FED:Underperformers fill cabinet: Abbott

AAP General News (Australia)
12-13-2011
FED:Underperformers fill cabinet: Abbott

SYDNEY, Dec 13 AAP - The federal government's reshuffled cabinet is full of under-performers,
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says.

He said Prime Minister Julia Gillard should have gotten rid of foreign minister Kevin
Rudd and party powerbrokers Bill Ludwig and Stephen Conroy.

"The one person she couldn't get rid of, namely Mr Rudd, is the one person who is making
this government completely dysfunctional," he said.

"She should have gotten rid of Bill Ludwig but he is one of the faceless men, she should
have gotten rid of (Stephen) Conroy but he is a powerful factional warlord."

Mr Abbott said her new cabinet was a sign she lacked authority.

"She had to reward the faceless men otherwise they could have switched across to Rudd,"

he told Macquarie radio on Tuesday.

"It is a cabinet full of under-performers and none of them could have really be got
rid of because of the under-performance of the prime minister herself."

Mr Abbott couldn't confirm rumours that former attorney-general Robert McClelland,
who will now be responsible for emergency management and housing, threatened to resign
from parliament if he was demoted.

"But even if the threat was not explicitly made it was implicit in a situation like
this," he said.

AAP ct/tr/wf

KEYWORD: MINISTRY ABBOTT

� 2011 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.