The social services minister, Christian Porter, will become the attorney general under a major cabinet reshuffle that promotes key conservatives, brings in five new cabinet members and drops the infrastructure minister, Darren Chester.

Malcolm Turnbull, in consultation with the resurgent Nationals leader, Barnaby Joyce, agreed to demote Chester, who opposed Joyce’s choice of deputy, Matt Canavan, to elevate Nationals Bridget McKenzie and David Littleproud.

In a blunt statement Chester said he was “disappointed by the leader of the Nationals’ decision to exclude me from his cabinet team”.

At a press conference in Sydney, Turnbull blamed “matters of geography” – a reference to the fact McKenzie and Chester are both Victorians – and directed questions to Joyce, who he said was keen to have the Nationals’ large Queensland contingent represented in cabinet.

Turnbull said the reshuffle was designed to help “young and upcoming MPs [bring] new skills and energy to the frontbench”.

Joyce will gain Chester’s infrastructure and transport portfolio while retaining control of water storage. McKenzie, the new Nationals deputy leader, becomes the minister for sport, rural health and regional communications.

Littleproud, who was first elected in 2016 and does not currently hold any portfolios, is catapulted into cabinet as the minister for agriculture and water resources.

In addition to McKenzie and Littleproud, Liberals Michael Keenan, Dan Tehan and John McVeigh will join cabinet.

Keenan, who loses the justice portfolio as Peter Dutton becomes the minister for homeland affairs, becomes the minister for human services and the minister assisting the prime minister for digital transformation.

Tehan moves from veterans’ affairs to the minister for social services, taking over from Porter.

John McVeigh, a regional Liberal who has previously served as a minister in the Queensland LNP state government, will join cabinet as the minister for regional development, territories and local government.

The employment minister, Michaelia Cash, will become the minister for jobs and innovation, combining some elements of her current portfolio with Arthur Sinodinos’s innovation portfolio.

Cash no longer has direct responsibility for workplace relations, which will be delegated to Craig Laundy, after she was embarrassed by a staffer briefing media about the AFP raid of the Australian Workers Union headquarters.

Kelly O’Dwyer, the minister for revenue and financial services, will gain responsibility as the minister for women from Cash.

Turnbull revealed that Sinodinos, who is on leave because he is being treated for cancer, had asked not to be included in the ministry and was unlikely to return until the middle of 2018. In a statement Sinodinos said his prognosis was “excellent” but his priority was regaining full health.

Conservatives Angus Taylor and Alan Tudge support Dutton in the home affairs portfolio, Taylor as the minister for law enforcement and cyber security and Tudge as the minister for citizenship and multicultural affairs, shifting him out of human services after the Centrelink robo-debt fiasco that dogged his time in the portfolio.

The finance minister, Mathias Cormann, will add the role of special minister of state, after Scott Ryan became the Senate president. Paul Fletcher will take on an expanded role as the minister for urban infrastructure and cities.

As expected, George Brandis leaves the attorney general portfolio to become Australia’s next high commissioner in London and Cormann will also become the leader of the government in the Senate.

Turnbull paid tribute to Brandis’s “time of extraordinary achievement and activity” in the role – in particular, his advocacy for marriage equality and reform of national security legislation.

Keith Pitt, another National who backed McKenzie over Canavan, was dumped from his role of assistant trade minister.



At a press conference, Chester described the demotion as “character building”. He said Joyce had offered him a role as an assistant minister but he refused, saying he wanted the freedom to pursue other issues on the backbench including youth suicide, veterans, and illicit use of ice.

Chester said some colleagues “didn’t like” his stance in favour of same-sex marriage but he did not blame that for his demotion. He added that the 60% yes vote in his seat of Gippsland “vindicated” his decision and, far from being “too progressive”, he was a product of the times.

At a press conference Bill Shorten said that the “civil war” consuming the Liberal party had “now infected the National party”.

“How else can you explain a competent minister like Darren Chester being demoted?”

He accused Turnbull and Joyce of “hubris and arrogance” for “punishing the people they don’t like in their own party”.

Shorten said it was no accident that Laundy had day-to-day carriage of workplace relations. “I think Malcolm Turnbull probably has the view the less we hear from Michaelia Cash the better day it is for him.”

Turnbull said the new ministry was “rich with diverse experience and energy”.

“Sadly there is always more ministerial talent than there are places in the ministry but that is a testament to the diversity and the experience of the Liberal and National parties and their representatives in Canberra,” he said.

The reshuffle was prompted by a number of changes including McKenzie’s election as Nationals deputy leader after Fiona Nash resigned from parliament and was held ineligible to sit by the high court because of her dual citizenship.

The functions of the attorney general’s portfolio were split earlier in the year to accommodate Dutton’s ambition to occupy a new super portfolio of home affairs.