Conroy retains Comms portfolio

By Liz Tay on Jun 28, 2010 1:47 PM
Filed under Telco/ISP

Gillard announces 'limited reshuffle'.

Senator Stephen Conroy has survived a cabinet reshuffle from newly crowned Prime Minister Julia Gillard, retaining his role as the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy.

Gillard revealed details of her new ministry at a lunchtime press conference today, noting that she had made "limited changes" in order to achieve "maximum stability in the team".

Trade Minister Simon Crean was to take over Gillard's role as Minister for Education, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations and Minister for Social Inclusion.

Meanwhile, Crean's Trade portfolio has been merged with Foreign Affairs and will come under the responsibility of incumbent Foreign Affairs Minister Stephen Smith.

Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner, who last week announced his intention to resign from politics, was asked to continue in his role for the remainder of Labor's term in Government.

Gillard said she had no intention to make any further changes to her ministry until after the re-election, should the Labor Government survive.

"The premium I have put in making these ministerial changes is on stability," Gillard said.

"There will be no further appointments to cabinet; there will be no new ministerial appointments; there will be no new parlimentary secretary appointments. The team is the team.

"Our focus is on election day," she said. "We take nothing for granted. If the government is re-elected, then following the re-election, I will shape the team at that point."

Along with what she described as "modest" changes to her front bench, Gillard announced an intention to return the more traditional system of Cabinet government.

A role had not been created for deposed Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in the current Gillard ministry. However, she said he would be offered a senior minister position should the Labor Government be re-elected.

"I have, in recent days, had conversations with Kevin Rudd about his future," Gillard told journalists.

"It's his intention to seek re-election as the member of Griffith; consequently, I have told him I would be absolutely delighted to see him serve as a senior cabinet minister in the team if the Government is re-elected."

Conroy has exuded confidence in the lead-up to the reshuffle, telling SBS Television he had been watching the World Cup rather than jostling for position.

13 comments in this discussion

"I hate to agree with you Hubert, but you are 100% correct."

By Rhino

Tags

conroy, communications, gillard, nbn, cabinet, reshuffle, rudd, lundy

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Comments: 13

imortl Jun 28, 2010 2:14 PM	Her first chance to do something good and she doesn't. I can see her point for stability as they will nned that running upo to an election. It seems to re-enforce the idea I heard that the filter was just a screen to keep some of the conservative parties quiet and will never really see the light of day (which doesn't upset me terribly!).
peterhau Jun 28, 2010 2:19 PM	fantastic. retaining a minister who would rather watch football than be a part of shaping the country's future. how can the ICT sector expect proper representation from a minister that, for my knowledge has never actually attended a grassroots event? if the prime minister had actually promoted Sen Kate Lundy, we would have had someone who understands the industry, as well as showing the voters that she is interested in winning the election with new and radical directions for the country, not sitting back and watching a football match that he could have recorded for later viewing.
moses Jun 28, 2010 2:37 PM	And with that move goes any chance of me voting Labor at the next election.
Daveh Jun 28, 2010 2:52 PM	Can't say i like it. But can understand why. As pointed out earlier, there are still some pointed and sensitive negotiations going on for the NBN. Ousting Conroy at this point would put those at risk. And with the NBN being one of the governments bigger wins they need to ensure nothing goes awry. Conroy grates against the entire industry he represents as head of the DCBDE. It would be foolhardy to allow him to continue but for the moment it would be worse to threaten the NBN. My bet would be that they keep the issue of filtering and Sen Conroy low key coming into the election, with a focus towards the win achieved by the NBN. Then following the election Sen Conroy should be replaced by someone capable(Sen Lundy) and the filter common-sensed. Labor's back-flip's on big noise policy are the key cause of the Rudd leadership spill, having a back-flip on the filter would cause the same issues they have just sought to fix coming into the election. Regardless of what is right and best Labor will want to save face going into the election. Given that the Liberal's haven't given their stance on filtering i would wait for a response before jumping in.
Rhino Jun 28, 2010 3:33 PM	And with that goes the last hope Labor had of securing my vote. With the Filter, loging internet activities, and the 11bn in compensation to Telstra, the country is doomed.
Jono Jun 28, 2010 3:48 PM	haha.. starting to sound a lot like the venom over on the ABC site and they get really political. Although, as with one of the comments over there, howcome the public outcry about the filter policy is not getting that much main stream news? http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/06/28/2938876.htm
Sams Jun 28, 2010 3:51 PM	Not pleasant news, but not surprising either.
anonymous Jun 28, 2010 4:55 PM	Bad news that Conboy's still there, but predictable with the election coming. @Jono, government censorship of individuals is not something that gets the media companies all that worked up. In fact it sometimes seems that they welcome it, because it can be used to secretly control copyright use as well as everything else. ANFSCD, the itnews poll shows that out of 318 votes cast, nineteen people voted to keep Conboy. Didn't know he had that many working in his office :-(
btone Jun 28, 2010 6:27 PM	McClelland is still AG too. They all are except for the shuffle with Crean and Smith. They were always going to be. If Julia gets solidly elected she will have the mandate in caucus to rearrange the portfolios and hopefully give Conroy the NBN only or revise the filter policy, ACTA, our own mini Echelon (the US version of which is a crock by the way), et al. Perhaps. Will be interesting to see their election policy papers though, and the other mob's. Still need the Greens with the senate balance to pressure any changes there.
Pilotyoda Jun 28, 2010 6:46 PM	I wasn't going to vote Labor, anyway, however I would still have reservations about voting for them. With Conroy having announced that the net Censorship legislation is still waiting in the wings, along with activity logging, I would be very nervous. No guarantees Gillard will replace him and none of the usual outrage about government activity from Abbott means he won't necessarily kill it off.
DazzaJ Jun 29, 2010 9:26 PM	Gillard who obviously can't be trusted,look what she did to her own leader; and Conroy who wants to turn Australia into a dictatorship and limit freedom. Great combination! I'm ashamed I voted labour in the first place.!
HubertCumberdale Jun 30, 2010 2:47 AM	Bookmark this page people I'm going to tell you exactly what's going to happen, you're not going to hear anything at all regarding the internet filter leading up to the election, Labor will win and then you'll take the filter and like it cause well if you didn't like it you wouldn't have voted for them, Conroy will say or something along these lines "people voted labor so the majority are in favor of the filter etc" and then it's onto phase two saving web browser history, the Liberal party will "oppose" it cause they are the only other political party in Australia afaik. and then a law will be passed forcing isp's to save everyone's web browser history, 2 years later people will say stuff like "remember when the internet was cool?" and "oh yes I remember the internet, I stopped using that when the government started spying on everyone" the end.
Rhino Jun 30, 2010 9:06 AM	I hate to agree with you Hubert, but you are 100% correct.