James Campbell: Cabinet reshuffle disaster for Victoria

THERE is no getting away from the fact that the dumping Victorian MP Darren Chester from cabinet is a disaster for our state, writes James Campbell.

THERE is no getting away from the fact this reshuffle is a disaster for Victoria.

For months Victorian Coalition MPs, both Liberal and National Party, have been keen to talk up Darren Chester’s performance as Infrastructure Minister.

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Not just because Chester is a good bloke who has fought hard to make sure we get more than the crumbs Canberra usually hands out to the fastest growing state in Australia.

It’s because they feared we could forget about getting even those usual crumbs if Barnaby Joyce ever got his hands on the infrastructure portfolio.

Sadly this has now come to pass. There are several reasons for Chester’s execution, Nats say, starting with the fact Joyce has apparently never liked him.

What sealed his fate however was his decision this month to do the numbers for fellow Victorian Bridget McKenzie against Matt Canavan, Joyce’s candidate to replace Fiona Nash as the party’s deputy leader.

The dumping of Darren Chester from cabinet is a disaster for Victoria. Picture: AAP/Julian Smith

Before that vote Chester was upfront about the fact he knew he was putting at risk his own position in Cabinet because it would be hard to argue the National Party in Victoria merited two spots in cabinet.

Nevertheless the expectation was that while Chester would lose his place at the top table he would still be accommodated in the outer ministry. Instead he was insulted with the offer of a position as ‘assistant minister’ — the tricked up title given to parliamentary secretaries these days.

The disaster of Chester’s exit is partially offset by the elevation of Dan Tehan’s to Social Services Minister replacing Christian Porter who becomes the Attorney-General. The rest of the changes are neither here nor there.

Greg Hunt loses Sport to the newly minted minister McKenzie who also gets rural health and regional communications and will be on a very steep learning curve. Not as steep a learning curve as the Queenslander David Littleproud who a little over a year after first being elected has jumped straight from the backbench to the minefield portfolio of water resources as well as agriculture.

Littleproud has not been afraid to rock the boat. Apparently this is now the way to get promoted in Canberra.

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