Scott Morrison has handed the trade portfolio to former diplomat Dan Tehan and elevated a key ally, Alex Hawke, to the immigration portfolio, while demoting Richard Colebeck, the aged care minister who had an infamous memory lapse concerning the number of coronavirus deaths during Victoria’s second wave.
The prime minister unveiled the long-telegraphed reshuffle of his frontbench on Friday that was triggered by the departure of his long-serving finance minister, Mathias Cormann, who is running for the secretary general’s position at the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.
The home affairs minister, Peter Dutton, had coveted the defence portfolio and there was grumbling in the right about the performance of the foreign minister, Marise Payne, and the defence minister, Linda Reynolds, but they all stayed put in the light-touch refresh. Colleagues interpreted that as a sign Morrison is leaving open the option of going to an election in the second half of 2021.
The prime minister told reporters on Friday it was important to maintain stability given Australia was still in the grip of a pandemic and an economic downturn.
“In a time of uncertainty, Australians have been able to look to their governments, plural, and see the stability and constancy that is necessary as they navigate their own path through what has been a very challenging year,” Morrison said, noting that “key portfolios geared to Australia’s prosperity and security remain unchanged”.
The prime minister said Tehan – who inherits trade in the middle of an escalating trade war with China – brought “incredibly strong credentials” to the portfolio, “as well as a keen sense of the particular interests of regional and rural Australia in open, rules-based trading systems”.
The Nationals had made a public pitch for trade – that Morrison did not intend to grant – so appointing Tehan, a Liberal from a regional seat who worked for former Nationals leader Mark Vaile when he was trade minister, was an attempted compromise.
Moving Tehan necessitated some movement in the cabinet. Alan Tudge will take Tehan’s former portfolio of education.
Morrison was asked whether Tudge should have been promoted given the revelations of a recent Four Corners program that confirmed the Victorian had a consensual affair with his then-media adviser, Rachelle Miller, in 2017.
The prime minister said Tudge had done a good job in the ministry and had restored issues in his personal life. “There are no matters that are before me in terms of Alan Tudge’s conduct as a cabinet minister in my government that could, in any way, preclude him to continue to serve in these roles,” the prime minister said.
The key responsibilities in aged care – predominantly the government’s response to the royal commission – will now sit with Greg Hunt, the health minister, rather than Colebeck, who retains responsibility for aged care services and regulation. Colebeck remains as sport minister, too.
Morrison said the shift was about “elevating aged care into the cabinet”, not about demoting the current minister. “What I’m doing is putting more grunt, more resource, more capacity into dealing with the challenges in aged care,” he said.
Morrison has handed responsibility for urban infrastructure to Paul Fletcher, the communications minister. David Coleman, who has been away from parliament on personal leave for 12 months, returns to Canberra in a ministry assisting Morrison on mental health and suicide prevention, which the prime minister has nominated as a priority issue.
Hawke, a friend and factional ally of Morrison, takes Coleman’s previous portfolio of immigration, migrant services and multicultural affairs, with Zed Seselja replacing Hawke as minister for international development and the Pacific.
Another Morrison friend and ally, Steve Irons, makes way for Andrew Hastie, the chair of the intelligence and security committee and a former special forces soldier, to become assistant minister for defence.
In the economic team, Jane Hume and Michael Sukkar assume more responsibilities, with Hume adding the digital economy to her portfolio responsibilities in superannuation and Sukkar picking up housing, homelessness, social and community housing.
