LABOR'S TEAM FULL OF OLD HANDS
Labor old hands eye off Cabinet return
If Labor were to form government after the May 21 Federal Election, it won’t be short on ministerial experience.
Anthony Albanese would assume government with one of the most experienced frontbench teams to take Labor to office.
Several members of the Shadow Cabinet have previously served in a Labor Federal Cabinet, led by Albanese himself, who held transport and infrastructure portfolios and was a Deputy Prime Minister to Kevin Rudd.
Indeed, if successful, Albanese would be the most experienced Federal Labor MP to become Prime Minister.
Elected in 1996, Anthony Albanese would be second only to Harold Holt (31 years) as the longest-serving Federal MP to be elected to the nation’s top job. By contrast, former PMs Paul Keating and John Howard had both served around 22 years before moving to The Lodge.
The Labor Leader’s team comprises many former ministers who served under Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard in the period 2007 to 2013, albeit some of brief ministerial tenure.
Deputy Labor Leader Richard Marles served as Trade Minister in 2013, while Brendan O’Connor served under both Rudd and Gillard from 2007 to 2013. Labor Senate Leader Penny Wong was also a Climate Change Minister under Kevin Rudd and Finance Minister under Gillard.
New South Wales frontbenchers Tanya Plibersek, Chris Bowen (briefly as Treasurer), Tony Burke and Jason Clare served as Ministers during Labor’s last stint in office, as did former Leader Bill Shorten and Tasmanian frontbencher Julie Collins.
Victorian MP Mark Dreyfus is in line for a second stint as Attorney-General, after filling the same position in 2013.
Queensland’s Dr Jim Chalmers would be the new Treasurer in an Albanese Government, but unlike many of his shadow ministerial colleagues, did not serve as either a minister or MP in the Rudd-Gillard period. He did, however, serve as a chief of staff to the former Treasurer and Deputy Prime Minister, Wayne Swan.
Current ALP Deputy Senate Leader Kristina Keneally, who is seeking to move to a NSW Lower House seat at the next election, is not a former Federal Minister but served 15 months as NSW Premier until her defeat in 2011.
Similarly, the Shadow Finance Minister, Katy Gallagher. She entered the Senate in 2015, during the Abbott government, but was previously the ACT’s Chief Minister.
South Australian Labor Senator Don Farrell is another former minister, serving as Minister for Science and Research and Minister for Sport in the Gillard-Rudd governments.
Like Marles and Dreyfus, however, Farrell served less than six months as a minister during Labor’s tumultuous final year in 2013.
When Gough Whitlam’s Labor government was elected in 1972 for the first time in 23 years, a common criticism was that its ministers (including Whitlam) had no Federal ministerial experience.
Bob Hawke’s Labor government of 1983 contained a few Labor ministerial veterans, including Bill Hayden, Lionel Bowen and Paul Keating, while Rudd’s first ministry included Keating government ministers Simon Crean and John Faulkner.
Almost nine years after it lost office in 2013, Labor retains a strong nucleus of former ministers.
If it succeeds next month, Labor’s team will be ready to take office from day one, armed with the lessons of government of the Rudd-Gillard years.
Gavin Clancy is a Senior Consultant with Lunik