On Wednesday, Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese appointed a record number of women to the new cabinet. The new federal ministry was into office with a diverse cabinet team that includes religious minorities and indigenous aboriginals.
In the Albanese 23-member cabinet, a total of 10 women were included surpassing the seven in the previous cabinet led by Liberal-National coalition leader Scott Morrison.
In a ceremony in Canberra, Linda Burney became the first Aboriginal woman to hold the Indigenous Australians ministry, Claire O’Neil as the home affairs and cyber security minister, Katy Gallagher as finance minister, and Ed Husic and Anne Aly became Australia’s first Muslim federal ministers.
Penny Wong was sworn in last week so that she could fly to Tokyo for a summit with Prime Minister Albanese. There are some new faces in Albanese’s cabinet as well as some who served in the previous Labor government nine years ago.
Albanese said at the conference, “This is an exciting team. It’s a team that is overflowing, I think, with talent, with people who are absolutely committed to making a difference as ministers and assistant ministers”.
He further added that this is the largest number of women who have served in the Australian cabinet. Morrison’s government also had to deal with a string of sexual misconduct scandals that contributed to the conservatives’ ouster after nearly a decade in power.
