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Australian Leader Announces Cabinet With Record Number of Women
Australian Leader Announces Cabinet With Record Number of Women
(about 7 hours later)
SYDNEY, Australia — Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who last week ousted Australia’s first female prime minister in a party coup, announced on Monday a cabinet that includes the largest number of women in the country’s history.
SYDNEY, Australia — Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who supplanted Australia’s first female prime minister last week in a party coup, announced a new cabinet on Monday that includes more women than any other in the country’s history.
Fears of a landslide loss in national elections scheduled for September motivated lawmakers in Mr. Rudd’s governing Labor Party to reinstate him Wednesday, bringing to an end the troubled three-year tenure of Julia Gillard, who herself had replaced Mr. Rudd as party leader and prime minister in 2010.
Lawmakers of the governing Labor Party put Mr. Rudd back in power last Wednesday — replacing Julia Gilliard, who had replaced Mr. Rudd in 2010 — because of fears that the party was headed for a landslide defeat in national elections scheduled for September.
The announcement increases the number of women to 11 out of a total of 29 ministers, which includes both six female cabinet-level ministers and five in junior ministerial positions. The exact configuration of cabinet-level positions varies between administrations.
The new cabinet of 29 ministers includes 11 women, 6 in senior positions and 5 in junior roles.
Mr. Rudd dismissed speculation that he was pandering to female voters who may have been bothered by Ms. Gillard’s abrupt dismissal. “This will be the largest number of women in the Australian cabinet in history, and the same for the ministry at large,” Mr. Rudd told the Channel Seven television network on Monday morning. “These are women who are strong, professional, highly experienced and they are there exclusively on their merit.”
Mr. Rudd dismissed suggestions that his choices pandered to female voters who may have been bothered by Ms. Gillard’s abrupt dismissal. “These are women who are strong, professional, highly experienced, and they are there exclusively on their merit,” Mr. Rudd said in an interview on Monday with the Channel Seven television network.
Senator Jacinta Collins and two members of the House of Representatives, Julie Collins and Catherine King, joined the cabinet, whose other female members are Senator Penny Wong and Jenny Macklin and Tanya Plibersek of the House.
Years of infighting over the leadership have left the Labor Party deeply divided. At least six ministers resigned after Mr. Rudd replaced Ms. Gillard, leaving a dearth of experienced lawmakers in the cabinet. Tony Abbott, the leader of the opposition Liberal-National coalition, was dismissive, saying that the cabinet “isn’t even the B team, it’s the C team.”
Years of infighting over the leadership have left the Labor Party deeply divided, and more than half a dozen ministers have resigned since Mr. Rudd’s return to office. That exodus left a dearth of experienced lawmakers in the leadership less than three months before what now promises to be a closely contested election.
Ms. Gillard said after the party removed her from the leadership that she would retire from politics. Her poll ratings slumped over her three years in office as she struggled to assert her authority, deal with party dissent and communicate her legislative successes. Two recent polls suggested that Mr. Rudd’s return to office gave Labor a boost and signaled a close race in September.
Tony Abbott, the leader of the opposition Liberal-National coalition, was quick to dismiss the new members as inexperienced. “The new ministry isn’t even the B team, it’s the C team,” he said in a televised statement.
Ms. Gillard, who announced her retirement from politics after being ousted by Mr. Rudd, had long struggled to assert herself as prime minister, struggling against low poll numbers amid withering attacks from the opposition, internal party dissent and difficulty in communicating her legislative successes.
At least two polls in recent days suggest that the return of Mr. Rudd, who was derided during his first term as prime minister as having an authoritarian and dysfunctional leadership style, has significantly improved Labor’s standing among the electorate.
In a survey released on Monday by Newspoll, based on polling conducted between June 28 and 30 among 1,149 voters, 51 percent supported the opposition coalition and 49 percent supported the Labor Party, a difference that was within the margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points. That represents a net gain of six percentage points for Labor since the previous survey just one week earlier. Those numbers align with a Fairfax ReachTEL poll conducted on Thursday that found an average net gain of about 10 percent for Labor in four seats that are important if it is to maintain power in the next election.
