‘Woman perfume’ in the new Australian Government

The new Australian Labor government was sworn in today with a record of women ministers. It promises changes both domestically and internationally.

The newly elected Prime Minister Anthony Albanizi, after the processes between the right and left wing of the party, placed ten women in the central cabinet of 23 ministers in total. Higher in the hierarchy is Chinese-born Foreign Minister Penny Wong. Women ministers and deputy ministers have been sworn in to other portfolios outside the central cabinet.

The move was welcomed, although as the prime minister acknowledged, the party’s position is to have equal representation of both sexes in both ministerial and other officials’ positions. government term. The foreign policy of the new government will be slightly different from that of the previous situation, and this is because for many decades the country is fully tied to the chariot of the United States, which is its main ally.

However, Labor is expected to move to improve almost frozen relations with China and to strengthen Australian influence in the Pacific, where Beijing has made significant penetrations (economic, defense and other) into small island nations, raising concerns among its staff. Australia and the United States.

The goal is the normalization of international relations

It also looks like relations between Australia and France will be normalized, following the fierce Paris dispute, not only over a new defense agreement between Australia, the United States and Britain, known as AUKUS, but also over the fact that the previous government canceled a $ 90 billion contract with a French company for the construction of submarines, without informing the French government in time.

Twenty-four hours after the Labor election, Paris hastened to clarify that there was a lack of trust with former Prime Minister Scott Morrison and that it envisions a full restoration of bilateral relations. Also, Mr. Albanizi’s government seems to be gaining points in the international arena as it constantly shouts that it will move much more effectively in tackling climate change.

The bet on the inner front

At home, there is also optimism about decisions and policies that will improve the position of Indigenous Australians in the Australian state and focus on areas such as health, education and safety. In the field of immigration, it is expected that the new government will try to accelerate the admission of more immigrants, in order to accelerate, among other things, the economic recovery, which at the moment, according to the numbers, is slow.

Economic growth is also at stake (and) for the new government, as the country is affected by the effects of the coronavirus, but also by the general pervasive international atmosphere, the situation in Ukraine. As for the former Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, he will probably soon be forgotten, as is the fate of the lost leaders, and from what is being said, sooner or later he will also resign from his parliamentary seat.

His replacement in the leadership of the official opposition and the conservative Liberal-National Coalition is the former Minister of Defense, Peter Dutton. He is considered one of the most hardline people in the party, but he, both before and after his election, without another candidate, tries to change his image in order to become more popular. He is quick to reconstruct his earlier statements on burning issues, internationally and domestically, saying now that he, like all people, has made his mistakes.

Themis Kallos, Sydney

Source: Deutsche Welle