Tony Abbott expected to move Immigration Minister Scott Morrison to new portfolio
EXPECTATIONS are growing for a post-Budget ministerial reshuffle with Tony Abbott considering a new niche for his favourite non-wimp Scott Morrison.
EXPECTATIONS are growing for a post-Budget ministerial reshuffle with Prime Minister Tony Abbott considering a new niche for his favourite non-wimp Scott Morrison.
Immigration Minister Scott Morrison has led the Coalition’s asylum seeker policy since December 2009 and his management of the “stop the boats’’ issue was critical to its 2013 election victory.
Prime Minister Abbott and Mr Morrison have not yet put up a “mission accomplished’’ banner over the boat people issue but it has almost disappeared as a broad political problem for the Government despite continued debate over the management of detention centres on Manus Island and Nauru and the negotiations over a possible centre in Cambodia.
Having battled through one of the most difficult policy areas, he would be entitled to ask for another task. The ambitious Sydney MP’s next move could be to a larger portfolio, possibly defence where the current minister is West Australian David Johnston.
However, Senator Johnston is a powerful Liberal figure in his home state who helped the party win three Upper House slots at the last election. If he doesn’t want to move, it could be difficult for the PM to shift him.
It is understood Mr Abbott’s closest advisers have discussed unofficial lists of possible changes in the ministry.
Any reshuffle would be limited as the election was just eight months ago. It is unlikely Mr Morrison would take a major economic portfolio, as incumbent Treasurer Joe Hockey and Finance Minister Mathias Cormann are secure.
The Prime Minister is an admirer of Mr Morrison’s hard line approach on matters and in late February hinted he considered him a man after his own style.
”You don’t want a wimp running border protection. You want someone who is strong, who is decent and Scott Morrison is both strong and decent,’’ said the Prime Minister.
Mr Morrison today confirmed that, in the meantime, he would be constructing what was billed in The Australian as a “super frontline agency’’ to police national borders.
The Australian Border Force from mid-2015 would cover all border matters from immigration to Customs and be headed by a commissioner reporting to the Immigration Minister.
Mr Morrison believes the new body would deliver “significant dividends, in both humanitarian and economic terms’’.
Originally published as Tony Abbott expected to move Immigration Minister Scott Morrison to new portfolio