Focus on Malcolm Turnbull’s reshuffle as Robb decision emerges, with Truss set to declare intentions and a looming report into embattled minister Stuart Robert

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

The trade minister, Andrew Robb, has decided to retire from politics, adding another dimension to Malcolm Turnbull’s forthcoming ministerial reshuffle.

The decision comes as the deputy prime minister and Nationals leader, Warren Truss, prepares to announce his own political future, and the prime minister awaits a report on the conduct of the human services minister, Stuart Robert.

Truss’s possible departure would clear the way for his deputy, Barnaby Joyce, to become Nationals leader and the Coalition’s next deputy prime minister.

Queensland MP Michelle Landry said Joyce would be a good choice for the Nationals. “Barnaby is someone that a lot of people really admire, he is a people person as well ... and I think he will make a great leader of the National party,” she told ABC Radio.

However, Joyce would face some opposition for the role with Michael McCormack indicating on Thursday he might contest the leadership ballot.

“I’ve been encouraged by some colleagues to have a go,” said the Riverina MP, who noted there had no been a contested ballot for the Nationals leadership since 1990.

Robb confirmed on Wednesday that he would bow out of parliament after 12 “fulfilling and eventful” years as the MP for the Victorian seat of Goldstein, but would not force a byelection. His next career would be “in some capacity in the private sector”.

“I can confirm today my intention to stand down from federal politics effective at the next election,” Robb said in a statement issued late on Wednesday.

Robb, who oversaw the free trade agreements with China, South Korea and Japan and the signing of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, might not leave the frontbench right away.

“It is believed he will stay in the ministry until a later date,” a source close to Robb told Guardian Australia.

In a statement, Turnbull praised Robb as “the most successful trade minister in our country’s history” and said new ministerial arrangements would be announced “in due course”.

The cabinet secretary, Arthur Sinodinos, told Sky News he understood Truss would also reveal his intentions on Thursday.

Truss’s office declined to confirm the plans, but it is widely expected he will not contest the election due this year.



Sources said Truss was set to announce he would resign as the Nationals leader and infrastructure minister on 17 March, which could be the date for a party room meeting to decide his successor.

Both the pro-Joyce and anti-Joyce camps think he still has the numbers to succeed Truss, but it is believed support for assistant minister McCormack has increased because some people are annoyed at what they see as Joyce’s unseemly haste to replace Truss.

The call for a new deputy leader would be broad, with Luke Hartsuyker, Darren Chester and McCormack considered to be among potential contenders.

The Indigenous affairs minister, Nigel Scullion, said Truss would be a “great loss” to the party and he would not decide who to support as the next leader until the last moment.

“There are going to be some changes,” Scullion told the ABC. “We’re very lucky in the Coalition that we’ve got such a depth of talent.”

Turnbull has been waiting until Truss’s decision before embarking on a broader ministerial reshuffle. There was upheaval shortly after Christmas when Jamie Briggs resigned as the minister for cities and the built environment and Mal Brough stood aside as the special minister of state late in 2015.

The Labor leader, Bill Shorten, said the cabinet was “in chaos” and ministers were worried only about their own jobs.

“It’s only a matter of time before Malcolm Turnbull stands in his courtyard to tell Australians that ‘good government starts today’,” Shorten said, referring to Tony Abbott’s response after surviving the first leadership spill motion.

“He promised a better government than Tony Abbott’s but, as with everything else, he says one thing and does another.”

Robert’s future as the minister for human services and veterans’ affairs hangs in the balance after Turnbull ordered an investigation into whether a “private” trip to China in August 2014 breached ministerial standards.

The advice from the secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Martin Parkinson, is expected to be completed on Thursday or soon afterwards.

Robert said he was confident he had not acted inappropriately, but declined to answer specific parliamentary questions about his attendance at an event celebrating a mining deal and a meeting with a Chinese vice-minister.

The Department of Defence said it was informed about the details of the then assistant defence minister’s trip shortly after his return to Australia but was unaware of whether he took his official phone with him to China.

The department’s secretary, Dennis Richardson, said Robert’s chief of staff had written to Tony Abbott’s chief of staff, Peta Credlin, on 13 August 2014.

“It was a letter, one seeking approval for the minister to travel from Beijing to Singapore, to attend the Singapore-Australia joint ministerial committee meeting, which was held in Singapore on 21/22 August [2014],” Richardson told a Senate estimates committee on Wednesday.