Calling it one of the most experienced incoming line-ups ever, Mr Abbott said he would have liked to have more women but was denied that opportunity by the failure to gain re-election of his industry spokeswoman, Sophie Mirabella. ''Sophie would be in the cabinet, so plainly I am disappointed that there are not at least two women in the cabinet,'' he said. ''Nevertheless, there are some very good and talented women knocking on the door of the cabinet and there are lots of good and talented women knocking on the door of the ministry.'' The only woman named in the ranks of the parliamentary secretaries was the out-of-favour Concetta Fierravanti-Wells. As expected, veteran Liberal Bronwyn Bishop will be Speaker. The gender imbalance brought a stinging rebuke from acting opposition leader Chris Bowen, who noted that war-torn Afghanistan had more women in its cabinet.

And Queensland Liberal National Party senator Sue Boyce also rounded on the male-heavy line-up, calling it ''embarrassing''. The portfolios outlined featured noticeably shorter titles, sparking criticism that Mr Abbott had either overlooked key ministerial responsibilities such as science, aged care and climate change or was making a political statement that these areas were no longer worthy of separate mention under his administration. ''One of the things that I have attempted to do with this new ministry is avoid the proliferation of titles, the sometimes grandiose titles of the former government where it sometimes seemed that ministers needed an extra large business card to contain all of their various titles,'' he said. That means climate change is subsumed into environment, under minister Greg Hunt. The biggest winner of the first Abbott ministry was Liberal senator Mathias Cormann, who leaps from shadow assistant treasurer into cabinet as finance minister.

He takes the post some believed had been earmarked for NSW senator Arthur Sinodinos, who becomes assistant treasurer. WA senator Michaelia Cash takes the role of assistant minister for immigration and border protection as well as minister assisting the prime minister for women. Two Victorian Liberals and Canberra housemates, Josh Frydenberg and Alan Tudge, become parliamentary secretaries to the prime minister. Consistent with his slow and steady approach, Mr Abbott hosed down suggestions of an early return to parliamentary sittings, offered no further details on a long-promised trip to to Indonesia, and hinted that the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook report - usually delivered in November - would wait until January. Loading

''I will be going to Indonesia for … the APEC meeting in Bali,'' he said. ''I think that starts on about the 5th or 6th of October. ''The important thing is to get the right policies in place as quickly as we can so that when MYEFO does come out, it does so in ways which reassure the Australian people the economy is under stronger management than it might have been over the last few years.''