Senior Liberal Jane Hume has been dumped to the backbench and Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has been demoted from shadow cabinet, after Sussan Ley and David Littleproud rewarded supporters with key posts in the new Coalition frontbench.
The Liberal and National leaders unveiled the shadow ministry on Wednesday after striking a new Coalition agreement, reuniting the parties after a brief but dramatic split.
“What we have done today is set the foundation stones to say to the Australian people that ‘we know who we are, we know where we’re going and we are focused on you’,” Littleproud told reporters in Canberra.
The new frontbench represents a major refresh for the senior ranks of the Coalition, which lost Peter Dutton and three other shadow ministers in the federal election rout.
Hume, Sarah Henderson, Claire Chandler and Barnaby Joyce have been demoted from shadow cabinet to the backbench, with a raft of new faces – including the incoming Goldstein MP Tim Wilson – promoted to the opposition’s top decision-making team.
Price will remain in the shadow ministry in a defence industry portfolio but has been dumped from shadow cabinet.
Her controversial government efficiency role – which had echoes of Elon Musk’s Doge in the Trump administration – has been abandoned entirely.
As expected, the new deputy leader, Ted O’Brien will be the new shadow treasurer, replacing Angus Taylor in the high-pressure portfolio.
Taylor, who narrowly lost to Ley in a post-election leadership ballot, will take over the defence portfolio from Andrew Hastie, who will move to home affairs.
O’Brien’s former role of energy spokesperson will go to Dan Tehan, putting him front and centre in the looming fight over net zero.
James Paterson has been appointed minister for finance and the public service, replacing Hume in both portfolios.
Hume endured a torrid election campaign as the flag-bearer for the Coalition’s ultimately abandoned plan to restrict work-from-home for public servants and its proposal to cut 41,000 positions from the federal bureaucracy.
Asked if Hume had asked to be demoted, Ley said she wouldn’t divulge the details of private conservations.
Liberal sources said the Victorian senator – a senior moderate – was forced out in order to promote fresh blood.
“I will say that this: These are tough days and having been through many days like this myself in my parliamentary career, I recognise that,” Ley said.
Michaelia Cash will take on foreign affairs, with her old job of shadow attorney-general handed to Julian Leeser, who returns to the role after forfeiting it in 2023 to campaign for the voice to parliament.
Cash’s other former portfolio – workplace relations – will go to Wilson, who has vaulted straight into shadow cabinet after reclaiming the seat of Goldstein.
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Wilson is one of six Liberals prompted to shadow cabinet, along with Angie Bell (environment), Andrew Bragg (housing and productivity), Kerrynne Liddle (Indigenous Australians), James McGrath (cities) and Alex Hawke (industry).
Gisele Kapterian, who is expected to win the Sydney seat of Bradfield for the Liberals, will join the assistant ministry, pending the recount in the seat.
Hawke – a former numbers man for Scott Morrison – helped orchestrate Ley’s rise to the leadership.
Ley rejected suggestions she had punished Taylor backers while promoting her own supporters.
“An opposition is not about hierarchies, it’s not about structure, it’s about getting every player on the field, fighting the fight. Because this is not about the internals,” she said.
On the Nationals side, Littleproud chose to relegate former Nationals leader Michael McCormack to the backbench after he publicly railed against the initial decision to split with the Liberals.
The NSW senator, Ross Cadell has been promoted to the water and emergency management portfolios, both of which were held by former deputy leader Perin Davey before she lost her seat.
The announcement of the shadow ministry came after the Nationals party room met on Wednesday morning to endorse a new Coalition agreement.
As reported in Guardian Australia, Littleproud sought party room approval for several safeguards the Liberals wanted attached to the country party’s policy priorities.
The reunion rounds off a tumultuous seven days in which the Nationals split from the Liberals for the first time in 38 years, only to return to the negotiating table within 48 hours after crisis talks between the two leaders.
After initially refusing to immediately support the Nationals’ ultimatums, Ley convened a party room meeting on Friday in which Liberal MPs gave “in-principle support” to policies on nuclear power, a $20bn regional future fund, divestiture powers and regional telecommunications.
In the final stages of negotiations, the Liberals insisted on several conditions, including an assurance that divestiture powers – which would extend to “big-box retailers” such as Ikea and Harvey Norman – would be a “last resort” and subject to a public interest test.
