ve decided to appoint a specially designated Minister for Small Business. And on top of that I am appointing two new parliamentary secretaries. I am appointing Mr Brendan Nelson the Member for Bradfield in New South Wales as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Defence. And I am appointing Mrs Christine Gallus the Member for Hindmarsh in South Australia as the Parliamentary Secretary assisting Mr Ruddock in relation to indigenous issues. Mrs Gallus is a long-serving Member of Parliament from South Australia and she is a former shadow minister for indigenous affairs when the Coalition was in opposition.
I do want to again record my thanks and send my very good wishes to Jocelyn Newman, John Moore and John Herron. They’ve all served the Liberal Party and the Government with very great distinction and I thank them very warmly for their efforts. These changes are being announced before Christmas but they will formally come into affect after the first Cabinet meeting towards the end of January. That will allow a tidy and orderly time for transition and familiarisation. It does represent a significant restructuring of the ministry. It will be a strong ministry. There will be some new faces. That is no reflection on the quality of those who will no longer be in the ministry to say that it is a new line-up for a new millennium. But it will continue the ongoing philosophy of the Government. We are determined to do all we can to continue governing for all of the Australian people. It is for them to decide at the appropriate time whether we are deserving of re-election. But this team is a strong one. I have a lot of confidence in it. I am very grateful to have so many people at my disposal. I wish the new ministers well. I congratulate them. It’s always a great moment in your political life to become a minister for the first time and I particularly congratulate Mal Brough, Ian Macfarlane and Eric Abetz on their appointments for the first time to the ministry and I wish all of those who have secured promotion and preferment the very best of good luck in the future.
Do you have any questions?
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, will all three former ministers be staying onto the next election?
PRIME MINISTER:
That will be a matter for each of them individually to indicate. I understand Mr Moore has indicated a willingness to, or desire to leave Parliament early in the New Year. The question of the exact timing of that and the announcement of that is a matter for him to announce.
JOURNALIST:
Would you be happy for that to happen if he chose to go now?
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh yes, that’s entirely a matter for him.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister will this be the team you take to the next election?
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard why are linking Aboriginal Affairs with Immigration and Multicultural Affairs?
PRIME MINISTER:
They’re two separate portfolios. The person to do them – Philip Ruddock – already has great experience in indigenous affairs. And I’m putting Reconciliation and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs in the Cabinet.
JOURNALIST:
…looking for a more hardline approach on Aboriginal issues?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, I’m looking for a continuation of the better approach that’s been adopted by this Government. I certainly see a continuation of the work of John Herron. I think John Herron got it right in Aboriginal Affairs and he’s brought about a significant change in direction – a change for the better. There is a better, more positive mood. There are still areas of difference and that is understandable. They’ll continue to be debated but Philip Ruddock has been assisting me in relation to reconciliation. You’ve now got a Minister in the Cabinet dealing with reconciliation and Aboriginal affairs. Now that is an absolute plus in every way.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister did the Telecard affair have any bearing on your decision to move Mr Reith ?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, Mr Reith, in going to Defence, is going from one senior portfolio to another and Mr Reith is a very experienced Minister. As I have clearly demonstrated I have enormous confidence in Mr Reith and he’s made a major contribution in the area of industrial relations. And the courage that he displayed during the waterfront dispute has been without parallel in this Government and he retains my full confidence as a very senior minister.
JOURNALIST:
Was Senator Newman upset that some of her [inaudible] swallowed up by this announcement ?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, I don’t think she has. She always intended, as she will indicate to you, she had a desire to leave the ministry around about this time. I don’t think anything’s been swallowed up. I think people respect enormously the work that she’s done and I thank her very much for what, the contribution she’s made to the Government.
JOURNALIST:
Senator Vanstone of course was in the Cabinet…
PRIME MINISTER:
Was in the Cabinet, yes.
JOURNALIST:
Does this say that she’s earned her stripes ?
PRIME MINISTER:
It says that she has done a fantastic job as Minister for Justice and Customs. I’ve recognised that. I admire the way in which she took the disappointment of being left out of the Cabinet in 1997 in her stride, applied herself to her new job, did it very well, won everybody’s respect as a result and she’s now back in the Cabinet and I say good on her. I think a lot of people admire the guts and pluckiness that she has brought to her job and I’m certain she’ll do the Family and Community Services job extremely well. She’s a very effective performer. But importantly, she was able to accommodate the set back and get on with the job and I always admire that in somebody.
JOURNALIST:
(inaudible)
PRIME MINISTER:
I beg your pardon?
JOURNALIST:
(inaudible)
PRIME MINISTER:
For the outstanding job she’s done in Justice and Customs.
JOURNALIST:
No issue stands out in that respect?
PRIME MINISTER:
The very significant increase in seizures, drug seizures, the very smooth and effective co-operation between the various law enforcement agencies, not only within the Commonwealth but between the Commonwealth and the States. The co-operation evident between the Federal Police, the Customs Service, the State Police – it’s evident every time there’s a major seizure. I think she deserves an enormous amount of credit for that.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister have I got this right, there’s one less minister…
PRIME MINISTER:
I beg your pardon?
JOURNALIST:
One less minister, is that correct ?
PRIME MINISTER:
No. No, in bodies there’s no – the person who’s Immigration and also Aboriginal Affairs is one and the same person but we have an additional junior minister for Small Business who wasn’t there before. So the actual number is exactly the same.
JOURNALIST:
Are you satisfied with the number of women in Cabinet Prime Minister ?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I’m not a person who goes in for quotas. I choose people on the available talent and I choose people on ability and I’ve got the Cabinet …. all the talents and that’s the basis on which I’ve chosen them. The women of the Liberal Party aren’t interested in quotas. They’re interested in being rewarded on merit and that’s what I do. Thank you. Ok, last question.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Reith had a tough attitude towards waterfront reform, he’s now Defence Minister. Do you expect him to have that same tough attitude towards defence in the region.
PRIME MINISTER:
Mr Reith had the right attitude towards waterfront reform. He was interested in the public and not in sectional – sections of the public, and I would anticipate that he will bring the same rigour and balance to defence. The Defence White Paper has laid out the guide path, the plan for the future, in the defence area and it will be Mr Reith’s job to implement that White Paper. I will of course retain a close interest in defence, as I did previously. It’s a very important area of national policy and I think he’ll do it very well. Thanks a lot.
[ends]