The communications minister, Michelle Rowland, could replace Mark Dreyfus as attorney general in Labor’s second term cabinet, amid speculation senior ministers Mark Butler and Jason Clare face moves to new portfolios.
Friday’s meeting of Labor’s expanded caucus confirmed Victorians Sam Rae, Daniel Mulino and Jess Walsh would join the ministry, while theNSW senator and assistant trade minister, Tim Ayres, will also be promoted, possibly to the industry portfolio.
Rae and Ayres are both members of Labor’s powerful national executive.
Dreyfus, the attorney general since 2022,was cut from cabinetafter the deputy prime minister, Richard Marles, and factional bosses moved against him this week. The industry minister, Ed Husic, will also be demoted due to an overrepresentation of the NSW right faction on Labor’s frontbench.
Both men unsuccessfully appealed to the prime minister,Anthony Albanese, for intervention. The trade minister and powerful factional boss, Don Farrell, supported the moves.
Western Australian MP Anne Aly, the minister for early childhood education and youth, could also join cabinet as part of the changes, which will be formally announced on Monday.
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Factional infighting overshadowed some of Labor’s victory celebrations on Friday, with some in the government and the wider party questioning the message sent to voters by moves to dump the government’s most senior Muslim and Jewish members.
Guardian Australia was told Albanese did not acknowledge Dreyfus or Husic in the jubilant meeting at Parliament House. Husic was not present as new MPs were formally admitted to the parliamentary party and a routine ballot for positions in the ministry was conducted.
Rowland, a member of the NSW right faction, was a senior lawyer at Gilbert + Tobin before entering parliament in 2010, specialising in competition and regulation in telecommunications, media and technology. She has previously represented Dreyfus as acting attorney general.
The industrial relations minister, Murray Watt, is another name speculated for the vacant attorney general position.
Under Labor’s rules, the factions put forward names for the frontbench, and the parliamentary leader assigns portfolios.
Mulino, the MP for the Victorian seat of Fraser, is a Yale-educated economist highly regarded in parliament. He could fill the assistant treasurer role left vacant by Stephen Jones’s retirement.
One Labor source suggested Clare could move from education to communications.
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The disability and government services portfolios could also be given to new ministers next week.
Butler, the health minister and a close ally of Albanese, said he would serve in whatever role the prime minister offered him.
He told Sky News he felt for Dreyfus and Husic after they were dumped from cabinet.
“It’s tough,” he said. “Politics is a tough game, and they’d be feeling very, very hurt right now, I’m sure.“Every member of the caucus is entitled to nominate. Every member of the caucus is entitled to vote. And as you know, our prime minister is a bit of a traditionalist, both within the party itself, but also in the way in which our society operates.”
The new ministry is expected to be sworn in on Tuesday.
Former Labor prime minister Paul Keating this weeksavaged Albanese and “factional lightweights” within the partyover Dreyfus and Husic’s treatment, calling the decision unfair and disrespectful.
Keating, who has emerged as a persistent critic of the Albanese government, accused the prime minister of bad judgment over his refusal to save the two ministers.
“[It’s] a showing of poor judgment, unfairness and diminished respect for the contribution of others,” he said in a statement.