Two more Australian ministers quit before elections

Two more ministers in Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s cabinet said on Saturday they will not contest elections due in May, adding to a flurry of high-profile resignations as opinion polls suggest the centre-right government faces a heavy defeat.

Defense Minister Christopher Pyne said Saturday that he will retire at the election. On Friday, Steven Ciobo, in charge of the defence industry portfolio, also said that he won’t re-contest his seat. Ciobo’s resignation makes way in the Cabinet for Linda Reynolds, a senator in Western Australia, who will take over his responsibilities immediately.

Morrison said Reynolds would become Defence Minister should his government be returned to power.

“We have two members of the Cabinet who have decided not to re-contest the next election. That’s true,” Morrison said in a televised news conference from Canberra.

“What has also changed today is we have elevated Senator Reynolds into the Cabinet, which means there will now be seven women in Cabinet.”

“When you can call up a brigadier, in the form of Linda Reynolds, to take on the role of defence minister, it shows we have a lot of talent on our bench to draw from,” Morrison said.

Before high-profile former foreign affairs minister Julie Bishop announced last month she wouldn’t re-contest her seat, three other coalition ministers said they’ll leave politics at the election. Pyne and Ciobo both said their departure from politics wasn’t affected by a poor showing for the coalition in recent polls.

“It’s got nothing to do with our electoral prospects,” Pyne said on Saturday. “I’m not leaving because I’m worried about going into opposition, I’m leaving because 26 years is a tremendous run.”

Reynolds who have served in the army for nearly 30 years said, “I’ve been appointed not because of my gender, but because of my experience”. “The message is clearly saying that for every woman in the Liberal party, you don’t need to be a quota. If you’re good enough, you’re in.”

A Newspoll for The Australian newspaper showed the opposition Labor party retained a lead of 53 percent to 47 percent over the Liberal-National government last month, unchanged from the poll in December.