Peter Dutton has been compelled to fill one other hole in his management group after one other senior Liberal confirmed she wouldn’t be returning to the frontbench.
The opposition chief introduced the elevation of senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price to tackle the shadow Indigenous Australians portfolio following the resignation of Julian Leeser to marketing campaign for the Voice.
But forward his announcement, Karen Andrews additionally confirmed she could be taking a seat on the backbench and never contesting the following election.
The Gold Coast based mostly MP had been weighing up her future in politics for a while and mentioned the choice was unrelated to the Voice debate.
Ms Andrews mentioned she requested to not be included the brand new shadow ministry to make sure the Coalition had “maximum time” to have a substitute within the Home Affairs portfolio.
“I want to thank my loving family for their unwavering support and their endless understanding of my demanding travel schedule, constant phone interruptions and for regularly cutting short our Sunday lunches to fly down to Canberra,” she mentioned in a press release.
“I will continue to support the party position on the Voice and to campaign hard for a Coalition victory at the next election.”
Mr Dutton praised the contribution of his “dear friend” and denied suggestion the McPherson MP had been pushed out of the frontbench.
“Karen made a decision that she wasn’t going to contest the next election. She said to me at the time of the next reshuffle she would be happy to stand aside,” he instructed reporters in Adelaide.
“She’s … an engineer and when you look at her background, her experience over a period in government and now in opposition, she will look forward to the next successful stage of her life.”
Victorian senator James Paterson was named as her substitute within the house affairs portfolio.
Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, a number one No campaigner, was thought-about the frontrunner over colleague Kerrynne Liddle to be elevated to the Indigenous Australians function.
More to come back.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
