Anthony Albanese was officially sworn as Australia’s 31st Prime Minister in by the Governor General on Monday morning following Saturday’s federal election. It’s ushered in a new era for the country and a whole new cast of characters in parliament.
Given Scott Morrison and familiar faces from the Coalition like treasurer Josh Frydenberg are gone, who will the new senior members of parliament be under Labor?
Albanese is obviously top of the chart as PM.
He was sworn in alongside his four most senior members of parliament who now have temporary control of every portfolio (ie defence, energy, transport etc) before Labor finalises its cabinet. Normally all ministers are sworn in at once but Albanese has to fly to Tokyo this morning. The process has been pushed forward so he can at least have a Deputy PM to be in charge while he’s overseas.
Under Morrison our Deputy PM was Barnaby Joyce, who remains leader of the Nationals. Our new Deputy PM is Richard Marles who is the representative for the regional seat of Corio in Victoria. He will also be the Minister for Employment.
Penny Wong was sworn in next as leader of the Senate and the Minister for Foreign Affairs. She will also be Australia’s first foreign affairs minister who was not born in Australia but immigrated.
Senator Penny Wong has been sworn as Minister for Foreign Affairs. #FunFact Her swearing in continues a trend of #Australia having only female Foreign Ministers since 2013. #ausvotes #auspol #AusPol2022 #AusVotes22 #AusVotes2022
— Ballot to Talk About (@ballot_talk) May 22, 2022
Jim Chalmers from Logan, Queensland is our new Federal Treasurer.
Katy Gallagher from the ACT was also sworn is as Minister for Finance, Minister for Women and Attorney-General.
Well done @AlboMP ,@SenatorWong , Katy Gallagher & Jim Charmers, the people have spoken & said no to corruption & theocracy of the @ScottMorrisonMP government pic.twitter.com/jBvTKwlo7q
— Edwin Pascoe (@edjpedjp) May 22, 2022
Neither Chalmers nor Gallagher held cabinet roles in the previous Labor government, so this is a big promotion for them.
The rest of the cabinet will be sworn in in the coming days so stay tuned for the next announcements.
