Australia | Prime minister makes few changes to new Cabinet

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull

Australia’s prime minister yesterday announced only minor changes to his new cabinet after two ministers lost their seats in elections early this month.
Malcolm Turnbull also resisted pressure from the hard-­right elements of his conservative Liberal Party to make former Prime Minister Tony Abbott a minister in the cabinet that will be sworn in today.
The government’s junior coalition partner, The Nationals, were rewarded for a relatively strong performance in the July 2 elections, with additional cabinet minister Matt Canavan plus two new assistant ministers, David Gillespie and Luke Hartsuyker.
Turnbull declined to say whether the political leaning of his new leadership team had changed. He defended his attempt to minimize changes to the cabinet he appointed less than a year ago.
“I’m not going to put ‘conservative ‘or ‘moderate’ or ‘liberal’ tags on my colleagues,” Turnbull said. “I have made big changes to the ministry only a few months ago.”
Two ministers who supported Turnbull’s overthrow of Abbott in an internal party showdown in September — Peter Hendy and Wyatt Roy — were among the more than a dozen Liberal lawmakers who lost their seats. The Nationals — a more conservative, rural-based party — increased their seats in the House of Representatives by one to 16.
The government as a majority of just one seat in the 150-seat House, where parties with a majority form the government, but might win a 77th seat once counting of all mail-in ballots is finalized. The Liberal Party trails the center-left opposition Labor Party by eight votes with 88,360 votes counted yesterday in the only seat yet to be resolved.
Turnbull’s moderate leadership has been diminished by his party’s surprisingly poor performance after Abbott won 90 seats at the 2013 election. Rod McGuirk, Canberra, AP