Richard Marles reveals whether he’s bound for Tokyo for Quad meeting

Richard Marles knows whether he’ll be the next Defence Minister, but he’s not letting the rest of Australia in on it just yet.

Australia’s next Deputy Prime Minister is remaining tight lipped over whether he’ll also be Defence Minister, revealing some cabinet positions could be announced as early as Sunday afternoon.

Richard Marles will be sworn in as Deputy Prime Minister alongside Prime Minister-elect Anthony Albanese on Monday, before Mr Albanese and incoming Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong board a plane bound for Tokyo for a meeting of the Quad.

Mr Marles says he will not be on the plane, but has already had a conversation with Mr Albanese about what his next portfolio would be.

“I think I’ll be getting off on the wrong foot with my leader if I was about to pre-empt what is obviously his announcement, and so I’ll leave that to him in due course,” Mr Marles told ABC Insiders.

“I have (had a conversation with Mr Albanese about my portfolio), but I’m not about to reveal it now.

“I think it’s the right thing for Anthony to make that announcement during the course of the day.”

When asked by host David Speers to explicitly reveal whether he’d be staying home while Mr Albanese goes to Japan, Mr Marles said: “Indeed”.

Richard Marles will be Australia’s next Deputy Prime Minister, and will serve as Acting Prime Minister-elect when Anthony Albanese Picture: Tim Hunter.

Mr Marles said Labor was confident it could still clinch a majority, with a number of seats still too close to call on Sunday morning.

But, Labor is continuing to rule out any “deal” with the Greens – which have picked up at least one seat and could nab two more – along with a number of “teal” independents.

He threw his faith behind Mr Albanese’s “enormously skilled” ability at bringing people together, and added his party was confident it could get its agenda through parliament.

“We are not going to do the kind of decisive legislation that we’ve seen from Scott Morrison over the last decade which has … divided the country,” Mr Marles said.

“Anthony wants to bring the country together, and that will be reflected in the way in which we approach the Parliament and we are confident that we can get the agenda through Parliament.”

On the national swing against Labor, and the low first preference votes, Mr Marles said Labor was prepared to unpack “this very complicated election” and make sure the party could “learn everything that there is to learn from it”.

“I think we do need to look at this in a lot of detail,” Mr Marles said.

“In my experience you learn a lot from elections when you actually have the time and space to work through all the details.