Albanese eyes up cabinet picks after Australian election victory
The trouble with winning an
election landslide
is the victorious party has many more people angling for cabinet ministries.
Inevitably, some are going to be disappointed, feelings will be hurt and careers will be cut short.
But if winning up to 93 of the
Australian
parliament's 150 lower house seats is a problem for Labor prime minister
Anthony Albanese
, it's not as bad as the headache facing the opposition: the Liberal-National coalition, a conservative alliance reduced to its worst result of about 44 seats (some are still too close to call).
Making a bad situation worse, the Liberal side of the coalition is leaderless, with Peter Dutton having lost his Brisbane seat to Labor. Labor also won Greens leader Adam Bandt's seat.
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Though Albanese has more power than any previous Labor prime minister, he is answerable to the left and right factions of the party, which in turn are tied to support from affiliated unions.
The left, from which Albanese comes, gained more seats and is looking for an extra cabinet position. The right, led by deputy prime minister Richard Marles, has already shown how ruthless it can be by telling attorney-general Mark Dreyfus and industry minister Ed Husic that their time in cabinet is over.
The major difficulty with that is Dreyfus, who is Jewish, is the most pro-Israel Labor MP, and Husic, whose parents migrated from Bosnia, is the only Muslim in cabinet. Dropping both at the same time risks looking like an oblique comment on the Middle East.
Albanese could have made a 'captain's pick' to retain one or both, but chose not to. He has also not commented on whether environment minister Tanya Plibersek will retain her portfolio. Though they are both from the left of the party and represent neighbouring Sydney electorates, Albanese and Plibersek are not close and she is seen as a future Labor leader.
But when the new cabinet is sworn in next week, Plibersek will still be included as Albanese will calculate that she is better kept close at hand than stewing on the backbenches. But she is unlikely to remain as environment minister, as Albanese has previously watered down some of her proposals.
The Liberals will meet to pick a new leader on Tuesday. With
Dublin-born Keith Wolohan
, who was tipped as a future leader, having lost his Melbourne seat and other front runners having dropped out, this is a two-horse race between deputy party leader Sussan Ley and shadow treasurer Angus Taylor.
In the expectation that Taylor would be a bigger threat, Labor treasurer Jim Chalmers criticised him while votes were being counted on election night last Saturday, questioning his grasp of economics.
Even more damning for Taylor is that one of his own, Liberal senator Hollie Hughes, did the same thing.
'I have concerns about his capability. I feel we have zero economic policy to sell,' she told ABC radio. 'I don't know what he's been doing for three years. There was no tax policy, there was no economic narrative.'
Labor will hope Ley is chosen as she would be an easier target, given her unorthodox beliefs and an expenses scandal.
Ley, who changed her name from Susan to Sussan, explained in 2015: 'I read about this numerology theory that if you add the numbers that match the letters in your name you can change your personality. I worked out that if you added an s I would have an incredibly exciting, interesting life and nothing would ever be boring. It's that simple.'
Her life got a touch too exciting when she had to resign as health minister in 2017 after using a taxpayer-funded trip to buy an apartment on Queensland's Gold Coast. While Labor questions Taylor's grasp of numbers, Ley's grasp of numerology and expenses will be easy to attack.
Meanwhile, the opposition coalition's supporters in the Rupert Murdoch-owned newspapers and Sky News are reeling at the biggest conservative loss they've seen.
Andrew Bolt, who is a Sky News presenter and News Corp columnist, published a piece last Saturday telling Australians they had made a mistake. 'No, the voters aren't always right. This time they were wrong,' he wrote.
Bolt said the coalition lost because it 'refused to fight the 'culture wars''. This was a reference to issues such as identity politics, Aboriginal policy and immigration. His Sky colleague Peta Credlin, a former chief of staff to ex-Liberal prime minister Tony Abbott, later backed Bolt, saying 'I'd argue we didn't do enough of a culture war'.
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Letters to the Editor, June 12th: On rent market changes, the media and hurling
Sir, – For a political party that once declared their support for 'people who get up early in the morning', the changes announced in the rental market feels like a statutory stab in the back. As a property investor who had many sleepless nights during the 'crash', and who has worked hard all my life and done without, I now find my investments held hostage by a legislative tangle of incomprehensible rules and regulations. And why? All because a government has failed miserably to address the housing crisis and needs a fall guy to sate the baying populist politicians on the Opposition benches. Who was there for me when interest rates were rising, when the banks were spitting in my face and tenants were not to be found? No help, no rescue plan for landlords then. We struggled through at great cost, financially, emotionally and physically. 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However, I was puzzled by Linehan's description of me as 'an activist with a clear ideological stance'. I challenge him to define this supposed ideological stance, as I suspect he'll struggle to do so. My work is driven not by ideology but by a commitment to reality, biological facts, and professional responsibility. As a psychotherapist, I am duty-bound to advocate for best-practice care for gender-distressed young people, just as journalists like Linehan are obliged to confront challenging issues in the public sphere. It's unfortunate that his piece, while rightly noting Irish journalism's reluctance to engage with this topic, mischaracterises my mental health work as activism rather than professional integrity. In 2021, I founded Genspect, an international organisation that promotes a non-medicalised approach to gender-related distress. We believe that feminine boys should be free to wear dresses, and that masculine girls should be able to express stereotypically masculine traits, without being directed towards puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones. As a former masculine girl myself, I know firsthand how society struggles to accept gender-nonconforming children and I advocate for a world that embraces this nonconformity without relying on medical intervention. Genspect provides vital psychological support through regular online meetings for individuals harmed by medical transition, parents of trans-identified youth, and those who identify as transgender. With approximately 1,500 individuals supported, including over 360 detransitioners – people who have medically transitioned and now seek to reverse this transition – Genspect is the only organisation in the world that offers free support to detransitioners. This is not activism; it's a response to urgent, unmet needs. 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His explanation, or excuse, as to why this happened will be of little comfort to parents and women who have experienced radio (and print) silence in trying to engage in a national discussion about actual evidence, best practice, safeguarding and fairness. Linehan is correct that children, and women, deserve better. As a starting point, we need the media to do its job and report on the evidence and the facts. The Irish Times would do well to engage and finally reassert itself as a paper of record on this issue. – Yours etc, SHEENA McAFEE, Dartry, Dublin 6. Godly consultants Sir, – Tom O'Dowd MD (Letters, June 11th) asks 'how are managers expected to deal with a few highly unionised well-paid doctors with track records of bullying junior staff and playing the system?' Perhaps addressing them as God or Your Majesty would do the trick. –Yours, etc, BRIAN AHERN, Clonsilla, Dublin. Nursing homes scandals Sir, – The recent horrifying revelations concerning maltreatment of some residents in some care homes indirectly highlights the critical importance of enabling infirm people to remain in their own homes for as long as is feasible. A critical factor, in enabling people to remain in their homes for as long as possible, is the support that they receive, especially, and not just from family members and neighbours, but also from the unsung heroes, the health care assistants who visit infirm people in their homes and provide them with the sustenance and care that they need order to supplement their support. We see this in the case of an elderly family member. Included in this rank of busy and extremely burdened health care assistants are the many who are non-nationals in origin and who, alongside their Irish counterparts, provide empathetic and utterly devoted care, sometimes to a level way beyond their employment remit. Let us celebrate all those who deserve celebration, who all too often are undervalued even though what they do, on a daily basis, is some of the most important work in society. Without this vital group of healthcare workers there are many, now contently living at home, who would already be in care homes, perhaps receiving less than optimal care for their individual needs, not to mention the premature loss of their autonomy. Proper pay and conditions, sufficient time for visits and proper recognition of the invaluable role of these vital people within society ought to be a minimum practical provision in a truly caring society. – Yours, etc, REGINA and ANTHONY LAYNG, Ringsend Road, Dublin 4. Sir, – Prof Des O'Neill calls for a number of measures, including stronger advocacy voices, to address the lingering crisis in our nursing homes ('Has anything changed since Leas Cross?', June 10th ). Unfortunately, there will never be enough professionally trained advocates to help residents. The wider community can play a pivotal role in this regard. The theme of World Elder Abuse Awareness Day on June 15th is connection is protection – by being good neighbours and watching out for each other we can protect the most vulnerable from potential abuse. Residents living in nursing homes become quickly disconnected from the rest of society with many experiencing profound loneliness. Such a situation can be a breeding ground for bad work practices and abuse. Communities who visit residents regularly in their local nursing homes are uniquely placed to break the cycle of loneliness, call out poor standards of care and become advocates for the most vulnerable. The persistent determination of those families who continue to fight for their loved ones featured in the recent RTÉ Investigates: Inside Ireland's Nursing Homes should be a rallying call for communities to take up the mantle. – Yours, etc, TONY CARROLL, Beaumont, Dublin. Trump and fatigue Sir, – US president Donald Trump seems intent on testing the powers of his office to the limit. Perhaps it is time for the United States to consider changing the first line of the preamble to the Constitution from 'we the people' to 'I, the President. – Yours, etc, NUALA DELANEY, Killiney, Co Dublin. Sir, – Would it be possible to publish the paper for a week without a reference to President Trump ? I'd settle for a day. – Yours, etc, PAUL WALSH, Co Dublin. Freedom flotilla interception Sir, – So the Israeli military forces intercepted and seized the non-profit Freedom Flotilla Coalition's yacht in international waters, while she was sailing to Gaza with a symbolic contribution of urgently needed humanitarian aid. The stomach churning photo of an Israel Defense Forces individual pressing a sandwich and orange juice on a bemused Greta Thunberg said it all. There were reports that the flotilla detainees would be subjected to a film, while 'guests of the nation', about the original attack by Hamas on Israel in October, 2023. One wonders, purely for balance, if the Israeli government would also show a documentary on the total destruction of Gaza and the killing of an estimated 54,000 people in 20 months of ruthless and incessant bombardment. It was probably unlikely that there would be time to show the detail, in the face of Israel's haste to get the turbulent group of flotilla volunteers off their hands. –Yours, etc, PATRICK JUDGE, Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin. An affront to humanity Sir, – The release of Ratko Mladic (' Ratko Mladic: Terminally ill Bosnian Serb general serving life for genocide seeks release, ' June 10th) would be an affront to humanity and the entire concept of justice itself. Last year I visited Sarajevo and Mostar, having previously studied the Bosnian war and genocide. I am lucky enough to not have lived during such utter depravity, but its lessons on ethnonationalism and the failure of the international community should never be forgotten. As you stand in the Sehidsko Mezarje Kovaci cemetery next to the old town in Sarajevo, you will witness young people weep as they mourn their parents who never had the chance to see their children go to college or have families; the partners and parents of those who were blown to bits before their very eyes by Serb mortars. They remember what Mladic did to Bosnia like it was yesterday, and it will haunt them for the rest of their lives. Victims of a brutal 1,425-day siege, a city abandoned to slaughter by the world. Today, it stands as a city where Muslims, Jews and Christians worship and live side by side, as they have done for over 500 years; a stark contrast to the vision of a resurgent reactionary nationalism across Europe, the United States and the Middle East. Mladic's lawyers have argued that he should be allowed to live out the remainder of his days alongside his family; there can be no true justice for what happened in Bosnia. However, allowing Mladic to experience freedom would be the most grotesque injustice for those who will never cease to mourn. Will international justice fail them once again? – Yours, etc, ANDREW DUNNE, Rialto, Dublin 8. Free-flowing hurling Sir, – Gordon Manning's article about referees and free-flowing hurling('I f we want free-flowing hurling we must accept the refereeing that facilitates it, ' June 10th,) is timely. When the subject of free-flowing hurling is discussed, it is normally assumed that it is entirely the prerogative of the referee that a match is free-flowing ie. the referee tolerates a certain level of fouling or rule-breaking in the interests of a free-flowing game. For some strange reason, the spotlight is never placed on the players who commit the fouls and break the rules. Players behaviour should be placed at the centre of any debate regarding the desire for a free-flowing game. It is quite simple – play by the rules and there will be fewer frees. Then you get a free-flowing game that avoids dubious (and often dangerous) tackles that otherwise become the norm in a match. – Yours, etc, EAMON O'FLYNN, Merrion Road, Dublin 4. Unrestricted censorship Sir, –I had quite a different experience of a library than the one experienced by President Michael D Higgins and detailed by Ray Burke in An Irish Diary (June 9th). All the books were bad for you in the one I visited, but I nevertheless had unrestricted access to them. The Department of Justice had a store of banned publications which they kindly allowed me entry to about 25 years ago. As Burke points out, so many famous authors had had their works scrutinised that the censors handled what are now very valuable books. I visited the collection to see if there were editions that should have been transferred to the National Library or otherwise preserved. Unfortunately, there weren't. Instead, there were shelves of randomly assorted volumes and a small selection of top shelf magazines. The books ranged from aged historical romances that had left my teenage sisters undamaged (and which were by then available in any second-hand shop in the country), to more recherché and pornographic texts in Latin (which no one bothered to ban as they were protected by classic status). While no individual work was valuable, the collection is of considerable interest as it contained the underlinings and jottings of the censorship committee members and I hope that it has been preserved intact. – Yours, etc, JOHN FLOOD, University of Groningen, The Netherlands.
