No room for Rudd in Gillard's Cabinet

Julia Gillard. Photo / Getty Images

CANBERRA - Riding a rising honeymoon wave that has pushed Labor back ahead of the Opposition in new opinion polls, Prime Minister Julia Gillard yesterday announced the team she will lead into the coming election.

In an otherwise unspectacular reshuffle that emphasised stability and continuity after last week's dramatic coup, Gillard's biggest move was to consign former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to the backbenches until after the election.

If the Government was returned a senior position would be found for Rudd in the new Cabinet, Gillard said.

"What I have said to Kevin Rudd is I would be absolutely delighted to see him serve as a senior Cabinet minister in the team if the Government is re-elected," she said.

"I think that this is the best course and would enable him, if he chose to do so at this time, to spend more time with his family, which I know is one of his key priorities in life."

Rudd, who was ousted by Gillard at a crisis caucus meeting last Thursday after Labor's continued plunge in the polls, has confirmed he will seek re-election to his Brisbane seat of Griffith.

He also offered to serve the Government in any capacity, and said yesterday that Cabinet appointments were a matter for the Prime Minister and that he respected Gillard's decision to exclude him until after the election.

"For the immediate future, my family and I have decided to take a break," Rudd said.

"Following that, I will be working in my own electorate of Griffith and in any other way deemed appropriate to support the re-election of the Government."

Yesterday's Cabinet reshuffle and a series of polls restoring Labor's lead have increased speculation that Gillard will call an election soon, possibly for as early as August.

And despite the polls, Gillard said she was expecting a tough battle to retain power.

In the reshuffle she handed her previous portfolio of education, employment and workplace relations to former Trade Minister Simon Crean, a former Australian Council of Trade Unions president, one-time Labor leader, and Employment Minister in Paul Keating's 1990s Government.

The trade portfolio has been handed to Stephen Smith, in addition to his job as Foreign Minister. Foreign affairs and trade are handled by the same department.

Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner will remain in his position until the election, despite his decision to retire.

Gillard said she believed it was best to have as limited a reshuffle as possible to maintain maximum stability and to keep the Government focus on the work Australia needed it to do.

"I particularly believed it was important to renew our focus on strengthening the economy and delivering the services that hard-working Australians need," she said.

"In order to do this we need steady hands, hard work and methodical work."

Shadow Finance Minister Andrew Robb said Gillard's election and her Cabinet reshuffle had changed nothing.

"They've changed the jockey but they haven't changed the horse and I think we have an opportunity with the new Prime Minister to expose once again the problems with the raft of policies, the reckless spending, the massive debt that they've built up and the lack of any real solution to that."

But the first polls since Rudd was ousted indicate that - at least for the moment - Australians approve of the switch to Gillard.

A Newspoll in the Australian yesterday said that in the first three days of Gillard's leadership Labor's primary vote had leapt seven percentage points from 35 per cent the weekend before Rudd was deposed to 42 per cent.

In the two-party preferred vote that decides Australian elections Labor now had a lead of 53 per cent to the Opposition's 47 per cent - almost the same margin by which it won office in 2007.

Gillard also led Opposition Leader Tony Abbott as preferred prime minister by 53 per cent to 29 per cent.

At the weekend a Galaxy Poll in Sydney's Daily Telegraph said Labor led the Opposition by 52 per cent to 48 per cent, with Gillard the preferred Prime Minister by 58 per cent to 32 per cent.

A Nielsen poll in Fairfax newspapers said the Government had surged to a 55 per cent to 45 per cent two-party preferred lead, an eight-point swing that if repeated uniformly on election day would hand Labor an extra 11 seats.

Labor's Primary Vote

* Thursday: 35 per cent

* Yesterday: 42 per cent

Two-party preferred vote:

* Labour: 53 per cent

* Opposition: 47 per cent

Preferred prime minister:

* Julia Gillard: 53 per cent

* Tony Abbott: 29 per cent

- Newspoll poll in the Australian.