Australian defense min says loses portfolio under new PM

Mr Andrews, a staunch conservative supporter of Tony Abbott, told reporters in Melbourne he was “disappointed” Mr Turnbull had not accepted his offer to work with him.

“We’re not seeking to proof ourselves against the future”.

Mr Hockey, who plans to resign from parliament later this year, has been suggested as a candidate to replace Kim Beazley. “And that means that good people… have got to be able to make way for others”.

The tough-talking Mr. Morrison, 47, has a reputation for solving political problems after a previous stint as immigration minister, overseeing a contentious sea blockade in which the navy and paramilitary border guards were ordered to tow away boats carrying asylum seekers and, according to Indonesian police, pay people smugglers to turn refugee boats around.

Abbott was defeated in a surprise leadership ballot of lawmakers within the ruling Liberal Party last week after he battled poor opinion polling during most of his center-right government’s two years in power.

“Seems Malcom Turnbull (like most new bosses in most new companies) feels he has to go through the place and sack what was there – no matter how skilled – and replace them with his own”. Some economists are anxious the country may be on the cusp of its first recession in 24 years, despite government and central bank confidence of continued expansion.

In challenging Abbott’s leadership, Turnbull indirectly attacked Hockey with the criticism that “the government is not successful in providing the economic leadership that we need”.

With any luck, this optimism will translate into investment and growth. Back to Malcolm Turnbull!

But Turnbull said there needed to be a “genuine popular movement” for change.

But Senator Sinodinos said he was confident his name would be cleared.

Mattias Cormann | minister for finance.

Women still constitute only one-quarter of the Cabinet – but that is a big increase on 2013, when the newly elected Mr Abbott appointed just one woman.

In a wide-ranging reshuffle of his front-bench, the new prime minister appointed a woman, for the first time, Marise Payne, to be defense minister and instated the nation’s first Indigenous MP, Ken Wyatt, to a cabinet position.

Mr Turnbull was directly asked about the prospect of Mr Hockey taking on the posting and did not rule it out.

“He’s a very capable man. The government’s policy on the NDIS is absolutely unchanged, our commitment to it is complete”.

The winners of the last week’s major reshuffle, which saw Tony Abbott ousted as leader, will officially take up their new positions at a ceremony at Government House in Canberra today.

The removal of Abbott and loyalists was seen as a setback for Japan’s bid to win a $35 billion programme to build stealth submarines for Australia.

The National Disability Insurance Scheme [NDIS] – the legacy of Australia’s first female PM – the pension system and Medibank are leading examples.

Four other members of Mr Abbott’s Cabinet were dumped: Defence Minister Kevin Andrews, Employment Minister Eric Abetz, Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane and Small Business Minister Bruce Billson. The Abbott government Human Services Minister jumps from the relative obscurity of the outer ministry to one of the government’s most important portfolios: defence minister in a time of war.

“An Australia which succeeds in remaining a high wage, generous social welfare net economy, which should be our goal, must be agile, must be dynamic, it must be looking to the future”, he said.