Leaders in stand-off on frontbench reshuffles

Andrew Giles, left, and Anthony Albanese at the ALP national conference in Brisbane in 2023. Picture: Dan Peled / NCA NewsWire

Anthony Albanese has put his factional ally and close friend Andrew Giles in an impossible situation that most believe will ultimately end in a ministerial reshuffle.

Giles has copped the full brunt of Coalition attacks over the government’s collective failure in releasing 149 dangerous non-citizens, including seven murderers and 37 sex offenders and pedophiles.

After winning the 2022 election, the Prime Minister installed two inexperienced parliamentarians as his Home Affairs and Immigration ministers instead of making the tough call and appointing MPs more suited to the roles.

Giles, a prominent Left-faction powerbroker, led the fight alongside Albanese at the 2015 ALP national conference to reject the Coalition’s boat turnback policy and represented refugees stranded aboard the MV Tampa.

Appointing Giles as Immigration Minister was akin to appointing Barnaby Joyce as minister for women. The fit was never right. Giles’ ideology and lack of ministerial experience have made him the political rabbit in Peter Dutton’s headlights.

Albanese, who faced predictable resistance from ministers who lived through the disastrous Rudd-Gillard years when an armada of unsafe asylum seeker boats arrived on Australian shores, opted for the easy and convenient picks.

Clare O’Neil, who would have been in the outer-ministry if not for Terri Butler’s shock defeat, was announced last on the cabinet list after the election.

The 43-year-old – who had no ministry experience, having entered federal politics at the 2013 election – has let Giles cop the worst of the High Court detainee release debacle. It’s hard to imagine Dutton, the inaugural home affairs minister, allowing his junior immigration minister to take the lead on an issue that carries considerable security and political risks.

After limping to the end of 2023 and bouncing back after the Coalition last week capitulated on Labor’s stage three tax cuts revamp, the government was expecting this week to be messy.

Before proceeding with any reshuffle, they needed to wait until James Paterson, Michaelia Cash and Jane Hume picked apart the entrails of Labor’s botched release of dangerous non-citizens and broken promise on stage three tax cuts. Giles is taking bullets for his leader.

On the Coalition side, Dutton has held off replacing frontbench jobs of retiring MPs until Albanese moves. Indigenous Affairs Minister Linda Burney, who underperformed during the voice campaign, is tipped to quit at the next election. There are also plenty inside the Coalition who believe key frontbenchers are underperforming and want Dutton to shake up key portfolios.

With both sides preparing for an election as early as this year, Albanese and Dutton are locked in a ministerial shuffle stand-off.