The women in Turnbull’s original full ministry, back in 2015. Sussan Ley has now been replaced.
The proportion of women in Malcolm Turnbull’s Cabinet has just dropped significantly, with former health minister Sussan Ley officially replaced today during a Cabinet reshuffle.
Ley was one of just six women remaining in the Turnbull Cabinet, before she resigned from the ministry late on Friday due to an investigation into her use of taxpayer funded expenses.
Turnbull announced this morning that Greg Hunt will take on Ley’s health portfolio, while Senator Arthur Sinodinos will take on Hunt’s current innovation role.
Ley’s replacement means there are now just five women in Turnbull’s 22 member cabinet.
When pressed by journalists this morning about the drop in women’s representation, Turnbull appeared somewhat unprepared for the question.
“‘But I do have a historically large number of women in my cabinet,” he said.
He noted that he’s appointed more women to Cabinet than any other Coalition leader (at one point Tony Abbott had just one woman in his Cabinet). Historically, however, Turnbull is well behind former Labor governments on appointing women to such roles.
