Senator Tim Ayres has taken over the Industry and Science portfolios in Anthony Albanese’s second-term government after the Prime Minister announced his new-look ministry on Monday.
“Last Saturday the Australian people voted for Labor and for Labor to keep building Australia’s future. And that is certainly what we intend to do in this, our second term,” Albanese said.
“I’m deeply humbled by the trust that was put into my government with the election and we certainly won’t take it for granted.”
Much of Albanese’s cabinet has a similar look to the last parliament, albeit with the kind of deck chair shuffling expected of a return government facing revised factional calculus after their comfortable election win.
Ayers takes over the industry portfolio from Ed Husic who was publicly squeezed off of the front bench last week. Ayers has been a NSW senator since 2019 and served as the Assistant Minister for Trade and a Future Made in Australia during the last parliament. Helping his portfolio will be Dr Andrew Charlton who is both Cabinet Secretary and Assistant Minister for Science, Technology and the Digital Economy.
Michelle Rowland has moved into the Attorney-General position with Mark Dreyfous moving to the back bench. Rowland’s previous role as Minister for Communications will be filled by Anika Wells who also gets the sports portfolio. Wells will be the public face of the government’s under 16 social media ban due to come into effect by year’s end, and will no doubt front up to renewed pressure for the government to ban gambling advertisements.
When asked if his new government would enact the recommendations of a committee chaired by the late Peta Murphy – which included a comprehensive ban of online gambling ads – the Prime Minister simply said, “I expect us to to continue working as we have”.
Dr Anne Aly takes the small business portfolio from Agriculture, Fisheries, and Forestry Minister Julie Collins while Dr Daniel Mulino now has the role of Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services.
Dr Mulino previously co-chaired the Parliamentary friends of Fintech and the Digital Economy along with Liberal senator Andrew Bragg. One of his early challenges will be the Labor government’s planned News Media Bargaining Code augmentation which will see tech giants levied to fund local public-interest journalism.
The new ministry was met with the usual flurry of welcoming messages.
Tech Council of Australia CEO Damian Kassabgi said the TCA was “pleased to see the digital economy was explicitly added to the ministry.”
“[It is] a strong signal of the Government’s commitment to this critical area of future growth for jobs, productivity and economic prosperity.”
The Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering said it looked forward to working with Ayres in particular on “[leveraging] innovation as a cornerstone of economic transformation”.
“We urge Cabinet to look to the Strategic Examination of Research and Development as an innovation roadmap – a way forward to a more prosperous future-fit Australia.”
Australian Computer Society CEO Josh Griggs said his organisation “looks forward to continuing our work with the Albanese government in helping Australia reap the opportunities from emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and use technology to boost the nation’s productivity and well-being”.
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