Rudd left out in Australia's cabinet shuffle
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Australian new Prime Minister Julia Gillard on Monday announced a new reshuffle cabinet list, with former prime minister Kevin Rudd missed out in a cabinet position.
The reshuffle came after Gillard has become Australia's first female Prime Minister, as Kevin Rudd stood down as Labor Party leader on Thursday morning.
Gillard has put Trade Minister Simon Crean into her old portfolio of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations. And Foreign Affairs Minister Stephen Smith will fill the vacancy created by adding trade to his existing responsibilities.
According to The Australian News, there had been speculation that Rudd could be made foreign minister, and there was also talk of a more widespread reshuffle.
But Gillard said she had kept the changes as limited as possible to maintain stability in government, and Rudd would be welcome to take up a senior cabinet position if Labor was re- elected, Gillard told reporters at a press conference in Canberra.
In a statement issued after the prime minister's press conference, Rudd indicated his political career was not over.
ABC News reported that Rudd will stay on the Labor backbench until after the next election after his successor Julia Gillard passed him over in her Cabinet reshuffle.
Rudd told reporters in Canberra that he would stand at the upcoming election, and "I would be prepared to serve the government in an appropriate way in the future".
As education minister, Crean will face the fallout from Gillard 's Building the Education Revolution Program, which faces accusations of money wasting.
Crean told the press conference that he was delighted to resume some unfinished business in portfolios he had held in the past.
Smith said that as the new trade minister his priorities would be pushing for a successful resolution of the Doha talks on liberalizing world trade and for bilateral trade deals with India and Indonesia.
Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner, who announced last week that he would not be contesting the next election, will hold on to his portfolio until the next election.
Meanwhile, the opposition has raised concerns about what Crean, the former president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions ( ACTU), would do on workplace relations.
Shadow finance minister Andrew Robb said Gillard should announce who would take over finance from Tanner after the election or it would damage the government's economic credibility.
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