Australia's first woman prime minister makes minimal changes to cabinet ahead of elections

Published November 17, 2014

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia's first woman prime minister on Monday announced minimum changes to her cabinet in a reshuffle that analysts say points to an election within weeks.

Buoyed by opinion polls endorsing her new leadership, Prime Minister Julia Gillard promoted no fresh ministers to her cabinet ahead of an election she is set to call before the end of the year.

Former Trade Minister Simon Crean takes over Gillard's portfolios of employment, industrial relations and social inclusion. Foreign Minister Stephen Smith adds trade to his portfolio.

"It is best to have as limited a reshuffle as possible to keep maximum stability among the team and to keep our focus on the work that Australians need the government to be doing," she told reporters.

Gillard ousted her predecessor Kevin Rudd last Thursday in a leadership challenge for the ruling Labor Party. She dropped Rudd from the cabinet, but said she would offer him a senior cabinet post if Labor is re-elected at the looming election.

Norman Abjorensen, an Australian National University political scientist, said the scant cabinet changes betrayed Gillard's plans to call an election soon.

Broader changes would have burdened Gillard with more inexperienced ministers who needed time to establish themselves before she could risk going to the voters.

Abjorensen predicted an election by Aug. 28 if a spectacular rise in the government's popularity revealed in a respected opinion poll on Monday was maintained over the next few weeks.

A survey by Newspoll, a Sydney-based market research company part-owned by News Corp., published in The Australian newspaper on Monday found that the center-left government's public support had bounced back to the levels it had enjoyed before Rudd's popularity crashed in April.

Rudd, elected in 2007, had been one of the most popular Australian prime ministers of modern times until he made a series of policy backflips.

Many voters then abandoned Labor for the left-wing minor opposition Australian Greens party, earlier Newspolls indicated.

But with Gillard at the helm, Labor support had climbed seven percentage points to 42 percent since the previous Newspoll was conducted June 18-20. Greens support had slipped from 15 to 10 percent while the main opposition coalition remained steady at 40 percent.

The latest Newspoll is based on a random national telephone survey of 1,142 voters at the weekend and has a 3 percentage point margin of error.

Lesser known polls published at the weekend also showed the government gained popularity through the leadership change.

Newspoll chief executive Martin O'Shannessy said he expected that Gillard would call an election if her popularity was sustained in the next Newspoll or two. Newspolls are generally published every two weeks.

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