PM shuffles Coonan into new role
Prime Minister John Howard has unveiled a re-jigged Cabinet ahead of the upcoming Federal election, promoting the Minister for Revenue and Assistant Treasurer Helen Coonan to the Ministry of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts.
Queensland MP Mal Brough has been named as her replacement.
For Coonan, the move is a promotion, while Howard says the reassignment has no ulterior motives.
“It’s not a policy driven thing because in areas like communications our policy is well settled and we’re not signalling any changes in any of those areas,” Howard says.
Meanwhile, Brough is the former Minister for Employment Services and current member for Longman in Southern Queensland. At the last election he was returned by a narrow margin of 2.5 per cent.
Brough’s past Parliamentary service includes time on the Joint Statutory Committee for Public Accounts and Audit.
The announcement comes as the Prime Minister revealed David Kemp, the Minister for Environment and Heritage, Daryl Williams, the Minister for Communications, and Christine Gallus would not recontest the next election and would be resigning from their positions.
The Cabinet reshuffle is part of eight changes to senior posts finalised minutes before Howard’s announcement.
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