Who's in and who's out: key takeaways from Sussan Ley's newly unveiled Coalition frontbench

The Guardian

28-05-2025

After a dramatic breakup, the Coalition is back together – and the opposition leader, Sussan Ley, has announced who's made it into her inner circle.
There are plenty of winners and losers, including several moderate members and key Ley supporters catapulted to the frontbench. The main casualty of the shake-up is Jane Hume, who was expected to be moved from her shadow finance portfolio, but was removed from the shadow ministry entirely.
Here are the six key takeaways from the newly unveiled frontbench.
The biggest loser of the new ministry is Jane Hume, with the former shadow finance minister dumped from the frontbench. Hume was the flag-bearer for a plan to restrict work-from-home for public servants that the Coalition ultimately backflipped on.
Ley said Hume was an 'enormously talented, fantastic' member but wouldn't clarify exactly why she was resigned to the backbench. Bridget McKenzie told the ABC on Wednesday she was 'shocked' by Hume's demotion.
Others also dropped from the shadow ministry list include conservative right faction members Sarah Henderson, the former shadow education minister; Claire Chandler, who near the end of the last term was promoted to the shadow government services portfolio; and Tony Pasin.
Barnaby Joyce and Michael McCormack – both former Nationals leaders – have also been demoted out of the shadow ministry.
The gender split has gone backwards under Sussan Ley's leadership, with nearly twice as many men as women sitting in the shadow cabinet.
While Ley is the first female leader of the Coalition, there are 15 men and eight women in the shadow cabinet, and 19 men and 11 women across the wider ministry. That compares to Peter Dutton's final shadow cabinet which was made up of 11 women and 12 men, which matched that of Anthony Albanese's cabinet gender split. Dutton's wider ministry had 17 men and 13 women overall.
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Women have also been taken out of the key finance and economics portfolios in Wednesday's reshuffle.
It's despite Ley saying, 'we need more women in this party room'.
Andrew Bragg, a moderate, has been promoted from the assistant ministry to cabinet as shadow housing minister; Alex Hawke, a former minister resigned to the backbench under Dutton and key Ley supporter, has been given the shadow industry portfolio; Angie Bell has been moved from the outer ministry to become shadow environment minister; and Julian Leeser has been promoted to shadow attorney general (more on that later). Tim Wilson, a former junior minister before he lost his seat, has been elevated straight to the shadow cabinet, while he waits for the recount in Goldstein to finish.
There's also plenty of fresh blood in the reshuffle, with Gisele Kapterian immediately installed into the shadow ministry (if she comes out on top after a recount in the seat of Bradfield, that is), as well as Maria Kovacic, Zoe McKenzie and Dave Sharma, all of whom are moderates taking assistant roles. Conservative Leah Blyth, who replaced Simon Birmingham in the Senate, has also been given a shadow assistant ministry role.
The voice to parliament campaign was polarising for the country, and for parts of the Coalition. Two of its central figures – Leeser, who stepped down from the frontbench to support the referendum, and Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, who ascended to the frontbench and led the campaign against it – have faced somewhat of a role reversal in the new cabinet.
Leeser had faced internal heat by campaigning for the voice, and colleagues were hesitant to see him return to the frontbench, having started the 2022 term as shadow attorney general. At the end of the last parliament, Dutton gave him a small assistant shadow ministry role, but Leeser, known as a competent performer, has now officially returned from the deep freeze.
Meanwhile, Nampijinpa Price, who defected to the Liberal party room, and most recently held the controversial government efficiency portfolio, has been demoted from the shadow cabinet to the outer shadow ministry, and is now in charge of defence industry and defence personnel. The government efficiency portfolio created under Dutton has also been removed; sources say Ley's team won't pillory the public service and will focus more on a deregulation agenda.
The shadow ministry will now feature no positions with the word 'climate' in the title, after the Coalition changed the shadow minister for energy and climate change to the shadow minister for energy and emissions reductions. When asked about the decision, Ley responded, saying 'different governments give different titles' to portfolios.
Climate and net zero will continue to be sticking points for the Coalition. Both leaders said there would be reviews on energy policy, including on net zero by 2050, which Ley said would be led by Dan Tehan.
Later in the press conference, Littleproud said the Nationals' policy was to support net zero, while Ley said that net zero, the Paris climate agreement, gas settings and critical mineral policies would all be looked at by Tehan. This comes despite Nationals members Matt Canavan and Colin Boyce saying they would campaign against net zero.
Despite the show of unity, with both Ley and Littleproud making their frontbench announcement together, questions continue to plague the leaders on how they can move forward after such a bitter and public breakup (and makeup).
Ley said it wasn't 'bitter'. When asked whether she and Littleproud would last the next three years as party leaders, she said: 'I'm confident that we both will … I know that everyone agreed, in walking out of this party room not that many days ago, to unite behind our leadership.'
Ley described the Coalition as a 'professional partnership' but said she and Littleproud 'will be friends'.