P 030723Z DEC 07
FM AMEMBASSY CANBERRA
TO SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 8658
INFO AMCONSUL MELBOURNE PRIORITY 
AMCONSUL PERTH PRIORITY 
AMCONSUL SYDNEY PRIORITY 
CDR USPACOM HONOLULU HI PRIORITY
SECDEF WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
NSC WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY

C O N F I D E N T I A L CANBERRA 001712 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
NOFORN 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/02/2017 
TAGS: PGOV AS
SUBJECT: RUDD'S CABINET: WINNERS, LOSERS, AND SURPRISES 
 
Classified By: Political Counselor James F. Cole for reasons 1.4 (b) an 
d (d). 
 
¶1. (C/NF) SUMMARY: Prime Minister-elect Kevin Rudd announced 
a 42-member Australian Labor Party (ALP) Ministry November 
¶29.  Twenty of the positions are in the Cabinet.  Ten are in 
what is known as the "outer ministry," and 12 are 
parliamentary secretaries, who assist the minister in the 
portfolios to which they are assigned.  Rudd and his 
ministers were sworn in on Monday, December 3.  While Rudd 
had said he would choose the Ministry - rather than have it 
chosen for him by the powerful blocs within the ALP - the 
ministry broadly reflects the balance between the Left and 
Right in the ALP.  The members of the 20-member Cabinet were 
not a surprise, but some of their portfolios were modified in 
unexpected ways.  Several incoming Ministers have been given 
positions in which they have no background.  In addition, 
there are question marks over whether Deputy Leader Julia 
Gillard will be able to meet the challenges of an expaned 
portfolio that included Education, as well as Employment and 
Workplace Relations.  High-profile union newcomers Greg 
Combet and Bill Shorten were appointed Parliamentary 
Secretaries, although neither job was in an area related to 
 
SIPDIS 
their background as union officials.  Maxine McKew, who 
defeated John Howard for his parliamentary seat in Sydney, 
was rewarded with a parliamentary secretary position in the 
Prime Minister's office. END SUMMARY 
 
CABINET 
 
¶2. (U) In a departure from his predecessor, PM Rudd expanded 
the Cabinet, the principal decision-making forum of the 
Australian Government, from 18 to 20.  In order to keep 
within the Constitutionally-mandated 42-seat limit, Rudd 
reduced his outer ministry to 22.  By modern convention, only 
the more senior ministers are members of Cabinet.  Most 
Cabinet ministers have one or two junior ministers or 
parliamentary secretaries who assist them in their portfolio 
and who are joint administrators of the government department 
with the senior Cabinet minister.  The Rudd Cabinet is: 
 
-- Kevin Rudd, Prime Minister, 
-- Julia Gillard, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for 
Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, 
-- Wayne Swan, Treasurer, 
-- Chris Evans, Government Leader in the Senate and Minister 
for Immigration and Citizenship, 
-- John Faulkner, Special Minister for State and Cabinet 
Secretary, 
 
SIPDIS 
-- Simon Crean, Minister for Trade, 
-- Stephen Smith, Minister for Foreign Affairs, 
-- Joel Fitzgibbon, Minister for Defense, 
-- Nicola Roxon, Minister for Health and Aging, 
-- Jenny Macklin, Minister for Families, Housing, Community 
Services and Indigenous Affairs, 
-- Lindsay Tanner, Minister for Finance, 
-- Anthony Albanese, Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, 
Regional Development and Local Government, 
-- Stephen Conroy, Minister for Broadband, Communications and 
the Digital Economy, 
-- Kim Carr, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and 
Research, 
-- Penny Wong, Minister for Climate Change and Water, 
-- Peter Garrett, Minister for the Environment, Heritage and 
the Arts, 
-- Robert McClelland, Attorney-General, 
-- Joseph Ludwig, Minister for Human Services and Manager for 
Government Business in the Senate, 
-- Tony Burke, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and 
Forestry, and 
-- Martin Ferguson, Minister for Resources, Energy and 
Tourism. 
QTourism. 
 
OUTER MINISTRY 
 
¶3. (U) The l0-member Outer Ministry, who are ministers that 
are not part of the Cabinet: 
 
-- Nick Sherry, Minster for Superannuation and Corporate Law, 
-- Craig Emerson, Minister for Small Business, Independent 
Contractors and the Service, and Minister Assisting the 
Finance Minister on business deregulation, 
-- Brendan O'Connor, Minister for Workforce Participation, 
-- Tanya Plibersek, Minister for Housing and the Status of 
Women, 
-- Bob Debus, Minister for Home Affairs, 
 
-- Alan Griffin, Minister for Veterans Affairs, 
-- Warren Snowden, Minister for Defense and Science Personnel, 
-- Justine Elliott, Minister for Aging, 
-- Kate Ellis, Minister for Youth and Sport, and 
-- Chris Bowen, Assistant Treasurer and Minister for 
Competition Policy and Consumer Affairs. 
 
PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARIES 
 
¶4. (U) There are 12 Parliamentary Secretaries: 
 
-- Maxine McKew, Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime 
Minister, 
--Greg Combet, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for 
Defense, 
-- Bill Shorten, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for 
Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, 
-- Mike Kelly, Parliamentary Secretary for Defense, 
-- Gary Gray, Parliament Secretary to the Minister for 
Infrastructure, with responsibility for northern and regional 
Australia, 
-- Bob McMullan, Parliamentary Secretary for International 
Development Assistance, 
-- Duncan Kerr, Parliamentary Secretary for the Pacific, 
-- Laurie Ferguson, Parliamentary Secretary for Multicultural 
Affairs and Settlement Programs, 
-- Ursula Stephens, Parliamentary Secretary for Social 
Inclusion, 
-- Anthony Byrne, Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime 
Minister, and 
-- John Murphy, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for 
Trade. 
 
A BIG BUREAUCRATIC SHAKEUP 
 
¶5. (SBU) Before the election, Rudd promised that there would 
be minimal disruption for public service departments under a 
change of government.  However, his announcement of the 
Ministry indicates otherwise: half the cabinet departments 
will experience major changes in their portfolios.  For 
example, Education and Employment and Workplace Relations 
will merge into a "super-department" and the Department of 
Environment would be presumably split to accommodate the new 
portfolio of Climate Change and Water.  Rudd also said he had 
not given up on creating a Department of Homeland Security, 
which would take in several departments. 
 
GILLARD GETS BOTH KEY PORTFOLIOS 
 
¶6. (SBU) In September Rudd broke with ALP tradition by 
declaring that he would choose the Ministry and that it would 
be chosen on merit, rather than by ALP Caucus election after 
consultation among the factions.  As far as Cabinet is 
concerned, he has stuck with the senior members of his front 
bench that served him so well in opposition. Generally, they 
have retained their portfolios although there are a few 
stand-out exceptions such as Stephen Smith in Foreign 
Affairs, Julia Gillard in Education and Tony Burke in 
Agriculture.  Gillard has responsibility for implementing the 
two policies which the ALP has defined itself on since Rudd 
became leader - the "Education Revolution" and the abolition 
of WorkChoices.  These are monumental tasks.  The university 
sector has expressed concern that Gillard will be too 
stretched to adequately handle the education part of her 
brief.  In workplace relations, she will have to deal with 
elements of the union movement that are already calling on 
the ALP to go further than the policies on which it 
campaigned, and in education she will have to work with the 
left-wing teachers' unions which opposed the ALP's campaign 
pledge to fund non-government schools. 
 
UNION HEAVYWEIGHTS GET HALF A LOAF 
 
¶7. (SBU) Greg Combet, the past national secretary of the 
Australian Council of Trade Unions, and Bill Shorten, 
ex-national secretary of the Australian Workers Union both 
Qex-national secretary of the Australian Workers Union both 
were elected to Parliament from safe Labor seats.  Both are 
nationally-known charismatic union leaders who have been 
anointed by the media as future ALP leaders.  Before the 
election, there was speculation they would both be appointed 
ministers.  However, it appears that Rudd has done only what 
he had to do, giving them parliamentary secretary positions 
in recognition of their former positions but not appointing 
them to the ministry.  Interestingly, neither man seems to 
have been given a high-profile job.  Shorten, who is from 
Victorian Right Faction, will be parliamentary secretary to 
E 
 
the Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services, and 
Indigenous Affairs with particular responsibility for 
disabilities and children's' services.  Combet, from the 
Left, is parliamentary secretary to the Defense Minister, 
with special responsibility for defense procurement. 
 
FACTIONS STILL MATTER 
 
¶8. (C/NF) When he announced the Ministry, Rudd reiterated 
that factional considerations were not a factor in his 
decision and he had just consulted "a few wise old owls" in 
the ALP.  However, although he did not take orders from the 
caucus, it appears Rudd did take the factions into account. 
It may be no coincidence that the 20 member Cabinet contains 
the same number proportion of factional representation as the 
ALP National Executive: 11 Right and 9 Left.  Rudd has looked 
after power brokers such as the "Roosters" which supported 
Beazley (Conroy, Smith and Swan),  Kim Carr from Victorian 
Left (who supported Rudd against Beazley), and Joe Ludwig 
(son of the influential Queensland union official Bill 
Ludwig).  Perhaps reflecting South Australia's increased 
representation in Caucus,  Rudd has promoted 30 year-old Kate 
Ellis, a protege of incoming Senator Don Farrell, the most 
powerful player in the South Australian ALP.  As with the 
National Executive Committee, the "Independents" - those not 
aligned with Left or Right - have no representation in 
Cabinet, reflecting a tendency of the Right and Left to form 
an alliance to gain a greater share of the spoils. This may 
partly explain why Bob McMullan, an experienced former 
Keating Government minister who is close to Rudd,  was only 
appointed a parliamentary secretary. 
 
COMMENT: SOCIAL PORTFOLIOS TO THE LEFT, ECONOMIC AND DEFENSE 
PORTFOLIOS TO THE RIGHT 
 
¶9. (C/NF) As with previous ALP governments, the Right 
dominated the economic and defense-related portfolios, while 
the Left received a large number of the "social portfolios" 
such as Immigration, Family Services, Indigenous Affairs, 
Education, Housing and the Status of Women.  In the last ALP 
government, there was an implicit trade off between Right and 
Left - the Left would grudgingly accept the Right's economic 
reforms while the Right would let the Left pursue its agenda 
on Aboriginal affairs, multiculturalism and immigration. 
However, the perceived hijack of the Keating government by 
the Left's agenda is generally regarded as a key reason for 
the ALP's defeat in 1996.  Rudd, a social conservative who 
holds unprecedented power in the ALP caucus, should be able 
to resist the Left's agenda, which includes a rollback of the 
Coalition's intervention in remote Aboriginal communities.  A 
noted centralizer and micro-manger, Rudd will likely keep his 
Ministers on a tight leash. 
 
MCCALLUM