Anthony Albanese's new ministry has been sworn in at Government House, with a record number of women and Australia's first Muslim federal ministers.
Look back on all of Wednesday's updates as they happened in our blog.
Key events
- Chalmers on the challenges in the energy market
- Chalmers says there are 'really serious constraints' on the economy
- Government to bring housing ministry into sharp focus
- History-making Labor ministry officially sworn in
- What's the difference between cabinet and the outer ministry?
- Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announces new ministry as they're sworn in
- Marles says there's no short-term fix for rising power prices
- Anika Wells will look to ditch community sports infrastructure scheme
- Deputy PM denies Tanya Plibersek has been demoted
Live updates
By Jessica Riga
We'll wrap up our federal election live coverage here
With the new government officially sworn in, we'll be bringing our live blog coverage of the 2022 federal election campaign to a close.
We've been covering the campaign from the day then-prime minister Scott Morrison called the election on April 10 to the swearing in of Anthony Albanese's new government this morning – that's a total of 52 days!
From all of us bloggers – including myself, political reporter Georgia Hitch in Canberra, Emily Sakzewski, Nicholas McElroy, Shiloh Payne, Bridget Judd, plus others! – we wanted to thank you all for your company, questions, and comments throughout the election.
As always, you can continue to stay up to date on the latest news and analysis here on the ABC News website and on our app.
We appreciate your feedback, so if there's something you've loved, something you've not loved, or something that's had you scratching your head with our election blog, please let us know via comments. We won't publish these but your feedback will continue to help shape our coverage.
Until next time, take care and stay safe.
By Jessica Riga
In pictures: First cabinet meeting for the Albanese government
By Jessica Riga
Who are the female deputies steering the Coalition after its election loss?
In the wake of the election, voices within Liberal and National ranks cried out for the parties to reconnect with women. Here are two women tasked with leading that charge.
By Shiloh Payne
By Jessica Riga
Will we see a 'wellbeing budget' in October?
Reporter: A couple of years ago, you gave a speech about the budget and signalled the idea of a wellbeing budget that would take into account life expectancy, modelled on something like New Zealand. Have you talked to Treasury about progressing that?
(ICYMI: In 2019, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern unveiled a budget — dubbed the "Wellbeing Budget" — aimed at tackling some of the long-term challenges the country faces in areas such as domestic violence, child poverty, and housing.)
Jim Chalmers: I have had discussions with the Treasury on each of those three developments. I think it is really important that we measure what matters in our economy in addition to all of the traditional measures, not instead of, but in addition to. I do want to have better ways to measure progress, and to measure the intergenerational consequences of our policies and to give people an accurate sense, or a more accurate sense, of the cost to budget of various tax measures. This is something I am personally very keen on. I have had a number of conversations already with the Treasury about them and you should expect to hear more about them, certainly, this year but over the course of this term
By Jessica Riga
Where are we at with the waste audit?
"The work has begun with Treasury and Finance and with Katy Gallagher and we hope that the fruits of that effort will be in the October budget," Jim Chalmers says.
"That is the most conspicuous way that it will be public. If there are other ways that we can disclose progress as we go, we will obviously consider that and come back to you on that."
By Shiloh Payne
What problems did the government inherit?
Reporter: You said about a week ago that the budget you had been handed by the previous government contained unexpected pressures. You said they were not disclosed or booked. Are you able to be upfront with Australians today about what are these problems?
Jim Chalmers: I would like to outline in some detail the problems that I inherited when I give a ministerial statement to the parliament, but as I have indicated in a different conversations I have had with some of you over the last little while, there are substantial help costs, bridges, still from COVID, which we are concerned about.
They are interest rate rises and issues around the productivity assumptions in the budget which packs and others have written about in this room, so there are a lot of measures which were not talked about by the government before the election.
We hope to be able to detail them as we go about making sure that the budget ... in October is a genuine reflection of the economic challenges that we have inherited.
By Shiloh Payne
Lowest paid workers 'shouldn't be falling further behind,' says Chalmers
Treasurer Jim Chalmers says a submission will be made to the Fair Work Commission on wages "before long".
"The submission that myself and Anthony Albanese and Tony Burke will be making to the Fair Work Commission very soon, after consultation with our cabinet colleagues, will reflect the objective that we have laid out for some time now," he said.
"Minimum wage workers were in many cases the heroes of the pandemic. They should not be going backwards in this cost-of-living crisis.
"It is now more important than ever that we get an outcome out of the Fair Work Commission, which goes to the fact that people on the lowest wages in the country are facing skyrocketing costs of living and they should not be falling further and further behind."
By Shiloh Payne
Chalmers on the challenges in the energy market
Jim Chalmers said there has been a "perfect storm" of conditions and challenges in the energy market.
"These are the costs and consequences of almost a decade now of a government, with 22 different energy policies, failing to land the necessary certainty to improve the resilience of our energy markets," he said.
"This is the chickens coming home to roost when it comes to almost a decade now on climate change and energy policy failure from our predecessors.
"Our first responsibility in times like this is to implementing our powering Australia plan, so we can boost renewables and storage but most of all boost certainty so we can get that investment flowing that we desperately need to make our energy markets more predictable, more resilient, so we can get cleaner and cheaper energy into the system."
By Shiloh Payne
Chalmers says there are 'really serious constraints' on the economy
Treasurer Jim Chalmers says the economy was weaker in the March quarter than was forecast at election time.
"Growth at 0.8 per cent was driven by a household consumption and new public final demand but it was still much weaker than what was expected for the corresponding period in the preelection fiscal outlook," he said.
"onsumption, dwelling investment, new business investment export the nominal GDP were all weaker in the March quarter than was anticipated when our predecessors in the Budget and by the departments at PFO."
"The national accounts are notoriously backward looking.
"If you think about what has happened in the economy since the end of March, inflation is higher, would have an interest rate hike, petrol prices are up 12 per cent since the end of April, wholesale electricity prices are up 237 per cent since the end of March, gas more than 300 per cent higher than the average of the last few years."
By Jessica Riga
Treasurer Jim Chalmers is holding a press conference
You can tune in using the live stream above.
"I'm going to try to skip through this today relatively briefly, relatively swiftly, given we have first cabinet meeting of the new government in 24 minutes!" Jim Chalmers says.
"That seems, to me, not a good one to miss!"
By Shiloh Payne
By Shiloh Payne
By Shiloh Payne
Analysis: Record women in cabinet but promotions show old boys' club still runs Labor
Here's the latest analysis from Brett Worthington:
There's an awkward question the senior men in Labor don't want to answer at the moment.
Despite a record number of Labor women entering cabinet, how is it that the party now finds itself with fewer women in leadership roles than the Liberals, Nationals or the Greens?
Labor, undoubtedly, has put forward a more diverse frontbench than Australia has ever seen before.
However, look a little closer and it's clear this is still very much a party run by the old boys' club.
The leadership comprises the four people who lead Labor in the House of Representatives and Senate.
There are a further three senior leadership positions in the upper and lower houses who oversee the chambers.
The dominance of men — especially from the Right faction — has seen the number of women in both leadership and in cabinet go backwards compared to its last term in opposition.
Women hold just two out of seven leadership positions across the parliament.
The shadow cabinet has also gone from having gender parity to the new government's cabinet of 10 women and 13 men.
By Shiloh Payne
Government to bring housing ministry into sharp focus
Senator Malarndirri McCarthy says she's looking forward to helping tackle overcrowding issues in remote Indigenous communities.
The Northern Territory has one of the highest rates of rheumatic heart disease in the world which is exaccerbated by overcrowding.
Senator McCarthy, who will be the new government's assistant minister for Indigenous Australians and the assistant minister for Indigenous Health, says the issue of housing is front of mind.
"We do see it, under Anthony Albanese as critical to all these other factors especially health related factors — poverty, the need for our children to be educated, knowing they can sleep well at home so it's a really good direction," she says.
Senator McCarthy is currently in COVID-19 isolation, however, so will be sworn in at a later date.
Under her new roles, Senator McCarthy says she'll be working closely with ministers Linda Burney and Mark Butler.
"It's quite massive really, but it's also to assist with our natural policies… the voice will be one of them of course but there are such incredible health needs for First Nations people that I'm quite excited to be stepping into that space."
By Shiloh Payne
By Shiloh Payne
History-making Labor ministry officially sworn in
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's frontbench will include a record number of women in cabinet and in the outer ministry, as well as Australia's first Muslim ministers.
While some in the ministry are returning to the frontbench after serving in ministerial roles during the last Labor government, others are joining straight from the backbench.
By Georgia Hitch
What's the difference between cabinet and the outer ministry?
What is the difference between the Cabinet and the outer ministry? Why are some portfolios treated differently to the others?
-Cabinet Maker
What does it mean to be in 'outer' ministry? For both the portfolio and the minister
-Vilberto
Hey Cabinet Maker and Vilberto, Georgia Hitch from the ABC's Parliament House bureau jumping in here quickly to help answer these questions!
A few people have asked questions along the same lines about what the difference between cabinet and the outer ministry is.
In a nutshell, cabinet is where the decisions of government are made and the portfolios a prime minister chooses to include in cabinet also signal what the government's priorities are.
For example, Anthony Albanese bringing housing into cabinet is him and the government indicating how seriously they take the issues — namely housing affordability — in that portfolio.
The outer ministry is the rest of the portfolios and people in charge of overseeing those areas and assistant ministers are kind of what it says on the box — they're there to help the ministers who have the actual portfolio.
Being a cabinet minister is more senior to a minister in the outer ministry or an assistant minister, but they're all positions in which MPs can advocate for the portfolio they've been given.
There's also no rules about what is or isn't in cabinet and what is or isn't in the outer ministry, the prime minister of the day gets to decide.
