Malcolm Turnbull names Greg Hunt to become health and sport minister
Arthur Sinodinos will take industry portfolio and Ken Wyatt to be minister for aged care and Indigenous health
Malcolm Turnbull and with Greg Hunt in Sydney. Hunt is to take over from Sussan Ley as health minister. Photograph: Mike Bowers for the Guardian Paul Karp
Wednesday 18 January 2017 12.01 AEDT
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Greg Hunt is to become Australia’s health and sport minister, with Senator Arthur Sinodinos taking Hunt’s portfolio of industry, innovation and science.
In the outer ministry, the assistant health minister, Ken Wyatt, will become the aged care minister and minister for Indigenous health, making him the first Indigenous person appointed to a commonwealth ministry.
The rising conservative talent Michael Sukkar will be appointed assistant minister to the treasurer.
The changes will take effect when the new ministers are sworn in by the governor general on Tuesday.
The prime minister said Hunt was “ideally suited” to health because he had “strong policy, analytical and communication skills, developed over a very long frontbench career”.
Hunt will represent the aged care sector in the cabinet and David Gillespie will continue to serve as assistant minister for health.
Turnbull said he had opted for a small reshuffle because he has a “very strong ministry” that was performing well.
The reshuffle would further strengthen it by “combining experience and new talent”, he said.
He paid tribute to Sinodinos, who he said could return to a frontline portfolio after he “restored traditional cabinet processes” in the position of cabinet secretary.
The cabinet secretary function will return to the prime minister’s office, reducing the size of the cabinet by one.
The special minister of state, Senator Scott Ryan, will continue as minister assisting the prime minister for cabinet.
Asked about the representation of women falling, Turnbull responded that he still had a “historically large number of women in my cabinet” for a Coalition government.
“I have appointed more women to my cabinet than any previous Coalition leader,” he said. I am very committed to having strong representation of women in the ministry.”
In a statement on Wednesday the Australian Medical Association president, Michael Gannon, welcomed the appointments of Hunt and Wyatt.
He said Hunt’s experience as a senior minister in the environment and industry portfolios should prepare him for the demands of the health portfolio.
Gannon said the AMA would meet Hunt “at the earliest opportunity” to discuss urgent matters before the May budget.
On Sunday Gannon told Guardian Australia the incoming minister would have to deal with “a number of policies” the Coalition took to the election that had been “rejected” by many Australians.
“The AMA would like to see Mr Hunt get off to a flying start by scrapping the government’s freeze of Medicare patient rebates, which is causing great hardship for patients and doctors,” he said.
Gannon said other priorities included getting across reviews of the Medicare benefits schedule and private health insurance, and “the ongoing issue of public hospital funding … along with Indigenous health, mental health and prevention”.
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Labor’s health spokeswoman, Catherine King, lamented that Turnbull had “changed his salesperson when it comes to health but he hasn’t changed a single one of his policies”.
King criticised Turnbull for not appointing another woman to cabinet or as assistant minister, describing it as “telling” of the way the Liberal party failed to promote women.
The Greens leader Richard Di Natale lamented that female representation was down to five ministers out of 22.
He also called for Hunt to “rule out the exorbitant increase in health insurance premiums demanded by the industry and reverse the cuts to children’s dental care announced by his predecessor”.
Ley resigned after an investigation into her travel expense claims including what she called an “error of judgment” in charging for a trip to the Gold Coast in which she bought a $795,000 apartment.
On Tuesday Turnbull refused to release the report of the investigation, citing the fact it was a report to himself and the cabinet governance committee, but reiterated that Ley had made the right call in quitting.
Labor has sought to target Sinodinos, accusing Turnbull of “recycling” him after he stood aside as assistant treasurer in 2014pending investigation by the New South Wales Independent Commission Against Corruption of Australian Water Holdings, of which he was the deputy director.
