There is growing expectation in Labor ranks that a pair of cabinet ministers are poised to announce they will not contest the next election and will step down from cabinet immediately.
The expected retirements of senior Labor ministers Linda Burney and Brendan O’Connor will clear the way for Anthony Albanese to finally announce a frontbench reshuffle in a matter of days, allowing the prime minister to take a fresher team to the next election.
This masthead spoke to Labor MPs from different factions and states on Tuesday and Wednesday about the mooted shakeup of the frontbench and possible retirements, and while none of those MPs would speak on the record, all of them suggested frontbench changes were imminent. Many in Labor expected Burney to step down from her portfolio after the Voice to parliament referendum was defeated last year and Senator Malarndirri McCarthy, the assistant minister for Indigenous Australians, is widely expected to move into Burney’s portfolio if the current minister steps aside, but is less clear who would replace O’Connor.
A spokeswoman for O’Connor said: “The minister is contemplating whether he will contest the next election”.Potential elevations into the outer ministry from the ranks of assistant ministers include Western Australian MP Patrick Gorman, Victorian MP Ged Kearney, NSW MPs Jenny McAllister and Tim Ayres and Queensland MP Anthony Chisholm.
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