Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has reshuffled his cabinet, removing Don Farrell from the trade portfolio in the most significant change, SBS News reported on Tuesday.
Andrew Charlton takes over as trade minister, inheriting one of the government's most sensitive briefs at a time of global tariff friction and delicate negotiations with Australia's major trading partners. Farrell, a senior Labor figure and longtime powerbroker in the party's right faction, leaves the ministry in the shake-up.
Peter Khalil is the other big winner of the day, elevated into the cabinet as defence industry minister — a role with growing weight as Australia pours money into naval shipbuilding and the AUKUS submarine program and pushes to expand domestic defence manufacturing.
Reshuffles of sitting ministers are rarely cost-free for a prime minister: moving a factional heavyweight like Farrell tests party discipline. But Albanese is using the changes to refresh the government's front bench in trade and defence industry, the two portfolios where Australia's economic and security pressures currently intersect.
