Coalition attacks 'dysfunctional' Cabinet of rivals

Julia Gillard. Photo / Getty Images

CANBERRA - The fallout from Australia's most extraordinary election in decades is settling this week as the nation's new Government prepares to be sworn in by Governor-General Quentin Bryce, and Prime Minister Julia Gillard readies for a Parliament like no other in 70 years.

Gillard announced her new Cabinet at the weekend, bringing deposed leader Kevin Rudd back into the fold as Foreign Minister, shuffling her senior portfolios and rewarding some of the key players who helped her to power in the pre-election coup.

Absent from the team is New South Wales independent Rod Oakeshott, who declined a Cabinet job as regional affairs minister offered as Labor worked to win the votes needed to keep power. Oakeshott - who with fellow independent Tony Windsor took Labor across the line - decided to remain firmly on the crossbenches rather than accept a position that could have compromised his independence.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has yet to announce his shadow ministry which, like Gillard's, is almost certain to include a former leader ousted by a coup. Abbott has indicated that Malcolm Turnbull, the man he deposed last December, will be given a senior role.

The heat will be on the Government from day one of the new Parliament, after the Coalition attacked the inclusion of a number of the key coup players .

Opposition frontbencher Peter Dutton told Sky News that the line-up would be fractured by rivalries.

"The most difficult thing that Julia Gillard is going to have is the management of Kevin Rudd, of (Treasurer) Wayne Swan, of (new Defence Minister) Stephen Smith, the National Security Committee - how on earth that meets in a functional way.

"Julia Gillard wants you to believe that this is a family similar to the Brady Bunch when in effect it's probably more dysfunctional than the Osbournes."

Shadow Finance Minister Andrew Robb also said Gillard would not be able to control Rudd, a former diplomat whose abilities have been recently questioned by independent foreign affairs experts. Robb said Rudd believed his knowledge to be superior and that he would "take absolutely no notice of his new boss".

Gillard said that while Rudd had expertise, the Government's foreign policy would be developed by the leadership team, working in the best interests of the nation.

Among his immediate duties would be negotiations with East Timor on the establishment of a new centre for asylum seekers, a proposal that has failed to win support among many of the tiny nation's politicians.

Gillard said Rudd understood it was not in Australia's interests to have continued unauthorised arrivals by sea: "We don't want to see people pay people smugglers."

Rudd's return required Smith to reluctantly concede the job and move to defence.

Among the major winners was Bill Shorten, the former union official who soared to national prominence during Tasmania's Beaconsfield mine disaster, and who was parliamentary secretary for disabilities in the previous Government.

Shorten was one of the key movers in the June coup, but Gillard denied his new job as Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation was a reward.

Wayne Swan remains Treasurer and Deputy Prime Minister, Climate Change Minister Penny Wong has been shifted to finance and deregulation, her former assistant Greg Combet has been promoted to take over her previous job, and former Environment Protection Minister Peter Garrett becomes Minister for Schools, Early Childhood and Youth.

Former Immigration Minister Chris Evans is now Minister for Jobs, Skills and Workplace Relations, while former Human Service Minister Chris Bowen now has the immigration portfolio.