Power And Influence In John Howard's Liberal Party

What can a Politics student learn from the reshuffle announced this week by Prime Minister John Howard?

Selection of Ministers

In the Australian Labor Party, a retirement, resignation or dumping of a minister would require a Caucus meeting to choose a replacement. Usually, the faction the departing minister came from would choose the replacement from amongst its members. The ALP leader is able to allocate a portfolio to the minister or shadow minister once that person has been chosen by the Caucus.

Liberal Prime Ministers are not required to follow this process. Howard is theoretically able to choose anyone from his parliamentary members to be a minister.

Remembering the Powerful

In practice, however, it is not this simple. It is clear from media reports this week that Defence Minister John Moore kept Howard guessing for some time as to whether he would take the retirement option. According to the Financial Review, Moore finally decided on a flight back from East Timor on the weekend.

As a senior minister, and one of the longest-serving members of the parliamentary Liberal Party, the member for Ryan since 1975, Moore is also one of the party's power-brokers, strategists and tacticians. It is unlikely Howard would have dumped him the way he did Senator John Herron.

Sidelining the Ineffectual

Herron has been one Howard's most loyal and ineffective ministers. As Minister for Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal Affairs, he had little involvement in the contentious Wik legislation during 1996-98. His attitude to the Stolen Generations and the question of an apology to indigenous Australians has resulted in him having little influence in his portfolio.

Herron was reportedly unwilling to relinquish his ministerial berth, but was pushed aside anyway.

Promoting Intellectual Soul-Mates And Fomenting Tension Amongst Leadership Rivals

Without question, the minister who benefits most from the reshuffle is Tony Abbott, who takes over Workplace Relations from Peter Reith. This can be seen as Howard rewarding one of his supporters, since Abbott has stuck with Howard on things like opposition to a republic. It is also a recognition of the role Abbott has carved for himself as a "hard man", a "headkicker" in Parliament and a conservative Liberal thinker.

Whilst there is little doubt that Peter Costello remains the only viable alternative leader of the Liberal Party at this time, the promotion of Abbott serves as a reminder that there are other long-term contenders who cannot be ignored. Howard may be positioning Abbott as a future leadership candidate.

Protecting Damaged Goods

Shifting Peter Reith to John Moore's old job as Defence Minister serves two purposes. Firstly, it keeps Reith in Cabinet in a senior position and reflects Howard's appreciation of Reith's unrelenting campaign against the union movement through various industrial relations reforms. Secondly, it protects Reith in the aftermath of the Telecard fiasco of recent months. Defence preserves Reith's seniority whilst removing him from the daily political spotlight. It will allow him to regroup and rebuild his political stocks.

This will not be the first time Reith has been sidelined. In the aftermath of the coalition's defeat in the 1993 election, Reith took the blame for the disastrous GST policy which was the centrepiece of the "Fightback!" package. He went to the backbench briefly before returning in a senior role under Howard.

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